Retail Returns

Liquidation in 2023, what resellers that like to buy low and sell high should know.

Looking into liquidation for 2023 and what is to come. The National Retail Federation recently put out it’s report for 2022. Lets dive into some of the stats from 2022 and see what we might expect for 2023.

Even though online and retail sale have increased year over year, retail returns have basically remained flat in 2022 and 2021 around 16.5% and the number for total returns in 2022 is $816B.

Of that $816B, some key take aways from that number that should be consider when it comes to the liquidation industry are that 25% or $204B annually go straight to landfills each year. Which equates to about 5 billion pounds.

$816B is now $612B.

10% or roughly $85B are fraudulent returns.

$612B is now $527B.

On average 20% of returns are non usable or salvage products- These products are broken but could be broken down and sold as parts. (Most people wont go to this extream but there is money here)

$527B is now $422B

So that leaves the following across the major categories.

Apparel12.2%$51,495,760,800.00
Auto Parts19.4%$81,886,701,600.00
Beauty4.3%$18,150,145,200.00
Department Stores11.4%$48,118,989,600.00
Drug/Pharmacies1.6%$6,753,542,400.00
Footwear9.1%$38,410,772,400.00
Hard Goods3.8%$16,039,663,200.00
Home Improvement11.5%$48,541,086,000.00
Housewares11.5%$48,541,086,000.00
Sporting Goods7.6%$32,079,326,400.00

Now this is where it gets interesting.

So if there $422B dollars worth of product that actually makes it to the secondary market and can be resold. Now you have to take into account, all the contract holders that are processing this product for their own E-commerce or retail sales.


Liquidation.com who mentioned that they were getting into more individual sales.
Optoro who owns Blinq and who partnered with Ebay in the recent past.
Essex with all there bargain hunt stores
Excess limited who has been open about there online retail presence
Complete liquidators with their retail stores
Midwest Service and supply has a retail presence.

That is just to name a few, there are countless other contract holders and non contract holders that buy blocks of loads and process for retail and ecommerce and sell off the products they do not want or cannot sell by the truckload.

So there is not as much inventory as people think and that inventory may not be as valuable as people think either by the time it flows through the supply chain.

Most Retail chains dumped their inventory in 2022 flooding the market with product to take their COVID losses. Moving into 2023 and a looming recession and high inflation most retailers have scaled down inventory.

2023 will be interesting as consumer spending may not slow down due to consumer spending behavior. Which means Ecommerce and multi channel selling will make finding cheaper items easier for consumers to find better deals on everyday products.

Liquidation companies with strong ecommerce presence will most likely do well. Liquidation companies selling in bulk like wholesale and liquidation pallet companies will do well as long as they can keep inventory cost down as supply shrinks as demand rises.


Resellers that continue to grow there online footprint with market places like eBay, Mecari, Poshmark and FB Market Place will continue to grow as reselling has becoming one of these easiest side hustles to make extra cash.

In closing, the revolving door in the liquidation is huge. Every year new companies enter and companies shut down so finding quality loads will continue to be the #1 sourcing challenge for liquidation companies like Bin Stores that are 1 dimensional and wanting quality HPC loads. The evolution of these stores will require a multi pillar revenue stream to remain profitable and relevant.

If you are looking for warehouses where you can find product to buy low and sell high. Here is a list of companies that sell liquidation merchandise in bulk for resellers. You can also check out our Liquidation Map to find Bin stores near you, Liquidation Pallet sellers near you, amazon sellers near you, liquidation stores near you and more. liquidationmap.com

Be smart Shop wisely.

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