Via Trading in the Press

Via Trading Streamlines Liquidation Load Purchasing

by Claudia Bruemmer, June 14th 2012

Via Trading, a leading liquidation wholesaler, has come out with a buyer-centric solution to obtaining manifested liquidation inventory.

The liquidation company has been in business since 2002 and specializes in supplying individuals and businesses with popular merchandise from the nation's largest department stores at a fraction of its original cost.

To save its customers time and effort, Via Trading launched its new Load Center in June 2012. The Load Center is a unique online database of liquidation loads and manifests - and one of the first of its kind in the liquidation industry.

Via Trading's Load Center, the company's latest innovation in the liquidation and customer return industry, features a complete list of the company's full and partial truckloads, manifested pallets, case lots and opportunistic deals. For the first time, liquidation buyers worldwide can gain free access to hundreds of available loads at a glance on one screen, streamlining the wholesale purchasing process considerably.

The Load Center was created in response to this collective problem within the industry, as well as to streamline Via Trading's own internal efficiency. An extension of Via's website, the Load Center offers detailed functionality and an easy-to-use interface to aid wholesale buyers in locating specific loads for their business.

As department stores liquidate their surplus inventory, liquidation companies like Via Trading purchase them by the truckload and resell them to secondary channel resellers like eBayers, swap meet vendors, discount store owners and auctioneers, etc.

Merchandise on the liquidation market thus moves very quickly, creating a challenge for wholesale buyers searching for available inventory.

A high volume of liquidation merchandise is moved throughout the country daily, and the availability of loads fluctuates by the hour. Without a centralized database of loads and manifests to examine, buyers must contact companies directly to ask for available load lists, an often time-consuming and inefficient process. Buyers may wait a business day or longer to receive updated inventory lists and manifest attachments, missing out on relevant deals as loads continue to sell out while they wait.

Glen Rundell of SpecialzOutlet.com found the Load Center to be useful for his purchasing department. "?It's simply awesome. I can easily sort by product, brands, price and all this is available 24/7. I have not seen this system anywhere else- I've even taught some of my employees to use it to search for specific items that our customers have requested? really great!"

As Rundell notes, available online 24/7 the Load Center makes detailed wholesale purchasing accessible from any computer in the world, anytime. Buyers can log on and see current availabilities, find loads based on specific search criteria like category, price and condition, download manifests onto their computers and narrow their searches quickly and easily. Best of all, it is free to use by anyone looking for liquidation merchandise to resell.

In more detail, the Load Center offers users the ability to:

• View all available loads and relevant information
• Filter loads by various criteria (condition, price, location, store, category, etc.)
• View and download single or multiple manifests instantly
• Manipulate and summarize manifests
• See most recent loads added
• View discounted or ?on sale? loads

Eliminating the need to email a company and wait for a reply, the Load Center removes human response time from the equation and facilitates the purchasing process. Buyers locate the products they need, obtain shipping quotes on the spot and place their orders online to reserve the goods before they sell out.

"Continuously striving to innovate in the industry by proposing solutions to common buyer problems, Via Trading will continue to improve the features of its website and the Load Center," said Via Trading Marketing Manager Nathania Stambouli. "Stay tuned for what comes next!"

Read the original article in Top Ten Wholesale's Newsroom.

Rising Bids

'Storage Wars' stokes interest in wholesaler's auctioned goods

by Joel Russell, Staff Reporter

Like millions of people, Jacques Stambouli watches reality TV shows about bidders at auctions who buy the contents of self-storage units. But unlike most viewers, Stambouli takes a professional interest in the shows. As chief executive at Via Trading, he runs a wholesale warehouse in Lynwood that specializes in selling returned goods.

As he watched the number of bidders on TV grow, he realized he could attract the storage-unit crowd. So now, once a month, he holds an auction to sell off individual pallets of returned stuff. Normally, he sells them at a fixed price per pallet.

Stambouli started the auctions about two years ago after A&E's "Storage Wars" and TruTV's "Storage Hunters" debuted.

"For the first few episodes, there were maybe six bidders, and now I look at the screen and see 500 people," he said. "We are picking up a lot of new customers as these storage unit buyers segue into buying and selling pallets at fixed prices from our warehouse."

Brandon Bernier, a professional buyer of storage units and a star on "Storage Hunters" who lives in Castaic, attended Via Trading's auction earlier this month with his wife, Lori. He said the popularity of the reality shows has made it increasingly tough to make money on storage unit auctions.

In the last year, the number of people typically showing up at these auctions has more than quadrupled to about 100 bidders. As a result the price to buy the contents has more than tripled, Bernier said.

"A year ago, you would pay $300 to $400 for a bin, now you'll pay upwards of $1,200," he said. "For me and other professionals, we are buying fewer bins, but the more expensive ones. The goal is still the same - to find that one overlooked item of high value that no one else saw."

Stambouli said the monthly auction accounts for only 2 percent of his business, but it brings in new customers. He has taken specific steps at his auction, such as TV monitors that show the pallets for sale, to attract people familiar with the format of the storage TV programs.

"We definitely see more interest in the auctions and volume has spied," he said.

Unemployment Driven

A spokesman for Glendale-based Public Storage, the largest self-storage operator in the country, declined to comment for this article. He said the company did not want to glamorize the auctions as the contents are their customers' lost property.

Another operator did not respond to requests for comment.

Storage facilities auction the contents of units when a renter either stops paying the monthly rent or abandons the unit. While TV programs show people how liquidation auctions work, Stambouli believes the high unemployment rate is what makes it attractive as a business proposition.

