In a cramped web café in Sunamganj, a rural district in northeastern Bangladesh, 22-year-old faculty pupil Fatima Begum unwraps a bundle containing her first laptop computer. The machine—a refurbished HP EliteBook—price her 25,000 taka, a fraction of the value of a brand new mannequin. For Fatima, it’s greater than a instrument; it’s a lifeline to on-line learnings, freelance work, and a future past her village.
“I assumed shopping for a used laptop computer meant risking my financial savings,” she says. “However Gadget Mama let me examine it first. No scams, no hidden defects. Now I’m incomes cash modifying movies.”
Fatima’s story is one in every of hundreds fueling the rise of Gadget Mama, a Dhaka-based firm making know-how accessible to extra individuals. In a rustic the place laptop computer penetration stays a problem and new electronics stay out of attain for tens of millions, Gadget Mama has constructed a thriving enterprise by promoting refurbished laptops and desktops with warranties.
However this isn’t only a story of affordability. It’s a case examine in find out how to disrupt a damaged market by high quality ensures, systemic transparency, and an unrelenting concentrate on belief.
The Delivery of a Market-Maker
Gadget Mama, a subsidiary of Change Kori Restricted, launched in 2016 as an answer to a rising downside in Bangladesh’s electronics market: the dearth of trusted channels for getting and promoting used laptops and PCs.
Initially launched beneath System Eye Applied sciences Restricted, Gadget Mama started as an offshoot of Change Kori’s “Shadhin Provide” alternate program, which allowed prospects to commerce previous units for brand spanking new ones. As laptops accrued by exchanges, the problem shortly turned what to do with the rising stock of second-hand units. The necessity for a devoted gross sales channel turned obvious.
“We thought-about creating a number of channels to promote them,” explains Rasel Ahmed, Co-founder and CEO of Change Kori. “These channels would not simply be for promoting; they’d have Fb pages, web sites, and we deliberate to model it as a trusted platform for getting used units.”
What emerged was Gadget Mama, initially launched as a sister concern or trademark of Change Kori, and finally present process a major transformation. By 2024, the operation had grown important sufficient to justify its personal company entity, with Change Kori Restricted separating its PC division from System Eye and trademarking the Gadget Mama model, strategically positioned to dominate Bangladesh’s refurbished electronics market.
Product Vary and Buyer Base
Gadget Mama focuses on laptops priced between 10,000 and 50,000 taka, concentrating on a candy spot the place prospects can save roughly 50% in comparison with new laptops.
These units, sourced from exchanges throughout Bangladesh, bear rigorous upgrades:
- {Hardware} standardization: All units characteristic 8GB RAM and SSD storage (changing slower HDDs), guaranteeing efficiency corresponding to new machines.
- Element replacements: Batteries, keyboards, and adapters are changed with branded components, backed by warranties (e.g., six months for batteries).
- Customized configurations: Tailor-made for particular person wants—college students, freelancers, company executives—to keep away from overspending on pointless specs.
The corporate has discovered success with a number of buyer segments:
- Particular person end-users looking for inexpensive high quality computer systems
- Company shoppers (roughly 30% of their buyer base)
- Academic establishments and coaching facilities
- Small tech coaching facilities and polytechnic institutes in distant areas
The corporate says its gross sales are practically evenly break up between on-line (50%) and bodily retailer purchases (50%), with substantial orders coming from exterior Dhaka, together with rural areas.
On the facet of enterprise mannequin, Gadget Mama operates a hybrid mannequin:
- On-line gross sales: 50% of income comes from exterior Dhaka, with courier companions like Sundarban and RedX enabling risk-free deliveries to rural areas.
- Offline shops: Bodily retailers in Dhaka (Tejgaon, Mirpur) and plans to develop to Uttara and Dhanmondi.
- Company partnerships: Serving high-profile shoppers like Save the Kids and Runner Group, with tailor-made IT options.
- Ancillary companies: On-site help, knowledge migration, and partnerships with establishments like Artistic IT Institute for {hardware} coaching.
Income streams embody machine gross sales, service charges, and commissions from resellers.
Constructing High quality into the Enterprise Mannequin
What distinguishes Gadget Mama in Bangladesh’s aggressive used laptop computer market is its dedication to high quality assurance and buyer belief. The corporate has carried out a collection of progressive insurance policies.
Distinctive Guarantee Coverage: Gadget Mama gives a 50-day substitute assure with no circumstances or exclusions—considerably exceeding the trade normal of 15 days with quite a few exclusions. This complete assure extends to even equipment like laptop computer baggage and adapters.
No-Advance Fee System: Addressing widespread fraud in on-line electronics gross sales, Gadget Mama pioneered a no-advance cost mannequin. Clients can examine merchandise for 10 minutes earlier than making any cost, eliminating monetary danger within the buy course of. This has revolutionized belief in on-line electronics purchasing and expanded their market to rural areas.
