Overstock.com targets high-volume resellers with new co-branded auction
AbleAuctions.com has launched a six-month test on Overstock.com under which its subsidiary, Unlimited Closeouts Inc., is operating a co-branded online auction program with Overstock that targets volume resellers. The co-branded offering, OverstockUnlimitedCloseouts.com, aims to provide Unlimited Closeouts with a broader online market reach via access to Overstock’s auction market.
Overstock’s auction market, meanwhile, gets access to liquidation merchandise and sources of supply through Unlimited Closeouts’ business as a reseller platform that sells bank and trustee inventories, as well as distressed merchandise, in bulk volumes. Under the agreement, Overstock will take a percentage of each sale.
“One is bringing its established web site and the customers that come with it, while the other is bringing merchandise and sources of contact,” says a spokesman for Unlimited Closeouts.
It’s a departure from what had been available on Overstock’s b2b site in the larger size of the lots on the co-branded site. Unlimited Closeouts deals in pallets and blocks of merchandise that include 2,000 to 5,000 units per lot, though some lots run considerably larger or smaller. The customer target for the co-branded site is volume resellers, strong retail chains, and eBay and Overstock power sellers.
“This level of the reseller marketplace is unique,” says AbleAuctions.com CEO Abdul Ladha. “When you start requesting inventory in quantities exceeding 10 or 20, and up to the range that we are generally in, it’s very difficult to source these items individually. So something we will be adding is sourcing materials for resellers,” says Ladha, adding that through Unlimited Closeout`s network contacts, the new site will offer services in helping reseller customers look for and find specific products.
About 20% of Unlimited Closeouts’ inventory is up on the new site now; more will be added. At the end of six months, both sides will evaluate the pilot. "It will be important for us to gauge how successful this will be at selling large quantities in bulk volume,” Ladha says.
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