"People are exploring how to start a new business on a shoestring," he said. "If I'm an unemployed guy spending my days watching TV, I might give it a try until something better comes along."

He said the monthly auctions give him the opportunity to get high bids on unusual items such as industrial equipment or very expensive electronics that don't appeal to his regular customers who typically resell the goods in flea markets and thrift stores, or online.

Every month he auctions about 300 lots at an average price of $250, but some pallets go for as little as $1.

Bernier has spent about $40,000 at Via Trading in the past three weeks. He also buys on the Washington, D.C., website Liquidation.com. He resells the goods on eBay or Craigslist.

"The new strategy is to go to these liquidation companies and get inventory," he said. "It's a crap shoot at their auctions because a lot of times the price is a better deal, but sometimes people get excited and bid way above what they could have paid at a fixed price."

Donna Wilson, operations manager at website StorageAuctions.com in Brentwood, Northern California, said storage facilities in California hold about 800 auctions every month. For facility managers, the auctions are a legal requirement not a profit center. The law requires a public auction before a unit is cleaned and rented out again. Auction proceeds go toward paying the rent due on the unit and auctioneer fees. Any remaining money has to be returned to the former tenant by law.

Wilson also works as an auctioneer; that business is booming. She and her business partner conduct between 50 and 60 auctions a month at storage facilities in California, with a typical sale cleaning out 25 to 40 units.

"Sometimes the crowds are so huge we have to split the auction into two days," she said. "As for prices, I've seen units that people used to pay $50 for that go for $1,000 now."

Bernier, the bidder on "Storage Hunters," said about 80 percent of the contents of an average storage unit goes straight to a landfill, while 20 percent is fit for resale. The escalating prices have made it harder to recover his costs with that 20 percent. But he believes once the crazy fades, he can get back to making good money.

"Since these two shows came out, it has gone from an unknown profession to a household word," he said. "Eventually I think the business will go back to the way it was, but it will take several years at least."

Están de moda las subastas de productos al por mayor

by Jessica Kong, May 5th 2012

Gustavo García estuvo de pie en la esquina de un cobertizo con más de 200 personas sentadas, la mayoría de ellas escuchando atentamente al hombre que llevaba la batuta del evento en torno a cientos de lotes de mercancías para venderlas al por mayor.

"Esta paleta está llena de muebles, casi todos en sus cajas originales, en buena condición", anunció Orlando Avalos, director de ventas de Via Trading, una compañía de liquidación al por mayor ubicada en Lynwood.

"Por $150, el número 84 ? por $175, el número 104 ? por $200, el número 81 ? ¡vendido al número 81 por $200", avisó.

García, quién había levantado su cartel, el número 84, usó una pluma roja para eliminar de la lista el número de la paleta que no pudo ganar con su apuesta en la subasta en vivo. "

Alcanzo a mirar a todas las personas que están participando desde aquí", explicó el muchacho, de 27 años, sobre su estrategia. "Ya conozco a la gente, lo que compran, y sé con quienes no puedo competir", agregó. Para los asiduos compradores como García, que ha venido -como de costumbre- varias veces al año, y para quienes vienen por primera vez, la subasta en vivo presenta una oportunidad para que los amantes de gangas compren mercancía al por mayor a precios aún más bajos de los que se ofrecen durante el resto de la semana en las ventas regulares de los almacenes.

"Es divertido porque es como un juego. Compites con todos, pero a veces un ganador puede pagar mucho por una paleta", dijo Roberto Muñoz, de 20 años, amigo de García y asistente suyo en la tienda de electrónicos que poco a poco han ido estableciendo.

La idea de vender mercancía a través de la subasta en vivo surgió hace tres años, pero Via Trading ha tenido sus puertas abiertas a empresarios durante una década en el 2520 Industry Way.

"En los últimos 10 años hemos crecido de manera exorbitante", dijo Nathania Stambouli, gerente de marketing de Via Trading. "Con la recesión, mucha gente de repente se vio sin empleo y encontró en este concepto de negocio una manera de sobrevivir".

Además de la subasta que se realiza en vivo cada primer jueves, desde las 11:00 a.m. hasta las 2:00 p.m., Via Trading tiene dos eventos en los que se puede comprar mercancía con mayores descuentos. Cada tercer jueves ofrece un promedio de 300 descuentos con cientos de lotes a precios rebajados comenzando a las 11:00 a.m. hasta la 1:00 p.m., y cada cuarto jueves tienen una subasta a las 4:00 p.m.

García, quien es un contratista independiente de AT&T, va a los tres eventos. Cuenta que primero va a las tiendas para comparar los precios de los eventos porque él vende a mitad precio para poder competir.

Por el momento vende por Internet y en ventas de yarda. "Es una meta empezar mi propio negocio porque quiero ser mi propio patrón y trabajar duro para mi mismo", relató. "Para poder llegar a mi meta, es un trampolín, esto".

Read the original article here.

Recognized five years running by the LA Business Journal and Inc. 5000 as one of the fastest growing consumer goods companies in Los Angeles and the country, Via Trading Corp. of California has more than stood up to its company mission during its 10 years of operation: to be the recognized leader in the liquidation industry and to continuously strengthen its position. For the liquidation company, strengthening its position is all in the business values it supports, the customer service it provides and the reach it has within the industry. Catering to all kinds of buyers, both large and small, experienced and just starting out. Via Trading currently supports over 20,000 customers in more than 80 countries on six continents, including eBay sellers, flea market vendors, retail stores, discount stores and more.