High quality Requirements: Gadget Mama has established stringent high quality requirements for its refurbished merchandise. Each laptop computer offered by Gadget Mama adheres to minimal configuration requirements:
- Minimal 8GB RAM in all laptops
- SSD (Strong State Drive) set up, growing efficiency by roughly 5 occasions
- Complete part testing with substitute of substandard components
- No resale of units with extensively repaired motherboards
- A 50-day full substitute assure—not simply restore—for any defects
- Guarantee protection for even minor equipment like laptop computer baggage
True Alternative Assure: Gadget Mama would not restore merchandise beneath guarantee, it supplies rapid substitute. If the precise mannequin is not accessible, the corporate gives an equal or upgraded mannequin.
Aesthetic Rehab: Scratched lids are re-coated; keyboards are changed with OEM components. “We don’t promote ‘used’ laptops,” says Ahmed. “We promote units rebuilt to survive their first homeowners.”
Value financial savings: Gadgets price 40–50% lower than new equivalents, interesting to budget-conscious people and firms.
Environmental affect: Extending machine lifespans reduces e-waste, aligning with international sustainability traits.
Company Tailoring: For companies, Gadget Mama gives free IT audits to match units to worker wants. A Dhaka-based textile firm not too long ago slashed its tech funds by 48% by changing new laptops with Gadget Mama’s refurbished items for non-design workers.
These insurance policies handle the elemental nervousness of shopping for used electronics: will they work correctly, and for the way lengthy? The corporate has primarily reconstructed the total product assure mannequin usually related solely with new merchandise, making use of it to the refurbished market.
The Belief Financial system
The corporate’s true innovation lies not in its company construction however in its radical strategy to fixing the elemental problem of shopping for used laptops on-line in Bangladesh: belief. Used merchandise e-commerce in Bangladesh, as in lots of creating economies, operates in what is perhaps termed a “mistrust financial system.” Fraud is a well known problem. Sellers incessantly create short-term Fb pages, put up photographs of merchandise stolen from professional companies, gather advance funds from prospects, then disappear, telephones switched off, pages deleted.
“Just lately, there have been many fraud incidents associated to purchasing used laptops or electronics on-line,” says a consultant of Change Kori. “Sellers take an advance of three,000, 4,000, or 5,000 taka for a 20,000 taka merchandise… they pay the advance, say 2-3,000 taka, and in the end, they do not obtain the product.”
Gadget Mama’s resolution is disarmingly simple: remove advance funds fully. Clients solely pay after receiving and inspecting the product for 10 minutes. This coverage applies even for deliveries to district headquarters or wherever in Dhaka metropolis. The corporate absorbs the monetary danger, if a buyer refuses the product, Gadget Mama loses roughly 1,000 taka on two-way supply fees.
Just for deliveries to distant village areas does Gadget Mama require a modest 600 taka advance, nonetheless lower than its precise courier prices of 800-1,000 taka. The coverage has remodeled shopper habits, with many rural prospects now touring to district headquarters to keep away from even this minimal advance cost.
Demographics of Belief
Notably revealing is the demographic breakdown of Gadget Mama’s buyer base. Whereas particular person end-users represent the majority of its enterprise, company shoppers now signify roughly 30% of its buyer base. This displays a major shift in company buying attitudes.
“Beforehand, the notion was that solely particular person end-users would purchase used laptops,” Ahmed explains. “However that concept has modified quite a bit. Now, CFOs and homeowners of even massive corporations, high executives, are seeing that utilizing barely used units would not trigger any issues with their work or productiveness, however the funds is diminished by 50%.”
The corporate’s present quantity—roughly 1,000 shoppers month-to-month with over 50,000 units processed since inception—suggests important penetration into what was beforehand a fragmented market dominated by particular person sellers and small outlets with out standardized high quality measures.
Maybe most stunning has been the speedy adoption in rural areas. Small know-how coaching facilities and polytechnic institutes on the upazila (sub-district) and union ranges have turn into dependable prospects, usually referring their college students to Gadget Mama. This rural market has confirmed so important that the corporate now plans to determine bodily distribution facilities throughout Bangladesh, beginning with pilot tasks in Sunamganj, Munshiganj, and Tangail.
Development Trajectory, Present Operations and Future Plans
Gadget Mama has skilled exceptional progress through the years. Between 2023-2024, the corporate noticed roughly 40% year-over-year progress and it goals to keep up 30-40% progress shifting ahead.
To this point, it has served near 1,000 shoppers month-to-month and has processed over 50,000 units since inception.
This progress stems partly from altering market perceptions. Initially, used laptops had been thought-about viable just for particular person end-users. Now, even massive company shoppers acknowledge that correctly refurbished units can cut back know-how budgets by 40-50% with out sacrificing productiveness.
Gadget Mama operates from two bodily shops in Dhaka (Tejgaon and Mirpur) whereas sustaining a considerable on-line presence. Its workforce construction contains separate service personnel devoted particularly to Gadget Mama operations, with some high administration and administrative features shared with Change Kori.
