Post-retail liquidation platforms (PLRPs) are reshaping inventory disposition strategies, offering scalable channels for managing excess inventory. Yet, PRLP adoption remains uneven and the mechanisms driving value are not well-understood. Prior work has examined reverse logistics and secondary markets more broadly, but research focused on how sellers can most effectively disposition goods through PLRPs is limited. This study examines seller strategies and identifies the structural factors that shape performance in digital liquidation environments.
This study draws on qualitative insights from Fortune 500 retailers, a state agency and industry experts to understand the current landscape of online PRLPs. In addition, it analyzes more than 21,000 auction listings from a leading PRLP to assess how seller characteristics, lot design and listing strategies shape performance.
The study highlights significant inefficiencies in current PRLP utilization practices, including a lack of sophistication and inconsistent tactics. Yet amid these inefficiencies, the study identifies that liquidation outcomes follow systematic patterns driven by three seller-controlled mechanisms: seller equity, listing quality and product context. These findings, based on PRLP data from the United States, demonstrate that value recovery is not random but shaped by deliberate engagement strategies.
By bridging field-based insights with large-scale platform data, this study moves beyond descriptive accounts of secondary markets to identify prescriptive design principles for digital liquidation. Theoretically, it highlights a structural misalignment between seller practices and platform performance drivers. Managerially, it provides actionable guidance for improving recovery rates through strategic listing and engagement. At an ecosystem level, it positions PRLPs as emerging infrastructure within modern supply chains, with implications for circular economy objectives and sustainable secondary market flows.