Via Trading is a wholesale supplier of overstock and clearance merchandise specializing in the sale of wholesale liquidations, overstocks and customer returns. Utilizing a vast network of sources including retailers, manufacturers, insurance companies and bankruptcies, the company is able to provide customers with one of the widest varieties of bulk clearance merchandise choices and lowest cost alternatives in the industry. "Our significant purchasing volumes allow us to benefit from additional savings we pass on to our customers, and together with the variety of wholesale products we offer, help us create a one-stop shopping experience," explains Nathania Stambouli, Marketing Manager.

Via Trading has no minimum order and requires no business license to purchase. "We are open to visitors who wish to see the products in person before buying. Our warehouse houses both small case pack lots as well as pallets and entire truckloads of merchandise. Individuals close to Los Angeles, or traveling to the L.A. area, are welcome to visit our premises in person," says Stambouli. "Otherwise, potential buyers can view all our products with prices, pictures and descriptions on our website, and can also place orders online." According to Stambouli there is no single top selling category, as it all depends on the market people are selling to. "eBay sellers do well with high-end electronics and shoes, while flea market vendors find more success with cheaper, smaller items, clothing and kitchenware," she notes. "Via Trading caters to people who sell in a variety of ways."

Selling merchandise for pennies on the dollar isn't the only way Via Trading caters to its buyers. "We just made some great additions and offers to our website. These include a category called Starter Packs," says Stambouli, "in which we offer merchandise across various categories as starter packs for under $199. Anybody with a small budget can buy anything from cosmetics to clothing and electronics." The site also provides a collection of resources giving hints and tips on the wholesale industry, targeting a specific market, and merchandise conditions. "We developed a section called Buyer Tools, where buyers can find calculators to help figure out potential profits on certain merchandise, how their shipping cost is distributed over the items in a given order, as well as currency conversion and more," explains Stambouli.

Other benefits of working with one of the fastest growing consumer goods companies in the country include access to your own Account Manager to help with all aspects of purchases, new merchandise arrivals daily, customized retail displays to use for reselling assorted merchandise, and on-site product inspection. "We also hold monthly events at the warehouse," notes Stambouli. "One of the most popular is our monthly auctions that are open for anyone to attend. We see about 300 people who come to bid for the 250 to 300 lots up for auction. There is no reserved bidding, and bidding starts at just $1 on most lots. It's a great opportunity for people to grab great deals." All it takes to work with Via Trading is some time to browse through the company website, or to pick up the phone and ask what they can do for you.

Click here to read the article on www.wholesalecentral.com.

Many Happy Returns

Spike in Retail Sales Means More Items for Reselling Business

By Joel Russell, January 2011

If piles of unsold goods were a leading economic indicator, Jacques Stambouli would bet the recovery has arrived.

Stambouli is co-owner of Via Trading Corp., a warehouse in Lynwood where resellers can buy pallets of merchandise that came back as returns or were unsold at mainstream retailers. The typical pallet contains different items in a specific category – clothing, toys, shoes, tools, home décor – with a total cost between $300 and $400. Via Trading’s customers resell the stuff at yard sales, swap meets or on eBay.

For 2011, Stambouli expects his business to grow 30 percent, twice the rate of last year.

“A lot of retailers have given us forecasts for higher sales, which automatically translates to higher returns and more inventory for us,” he said. “Nationally, about 4 to 6 percent all merchandise sold goes back to the store as returns.”

With retail sales during the recent holiday season higher than the previous year, Stambouli is bracing for a tsunami in coming weeks. The swell has already started with pallets of children’s clothing, toys, Christmas decorations and 3-D TV accessories filling his 240,000-square-foot warehouse.

He got the idea for Via Trading during a research project on the retail industry while getting his M.B.A. at Harvard. He launched the company with his brother in 2002.

Stambouli plans to secure a major capital infusion from one of the private equity groups that he said constantly call him. He increased his payroll to 58 employees late last year and plans to hire more.

“We could grow this business tenfold with the proper capital,” he said. “Even though we have done well, the potential ahead is still enormous.”

Click here to read the article on www.losangelesbusinessjournal.com.

Pallet Cleanser

by Joel Russell, Staff Reporter

JACQUES Stambouli is the king of returns. The chief executive of Via Trading Corp. in Lynwood owns a warehouse filled with pallets of clothing, shoes, cosmetics, tools, toys, appliances, electronics and home décor: All of it had been sold in major stores and returned by customers. Stambouli's mostly Hispanic clientele buys these goods by the pallet and resells them at swap meets, flea markets, thrift stores, yard sales and on eBay. Founded in 2002 by Stambouli and his brother Alain, Via Trading is a surprisingly good business. It has appeared on the Business Journal's list of fastest-growing companies for four years running, generating $22.4 million in revenue in 2009 and employing 90 people. Not bad for an entrepreneur who grew up in Cyprus and whose father did business behind the Iron Curtain, importing hard -to-find consumer goods from the West. Here's what's even more surprising: Stambouli attended Harvard Business School, where he has friends who went on to work at big Wall Street firms. It was a path he decided not to take. Stambouli met with the Business Journal in a cluttered conference room at the warehouse to discuss why he preferred to drive a forklift after getting his M.B.A., how his family background prepared him for a wholesale career and why he's not allowed to bring ?his work? home from the office.

Question: What's your favorite part of the job?
Answer: I love the goods. Every time you open a truck of returned items, you have no idea what you'll find. No one ever thinks about what happens to the stuff that customers take back to the store. They end up here.

What are the strangest shipments you've seen?
Giant bolts. Hot tubs. Vending machines shaped like dinosaurs ? it took us ages to get rid of them.

