B2B Sales Channel for Returned Appliances Drives Efficiency for Fortune 500 Home Improvement Retailer

Challenge

A Fortune 500 home improvement retailer was experiencing an increase in customer-returned appliances. The items, which consisted of name-brand washers, dryers, ranges and refrigerators, among other products, were currently being put back on the floor and sold directly to consumers at deeply discounted prices. As more products came back opened and with visible damage, the retailer – not wanting to risk hurting its brand or set expectations for rock-bottom, a-stock pricing – began looking for a new remarketing solution.

The retailer turned to B-Stock with the following requirements:

• Develop a base of buyers, interested in purchasing bulk quantities of appliances across all conditions
• Protect the retailer’s brand when moving the inventory into the secondary market
• Move the inventory as quickly as possible to free up warehouse space
• Improve upon existing recovery strategies

Solution

B-Stock launched a branded, private B2B liquidation marketplace for the retailer, enabling large numbers of approved business buyers from across the U.S. to bid directly on truckload quantities of inventory via competitive online auctions.

Over time, auction strategies were applied to maximize price. This included:

• Optimizing lot sizes to match demand
• Implementing category specific marketing campaigns to drive the right buyers to the marketplace

Results

Within a few days of launching its B2B liquidation marketplace, the retailer had nearly 1,000 registered buyers competing for truckload-size quantities of its returned and overstock appliances. Ongoing demand generation campaigns have continued to drive qualified buyers to the marketplace, with 250 to 300 new buyers registering each month. In addition, they decreased their lot size from full truckloads to quarter truckloads. As a result, the retailer increased recovery rates by 42% in a single quarter.

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