OverstockB2B.com hopes to woo small retailers with extra services
Disappointed that not enough small retailers are using it to buy and sell merchandise, OverstockB2B.com hopes to lure more of them with services ranging from credit cards to health care policies, Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne tells Internet Retailer.“The audience best served by OverstockB2B are small retailers, but they’ve been the slowest to pick it up,” he says. “But services we’re planning to offer in the first quarter of next year will make OverstockB2B more attractive to the mom-and-pop store.”
Byrne notes that sales transactions at OverstockB2B, the business-to-business sister of the consumer-oriented excess merchandise site Overstock.com, doubled year-over-year for the 2003 fiscal year to about $60 million. But only 10% to 15% of those transactions involve mom-and-pop stores. The vast majority are retail chains and independent sellers on eBay.com, Byrne says.
To lure more small merchants, OverstockB2B has already begun working with Advanta Corp., a bank that specializes in offering commercial credit card accounts to small businesses. The plan is to provide OverstockB2B users with special offers on credit cards that could coincide with additional offers for health care insurance and procurement of office supplies for a retailer’s in-house use, Byrne says. Other service offerings could include procurement of corporate gifts and premiums, including desk calendars embossed with a retailer’s name for distribution to customers.
“What we have in mind is a business portal for small retailers,” Byrne says.
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