Do you ever separate the good items from the bad?
We do it as little as possible. A lot of people who get into this business fall into the temptation of going through the loads and pulling out the good stuff to sell at retail for really high dollars. Then they sell the bad stuff at wholesale. They don't get any repeat business because their wholesale customers only get junk. They only last a year or so.

What was your career plan when you arrived at Harvard Business School?
Banking, Wall Street or management consulting. But I did a summer internship at Bain & Co. and discovered consulting wasn't for me. I wanted to get my hands dirty and feel how a business operates.

What was your Plan B?
I started my own company. I spent most of my second year at Harvard writing my business plan and talking to professors about it.

Did you follow your plan?
No. Originally the company was going to be an online-offline retail store specializing in discontinued and returned merchandise.

Do you regret not working for a big bank or on Wall Street?
No, I'm much happier here. All my friends from Harvard got nice jobs in industry or on Wall Street, and I was driving a forklift and loading pallets! But at the end of the day, it's a question of how much value you're creating, not just the image of success.

What was your business like at first?
It was a combination retail and wholesale store in West Los Angeles called Close-Out Center. We sold returned merchandise in the store and sold the same stuff wholesale in the back room.

What happened?
Retailing is really hard and we quickly realized there was a lack of reputable wholesalers who deal with surplus and close-out merchandise, especially returned merchandise because it is not first quality and has wide differences in its condition. It can be as good as new or it can be junk.

So you decided to go into wholesaling?
Pretty soon we had more repeat business than we could handle, so we abandoned the retail side. We converted the entire space to wholesale and the business took on a life of its own.

Wasn't West Los Angeles expensive real estate for a discount store?
Let's say yes. Obviously, we didn't know what we were doing.

What was the solution?
After 18 months, we moved to a larger space in Huntington Park. Then 18 months after that, we moved to Vernon. Everyone told us we had to be in Vernon and they were right. It was the best place.

Why?
I've never seen such a business-friendly city. Every city in the United States should be run like Vernon. I really hope they keep it as a city. I know they've had their internal political problems, but at the end of the day the people who are the supposed victims ? the business owners ? are not complaining. So why are other people bothering them?

Why did you leave Vernon?
We needed more space and couldn't find it anywhere in Vernon. This building in Lynwood became available.

When you left Harvard, why did you come to Los Angeles?
I could have started the business anywhere, but after two years in Boston I wanted a nicer climate.

Do you think your company would have succeeded anywhere, or only in Southern California?
Whatever I started would have succeeded, simply by adapting to the needs of the market. I never intended to own a cash-and-carry warehouse selling pallets. If I had started this company in Boston, it would have become something different, maybe a mail-order company.

How do you handle complaints?
Usually when people complain, they want to buy again from me and they're trying to justify a discount. I have an easy test for them. I say, ?You're right, I'll compensate you and in the future I'll never sell you that particular item again.? They immediately change their tune. Maybe the previous pallet wasn't so bad after all and they're willing to try it again.

How many pallets do you sell?
About 400 every day. The price varies, based on what's on the pallet, but the average price is about $450.

Where do you get them?
Big store chains. Our agreements with the stores prohibit me from disclosing their names. But I'm sure you've heard of them because only the biggest stores generate large volume of returns.

Did your childhood prepare you for this career?
Yes, very much. I was born in Lebanon to Jewish parents. My father was an entrepreneur almost by default because by law Jews couldn't own property or work for the government, and in that country the government employs half the people. The only option was to start a business. When the civil war broke out, we moved to Cyprus.

When was that?
1975. I was only 2 years old. I grew up on Cyprus.

What was your father's business?
Through a friend, my father had a connection in Bulgaria. It was communist at the time. He started selling stuff that they couldn't buy directly from the West. For political reasons, it was OK if the goods went through Cyprus.

What stuff?
Procter & Gamble detergent, Gillette razor blades, Revlon cosmetics, Cadbury chocolates. The big-name brands went through us because there were no other major players in the market.

Was it difficult to deal with the politics?
Well, when communism collapsed, he was already established. All the stuff he formerly sold to the government he started wholesaling and retailing to the public. He employed about 1,500 people at one time and owned 50 stores. I worked for him for four years after going to college in London.

How did you get to the United States?
I left Bulgaria because I liked the comforts of the West. I wanted to try to make it in the United States, and the easiest way to get here was with a student visa. So I applied to Harvard and got my M.B.A.

Is your family still involved in Via Trading?
My brother Alain started the company with me. Our father financed it. And for a time, my sister, who lives in Cyprus, opened a chain of stores selling discounted items that we supplied. It's a closely involved family business.

Is it a challenge having your brother as a partner?
On the contrary, I find that working with family brings an element of trust that you don't have with outside partners who come from different backgrounds.

Do you ever disagree over decisions?
Ninety-nine percent of the time we agree. The 1 percent when we don't agree, it comes down to whoever feels more passionate.

Who are your heroes?
Margaret Thatcher. She inherited the U.K. with three-day workweeks, strikes all the time and the economy in complete shambles. Now it's the most prosperous country in the European Union. I like leaders who are transformational, where you can see a clear difference between when they started and the end.

What's your plan for the future?
We are two years from hitting full capacity at this warehouse. At that point, we'll have to decide whether to treat it as a cash cow ? it would be a very nice cash cow ? or do we want to move again, to 1 million square feet? Or do we want to repeat the process in Houston or Miami? Or we could start another business that's ancillary to this but allows growth without the warehouse constraint ? maybe an online version, for instance. I don't know the answer.

