Do you wish to begin reselling merchandise on-line, however aren’t positive the place to supply objects? This checklist of distinctive sourcing concepts will hold your reselling enterprise stocked with merchandise!
Whether or not you’re a full-time reseller or simply trying to make some further money as a part-time aspect hustle, sourcing objects in individual to resell on-line can eat giant chunks of your day when you don’t know the place to look.
Lots of people begin out going to thrift outlets and native property gross sales to seek out objects they will purchase for low costs and resell at increased ones. Whereas these sourcing strategies are each stable choices for smaller resellers, they seemingly received’t get you the place that you must be if you wish to scale your small enterprise and have it develop right into a gig that brings in a full-time earnings.
And make no mistake. There may be cash to be made – and the potential for much more progress – in sure sectors of the resale market, together with reselling used clothes. “The U.S. secondhand attire market is predicted to achieve $74 billion by 2029, rising 9% yearly on common,” in accordance with the ThredUp 2025 Resale Report. In reality, between 2023 and 2024, the worldwide resale market grew by 15%, knowledge from the report reveals.
For many who wish to make an actual go of reselling, seasoned entrepreneurs say that your sourcing course of ought to embrace being looking out for brand spanking new product suppliers and different wholesalers and distributors as you proceed to diversify the place you discover your personal merchandise frequently.
We’re right here to assist along with your sourcing technique. Contemplate these sources, platforms, and potential suppliers when in search of giant portions of things to inventory your reselling enterprise.
1. Authorities Auctions and Gross sales
Whether or not you’re trying to supply bookshelves, pc displays, and even lawnmowers at rock-bottom costs, authorities auctions generally is a nice supply on your reselling enterprise. Many municipalities throughout america and places in Canada now use GovDeals.com to checklist their surplus objects.
You possibly can bid on objects and wait to see which purchaser affords the very best worth, or you possibly can merely choose the ‘purchase now’ worth to snag the merchandise you need. The web site additionally affords a location search web page, permitting you to slim down the realm the place you buy objects.
2. Property Gross sales
An alternative choice for sourcing objects in a single setting goes to property gross sales in your group and the encircling cities the place you reside. To search out property gross sales, you possibly can scour social media marketplaces and take a look at native information web sites that publicize occasions on group calendars. Some higher-end property gross sales are additionally marketed on EstateSales.com, a listing of upcoming gross sales that features pictures of a number of the objects that shall be obtainable. There are additionally choices for making purchases on-line when you can’t journey to the location of the sale. The corporate additionally affords a e-newsletter, the place you possibly can signal as much as be notified when new gross sales are added.
3. Helpsy Supply
With a mission to assist hold thousands and thousands of kilos of garments out of landfills, Helpsy Supply is a female-led enterprise that may be a licensed B Corp and public profit company primarily based in New Jersey. The corporate ships and delivers pallets and smaller reseller packs of used and unused clothes, amongst different issues. This will likely sound good to those that don’t wish to spend their time standing within the aisles of retail shops and different thrift companies. You possibly can go to their web site to see what they provide in your space.
4. Group and Neighborhood Yard Gross sales
Whereas particular person yard gross sales and storage gross sales are nice locations for sourcing objects at low costs, you possibly can probably get way more bang on your buck while you strategically plan your day round attending a group or neighborhood yard sale. Why is that? Multi-family yard gross sales and people held by church buildings and different group teams are inclined to carry collectively dozens of individuals and the issues they’re hoping to promote from their households. Spring, summer time, and fall are all nice seasons to get out and treasure hunt at some of these gross sales, so be sure to plan accordingly. Craigslist and Fb Market are each good locations to begin your seek for local people yard gross sales in your space.
5. The 127 Yard Sale
Prepared for the granddaddy of all out of doors gross sales? Mark your calendar for the primary weekend in August 2025. That’s when The 127 Yard Sale – also referred to as The World’s Longest Yard Sale – takes place on the primary Thursday by Sunday in August. In its thirty ninth 12 months, the route spans 690 miles throughout six states: Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. Judging from previous occasions, there’s a little bit little bit of all the pieces at this sale, from flea market finds to outdated vehicles to buying and selling playing cards, classic furnishings, and antiques. This annual occasion has been recognized to draw lots of of hundreds of discount hunters from throughout america and the world every year. Be taught extra concerning the distributors, routes, and places of the sale at 127YardSale.com.
