This website uses cookies to improve your experience. By viewing our content, you are accepting the use of cookies. To find out more and change your cookie settings, please view our Privacy Policy.
Relaxed customer return policies by major retailers and manufacturers increase customer loyalty but they also drive up the amount of merchandise that is sent back. When you consider that over $260 billion worth of merchandise is returned each year – a lot of which cannot go back on the shelves – that is a huge amount of inventory lying idle. But one company’s headache is another’s opportunity, and for smaller, independent retailers, there has never been a better time to source returned and excess merchandise on the secondary market.
Sustained inflation has compressed consumer spending across categories, resulting in softened sell-through rates and climbing aged inventory ratios. For retailers, brands, and manufacturers, the downstream effects are distinct, but the core problem is the same: the excess inventory is there,…
This well-known athletic retailer had large volumes of aged overstock held at various distribution centers (DCs) around the country. A small group of jobbers purchased the inventory on informal terms, managed by each DC, leading to inconsistent processes and outcomes…