Has business ownership lived up to your expectations?
Yes, but I expected to be retired by now. When I was a kid I thought, ?When I grow up I'll make $1 million and retire.? But once you get married, the number goes up. When you get kids, the number goes up again. Now I realize I can't retire anytime soon.

Via Trading Offers Retailers New Floor Standing Displays

by Claudia Bruemmer, August 17th 2011

As a recognized leader in the liquidation industry, Via Trading has always been focused on the notion of continuous improvement. It strives to serve its retail customers and lead the industry by example. For that reason, we were not surprised to learn Via is offering its retail customers a standing floor display solution that can be used for influencing customers in the aisles.

We asked Via’s Marketing Manager Nathania Stambouli what brought this about. “We don’t see our role as merely being one whereby we provide merchandise to our customers but also one that provides solutions to enable our customers to grow their sales and profits,” said Nathania. “In an effort to provide such solutions, we researched across other industries, learning what they did to grow their customer sales/profit. We also conducted a number of visits to customer stores to understand their particular needs and what we could do to help,” she added.

During that research, Nathania found a number of common issues. The retailers all had a variety of merchandise without any significant stand-out in store, cluttered shelves, poor merchandising and out of stock situations. As a result, consumers were not being engaged in store.

“We also thought about the end consumer and how they interact with merchandise in a store,” continued Nathania. It’s a well-known fact that today’s consumers have more opportunities by which to acquire and interact with information. In fact, they often have too many messages thrown at them through various media on a daily basis. Organizations typically use a variety of means to influence consumer purchase decisions, such as advertising, but as a result of the constant influx of advertising messages in their daily lives, today’s consumers have developed short attention spans and are now able to switch ads off. This makes it increasingly difficult for retailers to influence their customers.

However, a key area through which retailers are still able to stimulate consumer purchase decisions is at the point of sale (POS) where up to 70 percent of purchase decisions are made. “We determined that our customers’ current ability to influence consumer decisions at the POS level is limited given the lack of resources we saw during our store visits and conversations with retailers,” said Nathania.

For these reasons, Via Trading introduced its new FSD Solutions (Floor Standing Display Solutions). These displays offer retailers an effective solution to create greater visibility in store and attract customers through the use of color and chosen key phrases such as ‘Look’ and ‘Wow.’ By engaging the consumer, the display solutions can motivate disinterested consumers into becoming engaged with the product(s), which will lead them to purchase, increasing sales and profits.

The displays offer additional benefits including:

• Ability to tailor messages to consumers (making the message more pertinent to a particular group of consumers or to a particular product)
• Facility to cross and up sell (by displaying similar or complementary products next to each other)
• Capacity to easily merchandise the display (with flexible hooks and display trays) and to quickly note when stocks are low
• Displays take up a minimum amount of space whilst providing maximum visual impact

The FSD Solution is appropriate for an array of different sales channels at a Point of Sale level. Its applications include but are not limited to flea markets, yard sales, discount stores, thrift store, wholesalers (to show an assortment or variety of product) and more. It can even be useful for online sellers who do not have a physical store front. They can merchandise their wholesale lots on the display, photograph and show their products attractively to their online consumers.

“We launched the displays at the ASD Trade Show this August and rolled out the launch to our regular warehouse and website sales the following week,” said Nathania. “Customers are just beginning to use the displays and have thus far shown great interest and satisfaction with the preliminary results,” she added. Via is looking forward to hearing how the displays do as time progresses.

Miguel Susano, a Via Trading customer since December 2010, purchased a display last week. He states that “It’s very nice, easy and quick to set up and [he is] using it as we speak!”

Ty and Melissa, Via Trading new customers, purchased theirs at the ASD Trade Show this August and have just begun merchandising their displays. “Our customers are immediately drawn to the displays and spend more time looking at our cosmetic items than they did before. We’re looking forward to seeing how that translates to sales numbers – stay tuned!”

Other Via Trading customers like the new displays as well. Claudia Hernandez opined, “They’re great – the products have a presentation!” And Abram Perez said, “They’re working well – they’re bringing more customers in already.”

To find out more about these new Floor Standing Display Solutions, contact Nathania Stambouli at Via Trading.

 

Off-Price Booms as Overstock Supply Shrinks

by Andrew Asch, April 15, 2011

The off-price market has been booming throughout the recession and recovery. But just as demand for off-price merchandise is skyrocketing, the supply of it is becoming scarce in America.

“It’s rarely been like this, where merchandise is so tough to get,” said David Lapidos, a career off-pricer and executive vice president of the OffPrice Show, the leading American trade event producer for the off-price market. Off-price fashions are typically produced by manufacturers and retailers seeking to liquidate extra inventory, and they have been typically sold at a discount of 20 percent to 70 percent off of full-price retail.

The off-price market has increased because consumers are looking for the lowest prices in every category in a still-sluggish economy, and many retailers are vying to give the public the lowest prices.

Americans spent $18 billion on off-price clothes in the 12 months ending in February 2011; it is a 1.5 percent increase from the previous 12 months, according to The NPD Group Inc. /Consumer Tracking Service. Off-price retail accounts for more than 9 percent of the American apparel market.

The disparity between supply and demand in the off-price market has forced off-pricers to scramble to look for new sources—even venturing offshore. And many are prospecting for new businesses to make up for the shrinking supply of close-out goods.

The present market followed a feast for off-price, said Jacques Stambouli, chief executive of Via Trading, a liquidator based in Lynwood, Calif.

