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An online marketplace dedicated to smartphones? Andios is poised to offer easy and credible transactions for you

By Vijay Anand - on 25 Nov 2015, 11:19pm

An online marketplace dedicated to smartphones? Andios is poised to offer easy and credible transactions

Andios, the new smartphone inspired marketplace.

By now you might have just about had enough of new shopping portal options, but have you come across one that's solely dedicated for users and dealers to transact smartphones? Dedicated sites that sell new smartphones - yes. Dedicated sites that allow consumers to list and trade smartphones - probably not. How about one that does both and provides smartphone-centric support services? That's Andios, whose name you can decipher is a combination of the two most popular phone operating systems – Android and iOS (though the site is friendly to any phone of any OS).

According to IDC Asia-Pacific 2014 data, there are over 100 million smartphones transacted in South-east Asia alone and that presents a massive opportunity for a dedicated portal to assist users to unlock the value of their pre-loved devices. Combine the fact that smartphones are one of the most often upgraded consumer devices, and you have the right ingredients to kick start a business. Backed by the local superstore electronics giant Challenger Technologies via its subsidiary investment branch, Challenger Ventures, the team at Andios have launched their service as a public trial with hundreds of items already listed on the site.

But what makes this marketplace unique?

  • It’s easy to list, compare and search for the phone you want.

Let’s face it; you normally need to hop about various marketplaces to find the deals that you need. At Andios, you are where you need to be – a marketplace that just deals with smartphones and nothing more. Plus, you’ll find listings that are both from consumers and resellers, which means you can get used or new phones at the same place.

  •  Better discoverability, relevant listings and valuation guidelines

So you say it’s easy to find phones in your existing preferred marketplace(s)? Don’t forget they are often stocked with loads of accessory related listings which will bog you down from getting to the device listings that you really want to view. You’ll find none of that crap at Andios.

Over time, Andios hopes to build enough of a database to also offer a guide on the average going price of a device based on offers, and successful sales listings. Obviously, this greatly helps those who aren’t in the know of the average acceptable price to transact. As the site is still in trial phase at this point of time, this guide is not yet available.

  • Higher trust and eliminating “lowballers”

With Andios team vetting over the listings submitted to their marketplace, they ensure sellers only put up relevant listings, as well as remove fake/stolen device offers. Part of this is thanks to the collaboration they have with the local police that allow the Andios marketplace to perform a status check of the IMEI numbers of the sellers’ listed phones.

The other option that greatly helps sellers save time and effort is to eradicate lowballer offers by setting acceptable offer limits while submitting a device for listing. For example, a 10% lowball limit would mean it would eradicate all offers that are lower than the preferred sale value of 10%.

Currently, Andios offers free listing and premium listing options where the latter is priced at $2 per device, per month. As per the plan’s naming scheme, you get priority ranking with the premium listing option and here’s how the free and paid versions differ in details:-

Upcoming services unique to Andios

Andios hasn’t just stopped at offering a virtual marketplace for phones, it will also launch a slew of services to complement or improve the quality of sale, as well as standalone options that you can count on when required. Expect these services to be formalized early next year, so pricing and bundle package options are still in the works.

  • Andios Data Wipe - Data is never really removed even when you perform a factory reset or just delete it. Like all storage devices, you need to write a lot of random data on to the data cells before the original data is not recoverable by restore services and solutions. This data wipe optional service will provide industrial grade data wipe to remove all your personal information.
     
  • Andios Certified - This is a 40-point diagnostics process that will thoroughly check various aspects of any pre-loved phone to certify it is indeed in excellent condition, and thus remove any uncertainties of the phone’s state. Some of the checks include testing of the various phone sensors, buttons, touchscreen, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, camera functionality and more. With an Andios Certified seal of approval, you can possibly fetch a better price and for as a buyer, a peace of mind with a 7-day warranty from the marketplace. For the certification, you’ll have to send the device down to Andios office in Ubi or you can opt for a concierge service (refer to the next point).
     
  • Concierge service – Yet another optional service, this will give you all the convenience you need without leaving your home/office to transact with a third-party buying/selling a device or sending your device down to Andios office.

 

The sign-up and listing process

So as of now, Andios only offers a curated marketplace for smartphones, but to use, you’ll have to create an account with them. All you need is an email address and a password to bind it to create your account. Following that is a profile creation step as seen in the following screenshot:-

You’ll then be asked to select a plan of usage, be it free or premium as covered earlier.

Listing items to sell is fairly straightforward with some key fields to define the smartphone on offer and some photos to complement the listing:-

Andios is currently operating only in Singapore with plans for regional expansion once they’ve identified the needs of their operating environment in the neighboring countries of the ASEAN region. Other product listings such as tablets could be a possibility but it’s not yet confirmed. Andios is not yet available as an app and the service will only be offered via their website for now. If you’re keen to find out more, check them out at Sitex! (Here's their flyer, by the way.)

Meanwhile, if you’re a frequent user of HardwareZone and you’ve a member account registered with us, don’t forget that you can transact within our vibrant Marketplace section and we’ve a section dedicated for sales of phones and accessories. Our recent brand new iPhone forum app makes it easy to access the forums with several of the full-fledged functions of the desktop edition intact.

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