6. Going out of Enterprise Gross sales & Liquidation Gross sales
When small companies and different brick-and-mortar shops shut down or shut a location, they may typically provide nice offers to shoppers on their remaining merchandise so that they don’t need to pay for space for storing or transfer it to a different location. And when bigger firms, together with a number of the huge field chains, determine they should purge stock or shut down, they often rent liquidation companies to do the heavy lifting for them. These websites can provide a possibility to snag nice offers on high-quality merchandise.
One of many largest of those firms is B Inventory, an internet retailer that resells returned and overstock objects from huge labels and firms, together with Amazon, Wayfair, and Goal. Product classes embrace clothes and accessories, cell telephones, electronics, pets, toys, furnishings, and extra.
7. Walmart Liquidation Auctions
Whilst you might not consider Walmart as a spot to select up pallets of returned objects on your reselling enterprise, they’re completely a participant within the billion-dollar resale trade. Walmart Liquidation Auctions is one other supply for on-line offers for your small business or your self. This Walmart-backed enterprise permits resellers to bid on extra stock, refurbished bulk heaps, and even retailer returns straight from the favored retailer.
How a lot can you purchase? Based on its web site, heaps vary in measurement from single pallets all the best way as much as truckloads of stock, so you should definitely verify particular person listings to grasp their minimal order portions. Frequent product classes on the location embrace bikes, furnishings, electronics, home equipment, garments, and extra. In different phrases, almost something you would purchase at a Walmart might be obtainable by the Walmart Liquidation Public sale website.
8. Fb Market
Since its launch in 2016, Fb Market has change into an more and more in style on-line platform the place customers meet just about to purchase and promote thousands and thousands of things. And whereas Fb Market is an effective spot to promote, it will also be an excellent place to purchase low-priced objects, particularly in case you are prepared to journey and decide one thing up or pay for delivery.
The very fact is that the net market has been logging a couple of billion month-to-month customers worldwide since 2021, in accordance with e-commerce knowledge from Statista.com. And people customers have been busy. On common, as much as 1.2 billion web shoppers purchase one thing on Fb Market every month, in accordance with Capital One Buying.
9. Goodwill
Whilst you could also be conversant in your native Goodwill thrift retailer, you could not know concerning the bigger on-line choices from Goodwill Industries, resembling Goodwill.com and the public sale website ShopGoodwill.com, each of that are nice locations to snag beforehand used objects. As a result of they’ve an in depth listing with hundreds of things obtainable, you could spend as a lot time shopping the location as you’d your favourite resale retailer location. Talking of places, you should use the web site location tab to find different Goodwill shops in surrounding states.
Professional tip: Search for thrift shops which can be positioned in resort areas or different upscale communities. These shops have a tendency to hold higher-end merchandise that may probably fetch the next worth when it’s bought once more.
10. eBay
When looking for choose area of interest merchandise, the net public sale website eBay generally is a nice procurement supply on your on-line retailer or different reselling enterprise. To maintain your revenue margins the place they should be, be sure to purchase objects on eBay at a worth low sufficient to permit for long-term profitability when reselling.
Inventive Concepts for Sourcing Gadgets for Your Reselling Enterprise: Conclusion
Because the resale market continues to develop, there are alternatives for these trying to create a worthwhile aspect hustle or full-time earnings by reselling objects by an e-commerce enterprise. As a result of sourcing objects may be difficult, it’s vital to be regularly looking out for brand spanking new producers that provide beforehand used or returned merchandise at a deep low cost. Whereas on-line buy-in-bulk companies may be nice for sourcing objects, don’t overlook about native distributors and different sellers who use commerce reveals and different group gross sales to seek out new patrons and sellers.
Undecided what app you need to use for reselling your objects on-line? Take a look at this checklist of in style reselling apps, which will also be used for sourcing objects!