The Meteoric Rise in Reselling

The resale market is red hot right now. From successful secondhand sites like Poshmark, Facebook Marketplace, and thredUp, to the launch of the new A&E show “Extreme Unboxing,” reselling is now mainstream.

Reselling by the numbers

In June alone B-Stock (the world’s largest online B2B marketplace for returned, overstock, and other liquidation merchandise) saw a 73% jump in new resellers purchasing returned and overstock merchandise to resell. That’s huge! Additionally, B-Stock’s numbers reveal that the total number of resellers bidding across its marketplaces for inventory in June increased 38% from last year.

Why the rise in reselling?

Given these unprecedented numbers for B-Stock, this only highlights the fact that the popularity of reselling is surging. But, why? According to COO, Marcus Shen, there’s a myriad of factors driving this trend. But to see the rise that’s occurred on B-Stock, Shen attributes three things:

Rise in eCommerce

Given the stay-at-home orders caused by COVID-19, consumers took their shopping online. In fact, eCommerce sales were up 55% (from 2019) for the first seven months of the year, resulting in $434.5 billion in online spending. Not to mention, this increased spending only helped small and medium-sized online retailers.

Online sourcing

There was a shift to finding inventory online. Many online resellers were unable to obtain inventory using their traditional methods – in-person or from abroad– so they had to focus their sourcing efforts online through companies like B-Stock.

Inventory surplus

With retailers closing stores and warehouses, inventory just sat unsold. Apparel retailers alone were sitting on billions of dollars in brand new, excess stock. So when it was time to reopen, retailers needed to clear out the old inventory to make room for the new merchandise. As a result, many retailers increased their volume of inventory on their B-Stock marketplace creating a tidal wave of new inventory available to buyers.

What’s next for reselling?

The business of resale shows no signs of slowing. With the increase of the conscious consumer, the idea of secondhand doesn’t carry the stigma it maybe once did. Couple this with a consumer call to action for retailers and manufacturers to make more responsible, environmentally-friendly business decisions urges companies to find a second, third, and even fourth life for their products; keeping them out of a landfill.

For the entrepreneur, starting a resale business has never been easier. With more and more resale platforms popping up, the networks available for reselling goods are ever-expanding. The most important piece of a resale business, however, is sourcing inventory. It’s imperative to find a dependable, reputable company with a steady stream of merchandise to keep your business running.

To get started, check out all of the categories and real-time live auctions currently available on B-Stock.