Electronics will be repaired in the garage

According to 2GIS, the number of electronics repair service centers in 2022 in million-plus cities decreased by 4%, most of all in Moscow, by 10%, and the demand for these services decreased by 29%. Market participants explain that service centers of suppliers who left the Russian Federation were mainly closed. The growth in demand is due to the lack of guarantees from manufacturers. The development of the centers is limited by the lack of spare parts, as a result, a market for handicraft repairs by private individuals is developing.

“Kommersant” got acquainted with the data of the 2GIS geoservice on the number of electronics repair service centers in the Russian Federation: the number of such points in 2022 decreased by 4% compared to 2021, to 10.2 thousand. The most noticeable reduction is observed in Moscow, where about 10% of electronics repair service centers. In general, as of February 2023, 3.1 thousand points worked in the capital.

In other million-plus cities, there is also a noticeable decrease in the number of services: the number of mobile device repair points in Perm and Ufa decreased by more than 8% and in St. Petersburg by 6%. Chelyabinsk became an exception to the general trend, where the number of offline repair points for mobile equipment increased by 16% over the year, 2GIS notes.

At the same time, the number of requests from citizens in the 2GIS search line for electronics repair in 2022 increased by 29%.

After the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, foreign electronics vendors restricted the export of their products, as well as spare parts and components, to the Russian Federation. For example, in service centers for the repair of Apple equipment, due to a shortage of components, the repair time for devices stretched out for several weeks (see Kommersant of June 22). Later, Kommersant found out that in order to solve the problem of a shortage of components for repairing smartphones, laptops and other electronics, service centers began to use components from ready-made devices, new or supported (see Kommersant of June 29).

The general director of the “Network of Computer Clinics” Alexander Fedorov also sees a trend towards a reduction in the number of service centers in the Russian Federation. According to him, it mainly affected the authorized services of vendors who left the country, since the company also closed the service center when curtailing business in Russia. “The demand for repairs has grown due to the reduction in vendor warranty support, when customers simply have nowhere to go, but devices need to be repaired. In the summer of 2022, the number of paid repairs at least doubled,” Mr. Frolov explains. He adds that there is an increase in demand from electronics distributors for the organization of after-sales service.

One factor in the reduction in the number of service centers was, in itself, the restriction of access to components and equipment for repair, says a representative of diHouse. At the same time, he confirms that the number of calls to service centers is growing, as “users prefer to extend the life of their device.” According to him, earlier, for example, owners of about 1% of the total fleet of such equipment turned to Apple service centers with questions about repairing devices, and now the share has doubled.

According to MTS Bank analysts, the demand for electronics repair in 2022 increased by 11% compared to 2021. The company says that Russians have begun to buy more expensive devices that do not lose relevance for three to four years, resulting in a growing demand for mobile gadget repair services.

Citilink added that an increase in requests for repair of equipment can be observed in the secondary market: “Consumers have become more likely to purchase goods that were previously in use, as they are often cheaper.” Demand for private repair services is also growing. Avito noted that in 2022, Russians were 45% more likely to turn to equipment repairmen on the ad platform.

Timofei Kornev, Yuri Litvinenko