ATRenew, JD.com: Memory Price Inflation Reprices Used Smartphones

On calls held between August 13 and August 20, 2026, JD.com (JD) and ATRenew (RERE) both described the same cost shock reaching smartphone retail prices. JD said revenue from electronics and home appliances was held back by upstream price increases [1]. ATRenew said prices for recycling and reselling used phones are rising alongside new ones [2].

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Why memory prices make used smartphones more valuable

ATRenew collects used phones from consumers, inspects, grades and refurbishes them, then resells them to consumers directly or to merchants through its own marketplace. That business used to track the new-device cycle: when new phones sold well, trade-in programs got used and collection volumes rose; when new phones were discounted, used prices had to follow them down.

The change came from the cost side. Memory makers shifted capacity toward the high-bandwidth memory used in AI data centers, cutting supply of the conventional memory that goes into phones and laptops and pushing its price to five or six times last year's level [3]. Handset makers stopped absorbing that. Xiaomi raised prices on several models across the Xiaomi 17, REDMI K90 and Turbo 5 lines by RMB300-500 on August 2 [4], and Apple was reported on August 17 to be raising iPhone 17 prices globally before the end of the month, by up to nearly RMB1,000 [5].

More expensive new phones make the phone already in a consumer's pocket worth more. They also sell more slowly, so handset makers and e-commerce platforms move budget out of new-device discounts and into trade-in subsidies [2]. The recycler ends up with cheaper supply and firmer resale prices at the same time.

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Refurbished revenue nearly doubled while new-device retail slowed

ATRenew disclosed on August 20 that second-quarter revenue from 1P refurbished products rose 87.8% year over year, and that 1P2C retail revenue - its own sales to consumers - rose 92.4% year over year, taking that line to 48.8% of product revenue, up 3.6 percentage points sequentially. Management attributed the growth to higher new-device prices, stable pre-owned market pricing and more refined pricing operations [2].

JD.com shows the other side of the same event. On its August 13 call, CEO Sandy Xu said second-quarter electronics and home appliance revenue was moderated by a high comparison base and upstream price increases [1]. One cost shock is compressing revenue growth where new phones are sold and lifting prices and retail mix where used ones are collected.

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Pricing power moves to whoever owns inspection and grading

A used phone has no list price. What one unit is worth depends on who inspects it and how it is graded, so the platform that owns those standards is the one that can quote a price on intake and make that price stick on resale. Once trade-in subsidies flow in from handset makers and e-commerce platforms, part of the platform's sourcing cost is paid by someone else, and it takes in more devices than before.

Domestic demand cannot absorb all of them. ATRenew said on August 20 that as trade-in penetration rises in China, domestic supply is expanding quickly and China has moved from a net importer to a net exporter of pre-owned smartphones, with high-end units clearing at home and mid- and low-tier units shipping out [2]. Overseas sales reached HK$120 million in the month of June, roughly 90% of it business-to-business [2]; on the first-quarter call the company put the incremental margin on exported higher-quality older-generation devices at over 4% [6].

The boundary sits on the export leg. The destination markets are shrinking in units: IDC put India's second-quarter 2026 smartphone shipments down 11.1% year over year at 33.2 million, the weakest first half in five years [7]. Overseas has one monthly figure behind a three-year target. The measures to watch are 1P2C retail as a share of product revenue and monthly overseas sales, and the whole chain depends on memory staying tight.

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Companies exposed to the same change

• Assurant (AIZ): Its Connected Living unit runs trade-in, reverse logistics and certified pre-owned resale for US and international carriers, so it faces the same pricing environment as ATRenew. The CFO said on the August 5 call that more expensive new devices are neutral to positive for that business, but gave no separate volume or price disclosure for it [8].
• Telecom Service One (03997.HK): It provides handset repair and refurbishment services in Hong Kong for phone makers and telecom operators. Every traded-in device has to be refurbished before it can be resold, so if China's surplus used handsets keep routing through Hong Kong, it sits on that flow [9].

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Sources

[1] Drillr · JD.com (JD) · 2026-08-13 · FY2026 Q2 earnings call

[2] Drillr · ATRenew (RERE) · 2026-08-20 · FY2026 Q2 earnings call

"When new devices are selling well, recycling and trading programs are just supplementary value-added services. But when new devices sell softened, trading programs become the most critical and effective promotional tool. Major manufacturers and platforms place greater emphasis on and allocate more resources to trade-ins."

[3] Analytics Insight · AI boom pushes memory chip prices higher for laptops and phones · 2026-08-02 · news record · https://www.analyticsinsight.net/news/ai-boom-pushes-memory-chip-prices-higher-for-laptops-and-phones

[4] Sina Finance · Xiaomi raises prices on multiple smartphone models · 2026-08-02 · news record · https://finance.sina.cn/7x24/2026-08-02/detail-inikwuvh9837515.d.html

[5] Stockstar · Apple to raise iPhone 17 series prices globally · 2026-08-17 · news record · https://finance.stockstar.com/IG2026081700011344.shtml

[6] Drillr · ATRenew (RERE) · 2026-05-19 · FY2026 Q1 earnings call

[7] Mint · IDC on India's Q2 2026 smartphone shipments · 2026-08-20 · news record · https://www.livemint.com/industry/rampocalypse-is-hurting-chinese-oems-in-india-as-samsung-apple-grow-smartphone-market-share-11787209856737.html

[8] Drillr · Assurant (AIZ) · 2026-08-05 · FY2026 Q2 earnings call

[9] Drillr · Telecom Service One (03997.HK) · 2026-08-21 · company business description search

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