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.
-
Category
-
Marketplaces
Popular Marketplaces
New Marketplaces
-
Welcome to the retail returns season — the much less popular sibling of the holiday retail sales. Every year roughly $260 billion worth of stuff bought at retail is returned, 25 percent of which is returned after Christmas, according to industry estimates — everything from ugly sweaters and ill-fitting pants to that thoughtless hot plate and pingpong table that just won’t fit in the basement.
Total annual returns equal 7 percent of everything sold in the US in a year, not counting autos and car parts.
“The return season is in full swing,” said Eric Moriarty, vice president of B-Stock Solutions, which operates an auction Web site that connects retailers like Walmart, Costco and Amazon with resellers.
More from the B-Stock Blog
How Jim Rowe Filled a Shopping Desert—With Costco Returns
Jim Rowe has always been an entrepreneur. From 2002 onward, he and his wife built a sizable chain of restaurants across Washington with nine locations in total. Then COVID hit, and like so many others, everything stopped. Luckily, Jim’s not…
When Consumers Pull Back, Where Does Your Excess Inventory Go?
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,…
Case Study: How an Athletic Retailer Standardized Its Disposition Program for Aged Inventory, Boosting Pricing and Efficiency
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…
