Meet the Minds Behind B-Stock’s B2B Recommerce Report

adminSeptember 22, 2024

B-Stock is excited to partner with some of today’s largest retailers, OEMs, and brands to provide a large-scale B2B recommerce solution, including an online auction platform that gives 500,000 corporate buyers direct access to resell returned and overstock items.

B-Stock has been solving inventory problems for customers for nearly 15 years, and has a unique perspective on sales and purchase trends across the B2B recommerce market, as well as a robust, unrivaled data set. So it made sense to look at the data and compile it into a report, appropriately titled “The State of B2B Recommerce” (downloadable from the Resources page).

To learn more about the inspiration behind this report, we spoke to Kylie Hall, VP of Marketing at B-Stock, to ask her a few questions about today’s recommerce landscape and what B-Stock hopes to accomplish with this informative resource.

This is B-Stock’s first re-commerce report. Why did you decide to develop and publish this report?

key: “When I first joined B-Stock, I was struck by the breadth and depth of inventory available on the platform, and the immense potential of nearly 15 years of proprietary resale data. As the largest B2B recommerce marketplace for consumer goods, it became clear that B-Stock needed to use its power to provide industry participants with trusted insights into what products were in demand in the secondary market, what they were selling for, who was buying them, and where they were going.

While some brands and retailers have recognized the B2B secondary market as a viable medium for selling excess and returned inventory, large-scale B2B recommerce has always been out of the spotlight. So the opportunity to shine a light on a lesser-known practice while also showcasing one of B-Stock’s key benefits was too good to pass up.”

Were there any surprising findings from the survey?

KH: “One thing that really stood out to me was the breakdown of the origin of the merchandise we sell. I always knew that returns and excess inventory items were all moving through B-Stock’s marketplace, but until I started this report, I didn’t realize how much of that inventory was made up of customer returns.

In conclusion, nearly 80% of the inventory sold on our platform was previously purchased and returned to the retailer. I was amazed at the demand for all these one-time purchases and how often consumers return their purchases. This is a major concern for businesses that many people don’t even think about.”

According to the report, the top two inventory categories by units sold were 1) Apparel, Shoes & Accessories and 2) Home & Garden. Is this typical? What do you think is driving this trend?

KH: “Clothing has consistently been one of the top categories for B-Stock, and it’s no wonder, considering how much we as consumers return clothing and how easy retailers have made the return process. In many cases, customers can return items for free, no questions asked, and often that inventory is never returned to the store or virtual shelves. That means there are mountains of perfectly good clothing in warehouses across the country. On the other hand, we are also seeing a huge demand for second-hand clothing. In fact, the clothing resale market is growing faster than the primary market.

When it comes to home & garden items, we are seeing more inventory in the market than we have historically seen (at least through the first half of 2024). One possibility is that consumers who have been stuck at home during the pandemic are more inclined to spend money on items to improve their personal space. Production of these goods has increased as demand has increased. However, since the pandemic-era home improvement buying frenzy, demand for these items has slowed, and now home improvement and housewares retailers are struggling with excess inventory.

The good thing is that there is secondary market demand for all this inventory, and B-Stock can help get it into the hands of buyers who want it.”

What other metrics did B-Stock track in its report?

KH: “This report covers some of the key metrics that business leaders may find valuable (recovery rates, sales volume, category activity, lot sizes), but every business will have unique concerns and interests. Beyond delivering hard numbers, this report is designed to give readers an idea of the growth and scale of the B2B secondary market and to show brands and retailers that recommerce is a worthwhile approach to exploring as a new way to manage excess inventory.

We welcome anyone who has read the report and discovered opportunities in the B2B secondary market. Contact us for a more in-depth conversation. If your business is a good fit, our team of experts will discuss your specific goals and priorities, identify relevant metrics, and help you build a tailored reselling strategy.”

Can you talk a little bit about the importance of data to B-Stock’s overall business model? How does B-Stock use data to improve the user experience and create value for buyers and sellers?

KH: “The B2B resale market (sometimes called clearing) was born in a very fragmented manner, with many sellers, buyers, and intermediaries managing transactions offline, over the phone, and in a very manual manner. Historically, there was virtually no way to evaluate market performance or improve results. This is generally still the case today, but B-Stock knows that it can change that.

One of the key benefits of the B-Stock platform is that it was built from the ground up with these challenges in mind, and is designed to bring together all the disparate data points around the fragmented B2B reselling channel into one place. This gives us, and will continue to build, a wealth of knowledge about B2B reselling, including insights into recovery rates, resale velocity, category and industry performance. Access to these insights benefits both sellers and buyers in a number of areas, including benchmarking sales performance, financial forecasting, and optimizing acquisition and selling strategies.”

Why do you think recommerce solutions and secondary markets are thriving today?

KH: “To be honest, I don’t think of the resale market as something new. It has always existed and has been popular among certain segments. However, as I mentioned earlier, the fragmented nature of the B2B secondary market has historically made it difficult for companies to recognize, evaluate, and leverage it as a solution to their key business challenges.

Platforms like B-Stock have simply helped to capture the pie, and have finally made it easier for businesses to access and scale the practice. By consolidating transactions in one place and gathering data on item pricing, buyer-seller interactions, and market trends, we help brands and retailers track and analyze recommerce in ways they’ve never been able to before. Again, this is how we’re bringing a “sub-industry” that’s been around for quite some time to the forefront. And the insights in this report (e.g., truckloads of sales on the platform) help highlight the healthy demand for all the products that sellers are offering.

All of this being said, it’s also worth noting that a re-commerce-based approach is very friendly to corporate sustainability initiatives, especially when the alternative to resale is landfill or incineration. And it aligns well with the values of today’s increasingly waste-conscious consumers.”

What can readers expect from the Recommerce Status Report?

KH: “The report expands on some of the concepts outlined above (e.g., how different categories have performed in recent marketplaces), but more importantly, the recommerce report will help readers conceptualize the volume of inventory moving through this booming secondary marketplace. And beyond showing the scale of the challenge and opportunity we have here, the report will hopefully illuminate the thinking and effort that goes into solving this business problem, and show you exactly where it all goes, how much buyers will pay, and how they will buy.

“Our internal research into real-world data-driven solutions for surplus consumer goods is what makes B-Stock’s Recommerce Report so compelling.”