Retail Doom, or a Chance to Bloom?

Over the past decade, retail has seen a significant shift. With the emergence and hyper growth of ecommerce, brick-and-mortar has struggled—and traditional retailers are being forced to regroup in order to recapture gains and prevent further loss. 

Labeled an agent of “destructive destruction,” ecommerce has contributed to the demise of brick-and-mortar retail in a devastating way: since 2008, 56,000 stores have closed and 670,000 jobs have been lost—and this trend is expected to continue. Between store closures, sales declines, and bankruptcies, resistance is futile in a digital-run shopping world that tailors to the modern-day consumer with clicks, two-day shipping, and free returns. By 2025, it’s expected that another half a million jobs and 30,000 retail stores could close.

Still, not all ecommerce retailers are winners.

For a struggling retailer, launching an e-commerce business may not be the magic solution due to the costs and risks involved. In the world of ecommerce, few new businesses actually succeed. Of all the retail segments, new entrants in the online sector achieve the lowest median profit margin. This means that the masters and commanders of the ecommerce sea are those that have been long established, such as Amazon and eBay. In this case, to the adaptability victor go the spoils, and only the leanest retailers have survived. 

So, this current state of retail begs the question—what can retailers do in the face of adversity? The answer: tap into a whole new market. As companies begin to downsize and change the way they do business, they have to look at all the options they have to offload their returned and overstock inventory. Thousands of business buyers around the world give excess inventory  a second life—and they leverage B-Stock’s auction platform to get their hands on otherwise forgotten inventory. 

A B2B marketplace like that one B-Stock offers can offset more loss than traditional channels, and retailers can boost pricing as well as the velocity in which the merchandise is sold. 

Want to know how it works? Take a look at how a leading retailer leveraged B-Stock to consolidate three warehouses into one, reduce inventory cycle from 40 to 17 days, and enable 8,000+ liquidation buyers in our case study, Reduce Inventory & Support Warehouse Consolidation Goals.

And if you’re ready to see how B-Stock can help you prepare for the future, request a demo!