“There was a ton of inventory on the market,” Stambouli said of the years immediately preceding and following the Great Recession of 2008. “But they got flushed out of the system in the past few months. There were not many close-outs.” Via Trading’s sales were $25 million in 2010, and Stambouli forecast 20 percent growth in 2011. The company not only deals in offprice with clothes but also in tools, furniture and electronics.

Via Trading’s forecast reflects increased sales in its all of its categories, not just apparel.

Tony Peters also witnessed a big drop in available merchandise at his job as vice president of sales of Bermo Enterprises, a retailer based in Schoolcraft, Mich., that runs 40 stores in the Midwest.

In 2007, his team of buyers typically wrote more than 60 orders on their buying trips to New York. Now the buyers place 25 orders and less, he said. “It means that you have to find stuff by non-traditional methods,” he said.

Trouble started in the off-price market as a result of the rest of the apparel industry trying to stop a hemorrhage of red ink during the recession. Manufacturers and retailers slashed their inventory during the recession as a means to cut costs. These businesses have continued to control costs by keeping their inventories lean, which means less possibilities of overstock and close-outs.

Off-price wholesale also has been affected by rising prices for cotton and fuel, said Doron Kadosh, president of American Fusion, a Los Angeles company that has been supplying off-price apparel to retailers since 1993. If manufacturing costs are going up, prices for close-outs will increase.

“Off-price is a reactionary market,” he said.

However, it is hard to gauge how much prices are increasing, Lapidos said. Offprice wholesalers have struggled to keep prices down to remain attractive to retailers looking for a rock-bottom price. The clash between increasing prices in many categories and safeguarding a reputation for low prices is squeezing many in the off-price market. “If they let costs run rampant, they will not have a business,” Lapidos said.

New business, new models

For off-pricers seeking to satisfy growing demand, their search for merchandise increasingly takes them overseas, Lapidos said. Off-pricers typically visited Asia once or twice annually to buy close-out goods. Recently, they have been scheduling more than four trips each year to Asia to go where the goods are.

“Most are going to China,” Lapidos said. “There’s a colossal amount of merchandise there.” But there are costs to finding the cheaper stuff. The increased travel has driven up the cost of doing business.

Many off-pricers sought to protect themselves by diversifying their business.

Since 2010, the Off Price Show has been building up its footwear, lingerie and accessories vendors. For the August 2011 show, scheduled to run in Las Vegas, footwear booths are forecast to double, to more than 80, compared with the February 2010 Off Price show.

American Fusion created a new fashion market for its off-price clothes. For years, the company has purchased overstock and close-out blank T-shirts. In recent years, the company has been embellishing overstock and close-out blanks with sequins or new graphics for an additional $0.50 to $1.75 per piece. “It turns a basic item into a fashion item, and retailers are still able to sell them at a discount price,” Kadosh said.

Bermo Enterprises got into the licensing business to make up for the tougher market for off-price. Last year, Bermo debuted a clothing label for Farmall, a tractor line with considerable brand equity in the Midwest. Sales are good, Peters said. He forecast licensed apparel will be 25 percent of Bermo’s business by the end of 2013.

Peters forecast the off-price business will get tougher. “The amount of desirable available product will continue to decrease, meaning that not everyone will find enough to satisfy their needs,” he said.

Lapidos agreed the off-price market is experiencing tough times. But it is not unprecedented. He remembered a similar time, in the early 1980s, when merchandise seemed scarce. “Maybe it is going through a 20-to- 25-year cycle,” he said.

A strengthening economy means more manufacturing production, said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst for The NPD Group. “There will be no shortage of product,”said. “The bigger issue is more and more brands are opening their own outlet stores, and [those stores] will compete with off pricers and deplete some inventory opportunities.”

Meanwhile, the biggest off-price retailers— Ross Stores Inc. and TJX Companies Inc., operator of TJ Maxx and Marshalls stores—forecast they will have no trouble in finding overstock and close-out merchandise for their fleet of stores located across America.

In the latest Securities and Exchange Commission document r epor t ed by Pleasanton, Calif.–based Ross, the retailer noted it maintains a network of 7,800 merchandise vendors who work with their Ross Dress for Less and dd’s Discounts divisions. “We have not experienced any difficulty in obtaining sufficient merchandise inventory,” Ross reported in its 10K published March 11.

In a March 17 statement, Michael Balmuth, Ross’ chief executive, credited his company’s success to a “favorable position as a value retailer as well as the efficient execution of our off-price strategies.”

The company runs a fleet of 968 Ross Dress for Less and 67 dd’s Discounts, which will offer lower prices than Ross Dress for Less. 67 dd’s Discounts is the division for families with incomes more modest than the middle-class customers who shop for offprice deals at Ross Dress for Less. The recent report did not quantify how many new stores it will open this year. However, the report said opportunities were best with dd’s Discounts, which offers lower prices than Ross Dress for Less.

Click here to read the article on www.apparelnews.net

Day-after-Christmas sales: Stars are aligned for a super Sunday

This year, day-after-Christmas sales are expected to be even more festive than usual. Fortuitous timing and Americans' renewed willingness to spend should cap the improved retail season.

By Ron Scherer, December 24, 2010

The presents haven’t been unwrapped yet. No one has pulled out the stocking stuffers hanging by the fireplace. But most people, it seems, are already dreaming of the day-after-Christmas sales, when retailers get serious about reducing prices.

Charles Van Stone in Shepherdstown, W.Va., will be shopping for expensive car waxes. Karen Audet of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., plans to hit Neiman-Marcus for designer Christmas tree ornaments. And, Garden City, N.Y., resident Tracy Murtagh expects to bring her two nieces into New York to shop for discounted clothes at a department store.

