Last year, Britons spent 110 billion pounds on stuff online: a 46% jump from 2019. After all, it’s easy, you push the ‘buy now’ button and wait for the goods to be delivered to you. While most purchases hit the mark, some returns are inevitable. But what happens to all of those purchases after you send them back?

Just in the first three months of this year nearly six million items, worth an estimated 2.5 billion pounds, were returned. In many cases, retailers take those returns and resell them to businesses looking to get their hands on returned goods. And it’s a booming business. B-Stock’s Head of EMEA, Giorgio Vitale, and B-Stock buyer, Neil Barker, explain in this BBC Radio interview.

Author

Editorial Team

Author

B-Stock Editorial Team

More from the B-Stock Blog

A Beginner’s Guide to Reselling on TikTok Shop
A Beginner’s Guide to Reselling on TikTok Shop

TikTok isn’t just for Gen Z dance trends anymore. It’s one of the fastest-growing places to sell resale inventory, and live shopping is leading the way. To give you an idea of just how popular it’s become: U.S. live shopping…

Oct 07 2026 · 9 min read

The B-Stock Mobile Insider: Q2, 2026
The B-Stock Mobile Insider: Q2, 2026

Some of the world’s largest wireless OEMs, carriers, and trade-in companies leverage B-Stock’s B2B marketplace to maximize their profits on trade-in mobile devices and accessories. Get insight into secondary market trends to fetch the highest prices for your devices.

Aug 10 2026 · 1 min read

Case Study: How JCPenney Scaled its B2B Resale Program
Case Study: How JCPenney Scaled its B2B Resale Program

Managing returned inventory across multiple locations is no small task. For JCPenney, a fragmented process, inconsistent recovery rates, and limited buyer competition made it difficult to maximize the value of returned merchandise. By partnering with B-Stock, JCPenney centralized its B2B…

Jul 17 2026 · 1 min read

Like what you see?

Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest news from B-Stock.