The corporate has formidable enlargement plans. It’s working to construct a nationwide distribution community, establishing district-level distribution channels with native stock throughout Bangladesh (already piloting in Sunamganj, Munshiganj, and planning for Tangail). In Dhaka, the corporate plans to open further bodily shops in Uttara and Dhanmondi
Gadget Mama additionally goals to develop its service mannequin, increasing its pick-up, drop-off, and on-site help companies by area-based help engineers working from house or co-working areas.
By 2030, Gadget Mama goals to seize 5% of Bangladesh’s month-to-month PC demand (60,000–80,000 items), leveraging post-pandemic distant work traits and company cost-cutting.
Market Challenges
Regardless of its significant success, Gadget Mama faces challenges from rivals promoting inferior merchandise at barely decrease costs with out guarantee protections. The corporate has chosen to keep up high quality requirements and complete warranties even when it means pricing merchandise 1,000-2,000 taka larger than rivals. Additionally it is working to beat misconceptions about refurbished laptops, together with issues about knowledge safety on used units, efficiency capabilities, and part substitute and restore historical past.
To deal with these issues, Gadget Mama devotes roughly 50% of its content material advertising and marketing to academic consciousness, explaining applicable configurations for various use instances and difficult the notion that everybody wants high-end, costly laptops.
Environmental and Financial Impression
Past constructing a profitable enterprise, Gadget Mama positions itself as contributing to each financial and environmental sustainability. By extending the lifecycle of digital units in Bangladesh from a mean of 8 years to doubtlessly 12-14 years, it helps cut back digital waste whereas making know-how extra inexpensive.
As one govt famous, “Within the present international disaster, reuse and recycling have gotten common. In Bangladesh, individuals ought to turn into conscious of this extra shortly and perceive that used units can be utilized for a lot of extra years and that it would not hurt a corporation’s productiveness.”
Difficult Standard Market Knowledge
Gadget Mama’s success challenges a number of items of standard knowledge about electronics markets.
1. Rural prospects will purchase costly merchandise on-line. The corporate has disproven the notion that rural prospects will not spend important quantities on electronics with out bodily inspection. By eliminating monetary danger by its no-advance-payment coverage, it has unlocked substantial demand in areas beforehand thought-about non-viable for e-commerce.
2. Refurbished electronics might be offered with new-product ensures. By establishing a 50-day substitute assure with no exclusions, Gadget Mama has basically altered expectations within the refurbished market, bringing it nearer to new-product requirements.
3. Help companies can prolong past city facilities. Its house supply, pick-up, and drop-off companies prolong even to aged prospects needing help with fundamental setup. When company shoppers buy laptops, help engineers will switch knowledge from previous to new units, a service hardly ever accessible in conventional retail.
4. Company shoppers will undertake refurbished know-how. Maybe most importantly, Gadget Mama has demonstrated that even massive firms will undertake refurbished know-how when correctly positioned as an economically and environmentally accountable selection.
Classes from Gadget Mama’s Success
A number of key classes emerge from Gadget Mama’s progress story:
Belief as a Enterprise Mannequin: By creating insurance policies that remove buyer danger (no-advance cost, complete warranties), Gadget Mama remodeled the notion of shopping for used electronics on-line.
Customary-Setting in Unregulated Markets: In a largely unregulated market, Gadget Mama’s self-imposed high quality requirements created a aggressive benefit and model differentiation.
Schooling as Advertising: The corporate’s concentrate on buyer training quite than pure promotion has helped overcome market misconceptions and expanded its potential buyer base.
Rural Market Potential: Opposite to standard knowledge, the corporate found important demand for higher-value electronics in rural Bangladesh when belief obstacles had been eliminated.
Strategic Segmentation: By sustaining Gadget Mama as a definite model quite than integrating it into Change Kori, the corporate preserved model fairness whereas creating clear positioning for various buyer journeys.
A New Type of Tech Big in Making
Gadget Mama’s rise mirrors cultural shifts towards round economies. For Bangladesh—and comparable markets—it proves that affordability needn’t compromise high quality. As CEO Ahmed notes, “Reuse isn’t simply frugal; it’s sensible enterprise.” In an period of useful resource constraints, Gadget Mama isn’t simply promoting laptops—it’s reshaping how shoppers strategy know-how, one refurbished machine at a time.
Again in Sunamganj, Fatima Begum edits a marriage video on her Gadget Mama laptop computer. The software program runs easily—a minor miracle for a machine that’s crossed three homeowners.
“Folks used to chuckle at ‘used’ issues,” she says. “Now they ask me the place I purchased it.”
In a world obsessive about the brand new, Gadget Mama’s quiet transformation suggests a radical thought: Generally, the easiest way ahead is to provide previous know-how a second life.
Cowl photograph: Gadget Mama Founders: Rasel Ahmed and M Ahsan Habib (from left to proper)
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