Such shopping would ordinarily just “pad the numbers of a successful holiday season,” says Scott Krugman, a spokesman at the National Retail Federation in Washington. But because the day after Christmas falls on a Sunday, Mr. Krugman anticipates even larger crowds than normal.

“There is a confluence of events in terms of returns, gift card redemptions, and clearance that will make it a perfect storm in terms of customer traffic,” he says.

However, even with this influx of shoppers, Mr. Krugman says, it is doubtful the day's sales will be larger than last Saturday's, referred to by retailers as Super Saturday, or Christmas Eve, often referred to as “Father’s Day,” for the men who wait until the last minute to shop. The National Retail Federation had forecast a 3.3 percent gain in holiday sales this year over last, but some other retail analysts suggest it will be more like a 5 percent gain. That is in large part because shoppers appear to have lost some reticence about spending money.

On Thursday, the Reuters/University of Michigan survey of consumer sentiment hit its highest level since June.
“Consumers have become more optimistic in their outlook,” wrote Chris Christopher, an economist who covers consumers for IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Mass., in an analysis on Thursday.

A better mood

He attributes the better mood to an improvement in the jobs market, a good stock market, low interest rates, an easing of credit conditions and, of course, discounting by retailers.

Shoppers hitting the stores on Sunday will also be returning a lot of gifts. “It becomes a logistical nightmare trying to sort out what people get credit for and what needs to be disposed of,” says Los Angles-based Jacques Stambouli, CEO of Via Trading Co., a liquidator who buys the returned merchandise.

In past years, the biggest returns have been electronics, he says. “Most of the time it’s because people aren’t sure how they are supposed to work,” he says. This year, so far, retailers are seeing more returns of the new 3D TVs, he says. “People can’t figure out which buttons you have to push to make it work,” he says.
But for the most part, shoppers will be hitting the malls looking for deals. They won’t be disappointed, says Krugman. “Retailers will be trying to move a lot of seasonal merchandise such as apparel, gift wrapping, and holiday cards,” he says.

That’s what Ms. Audet is expecting in her quest for designer ornaments. In the past, stores have discounted some products by 50 to 75 percent off their normal price, she says. But, she adds, she has to get to the stores early to get the best deals. “It is really a race up the escalator,” she says.

Mr. Van Stone says he’s had some good fortune buying on Dec. 26. Last year, he and his wife, Carol, purchased a new Buick LaCrosse, General Motor’s new sedan.
“Normally, they don’t discount those cars, but they did discount it,” he says.

'Shop for yourself'

In New York, Ms. Murtagh plans to give her 11- and 14-year-old nieces visiting from South Carolina a chance to “get the whole New York shopping experience.”
But she plans on shopping herself for personal items. “You know the things we have been forcing ourselves not to buy before Christmas,” she says with a giggle. “Now you get to go back and shop for yourself after the fact.”

For retailers, such shopping is essential, says Linda Day, owner of Arabella, a boutique and dress store in McKinney, Texas.
She plans on reducing prices storewide by 20 percent, and expects the sale will attract women looking to buy New Year’s Eve dresses, plus a lot of tourists traveling from Dallas to visit the historic downtown.
She says reducing inventory is important since in January she will travel to various trade shows to buy new apparel and other merchandise.

“In January we’re spending a ton of money, so we like to have a little something in the bank,” she says.

Click here to read the article on www.csmonitor.com.

Via Trading Adds Spanish Language Site

Michael Moral Alterio, November 2010

In November 2002, Via Trading made its first sale. Over the eight years since then, the wholesale liquidation company has grown into a powerhouse that generates tens of millions of dollars in annual sales, stocking thousands of pallets of goods at any given moment. “Via Trading has experienced a significant percentage of growth each year since its incorporation in 2002,” says marketing manager Nathania Stambouli. “We have been recognized four years running now by the Inc. 5000 and three years by the LA Business journal as one of the fastest growing consumer goods companies in the country and in Los Angeles, respectively.”

And the company is poised to make another big growth spurt with the launch this fall of a new version of its Web site that will reach out to a huge customer demographic. “We have just launched a Spanish language version of our website, www.viatrading.com/mayoreo , that pioneers the industry as the largest wholesale liquidations website entirely in Spanish on the Internet today,” explains Stambouli.
The new version features hundreds of product descriptions, shipping information, industry resources, a list of Southern California flea markets, liquidation services, and information on Via Trading news and events, all in Spanish.

Clearly, the Web is a major part of the company’s strategy, and has been from day one. “Our website was launched when the company opened in 2002,” says Stambouli. And Via Trading has put a lot of effort into keeping it up to date. “We have upgraded it several times and continue to improve the user navigation on the site and the content we provide. While it began as a simple HTML page with daily product updates, our website now features videos, articles, resources and industry information, a shopping cart and many other useful tools,” she says.

The site makes for a compelling customer resource, she adds. “Aside from providing dozen of pictures and detailed descriptions on each of the lots we sell, our website is increasingly user-friendly and easy to navigate. Buyers can browse by category, by condition of product, by packing (cases versus pallets versus truckloads) and by price point (under $250, under $500, under $1,000).”

As a source of data, the site is invaluable. “We also provide pages of resource information about how to work with customer return and overstocked products, what to expect when dealing with such goods, information on industry terminology and hints and tips for reselling liquidated merchandise based on different retail channels,” says Stambouli.

