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.
When you consider that over $260 billion worth of merchandise is returned each year – a lot of which can’t go back on the shelves – that’s 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.
So, as a buyer, how do you navigate the secondary market to successfully sift through the bad and the ugly to get to the good?
B-Stock’s VP of Sales, Eric Moriarty recently addressed this topic in an article for Independent Retailer. Within the article Eric provided tips on what to look out for when sourcing customer returns and excess merchandise, including:
To read more of Eric’s Independent Retailer, please click here. For a look at B-Stock Solutions’ network of private-label B2B marketplaces or to start sourcing returns and overstock merchandise directly from Fortune 1000 retailers, please visit our Sourcing Network.

"I feel so confident shopping and bidding on items knowing that I am going to get what I paid for. And if not, there’s a killer customer service team that’s going to make sure everything’s alright in the end. That’s huge. It’s hard to take that risk when you’re first starting out."
The numbers are hard to ignore. According to the National Retail Federation, retailers expect ~16% of annual sales to be returned, roughly $850 billion in merchandise. According to McKinsey & Company, it’s forced retailers to spend an estimated $200 billion…
In honor of Earth Day, explore how recommerce is transforming the retail landscape by driving sustainability and the circular economy. As the world’s largest B2B recommerce platform, B-Stock enables retailers and brands to redefine sustainability by giving new life to…
When returned and unsold goods tie up working capital and force write-downs, they quietly erode margins, delay cash conversion, and impact financial performance every single day. Discover how finance teams are turning to technology-driven B2B resale platforms to: Improve recovery…