Genco Marketplace helps companies turn lemons into lemonade through technology that provides a market for unsellables - inventory that is obsolete, damaged or simply the result of bad forecasting.
"We have a network of more than 75,000 buyers that have registered with Genco Marketplace," says Leigh Dzvonick, director of product sourcing. "We use our direct sales team to stay in touch with these buyers and let them know the inventory we have available so we can find the right home for these goods and help companies recoup at least a portion of their inventory investment."
The profit obviously is not as much as on the first sale, she notes, "but they are making some money on the inventory and are having it sitting on their floor and having to be discounted every day."
To protect the brand names of sellers in this secondary market, Genco Marketplace observes terms and conditions established by the manufacturers and retailers. "In some cases the label is obscured or removed or products cannot be sold in certain states," she says. "We are required to export some products before offering them for sale." Genco Marketplace does a lot of business in South America and Mexico, and is building its market in Europe as well, Dzvonick says.
Because of the nature of its business, Genco Marketplace actually benefited from the recession, Dzvonick notes. "We had more inventory come in during the recession and volume continues to be pretty high," she says.