Via Trading has an intense customer focus, based on retaining customers by offering them valuable advice. According to Stambouli, “We build our website to offer more than just product, but to also help buyers determine what type of product will be best suited for their market, and what they can do to minimize their costs and increase their profits. We also stress the availability of our sales team to answer any questions customers have by email, phone or in person. Buyers are always welcome to call, email or visit us to get a better understanding of what we do and how to work with us. Transparency and customer service are high priorities.”

 And that effort has paid off for the liquidation wholesaler. “Approximately 50 percent of our business is generated through our website, and the other through walk-in, in-person purchases,” says Stambouli. And while half of all sales come in directly from the Internet, the odds are that even more customers use the Web for research and then use the phone or a physical visit to make purchases.

Which highlights another unusual and customer-friendly aspect to Via Trading’s business. In the liquidation business, the goods are not consistent. Shelf-pull items, customer returns, seconds, and such merchandise vary in consistency even within an individual pallet. That’s the nature of the enterprise, and Via Trading highlights this reality on its Web site. However, the company goes one step further. Customers are invited to visit its wholesale “store” in Lynwood, CA, and check out any given pallet before making a purchase.

Nathania Stambouli puts it this way: “Unlike many other players in this industry, we are open to the public so buyers in the area can come in and visually inspect the goods prior to purchase. Our warehouse is set up like a giant pallet supermarket so to speak, with colorful signage and pricing on all the lots. Buyers are free to walk the warehouse and select the actual pallets they’d like to buy.”

 But the company goes beyond simple inspection of the pallet-loads. In addition, they have on-site sales and auctions to move merchandise. “We offer in-house events every month featuring significantly discounted pricing on hundreds of wholesale lots. Our monthly live auctions welcome over 200 wholesale buyers to the warehouse to bid on over 300 wholesale lots starting at only $1 with no reserve bidding,” she explains. And once a month, there is a sale: “We welcome around 100 buyers to the warehouse to select from approximately 300 discounted pallets from our regular inventory. Prices are slashed up to 50 percent off of already very competitive pricing,” she says.

 What’s on those pallets? Almost any kind of goods imaginable. “New arrivals change from one day to the next — we might receive truckloads of office furniture today, designer clothing tomorrow, branded athletic shoes the next, and assorted toys the following day,” says Stambouli. “We do have a ‘staple’ product line of electronics, clothing, shoes, hardware, industrial equipment, tools, kitchenware, domestics, general merchandise, cosmetics, furniture, luggage and health and beauty aids, and more. Each category boasts dozens of products and our inventory changes daily,” she says.

There are hot products for every buyer. “Our flea market sellers primarily buy general merchandise pallets, while our e-commerce customers typically do best with designer clothing, shoes and cosmetics. Our brick-and-mortar store buyers typically focus most on electronics, tools and general merchandise — it’s all across the board and generally depends on how and where the goods are being resold,” says Stambouli.
The minimum buy from Via Trading is a single lot. Though profit margins vary greatly according to the product being sold and the resale channel used, Via Trading does its best to remain competitive in its pricing. “We try to make it so our customers turn as high a profit as possible while offering the items to their customers at close to 50% off retail,” says Stambouli. The company also offers electronic coupons regularly for 10 percent off.

A good way to get a coupon is to tune in to the company’s electronic marketing. “E-marketing is one of the primary ways we reach our customer base,” says Stambouli. “We maintain a blog with resources, product information, promotions and special offers. We send weekly email blasts to our mailing list of over 50,000 subscribed wholesale buyers informing them of incoming products, upcoming events or other news. We also have a Facebook page and a Twitter account that we update with  any relevant information and we also send out special social media discounts for our Facebook fans and Twitter followers to keep everyone in the loop of what’s going on at Via.”

Click here to read the article on www.webwholesalermagazine.com.

An Innovation on Wholesale Purchasing: The Pallet Supermarket

Solo Mayoreo, September 2010

In a growing sea of general merchandise wholesalers within a multi billion-dollar liquidation industry, companies must find ways to differentiate themselves from their competition to attract prospective customers and keep existing customers coming back again and again.

Via Trading, an 8-year-old liquidations wholesaler located just south of Los Angeles California, offers an innovative approach to wholesale purchasing and pioneers the industry with an innovative business model.

Solomayoreo had the opportunity to interview Nathania Stambouli, Marketing Director of Via Trading Corporation, to gain a better understanding of exactly what this company does and how their services differ from other wholesalers in the industry.

The company caters to all kinds of business owners from flea market vendors to eBayers, yard sellers, exporters and wholesalers. They are open to the public and do not require buyers to have any type of business license in order to purchase- just an open mind, a willingness to make money and a method of payment. Via is a fully bilingual company, providing services to visitors and customers in Spanish or English.

Walking through their 240,000 square foot facility located in Lynwood (just off the 110 and 105 freeways and 15 minutes from LAX airport), buyers will be amazed at the variety of items all under one roof. Customers walk through the isles and browse through thousands of pallets and hundreds of different types of products.

The pallets are arranged in neat rows and covered in plastic covers that customers can lift up to see the contents of each pallet.

“We set up our warehouse like a giant pallet supermarket,” says Miss Stambouli. “Our objective is for people to be able to walk in, look around, see and touch the product before purchasing it.”

Many wholesalers only offer the option of ordering through a catalog or by viewing samples in a showroom, while Via Trading allows buyers to inspect the actual goods they will be purchasing.  “We’re open to the public 6 days a week, and people are always welcome to come in, speak with a representative and find goods that will work for them. Customers come in with their children who can wait in a waiting room while their parents shop, and buyers are also welcome to take the merchandise away with them the same day to save on shipping.”

This cash-and-carry approach is one of a kind for a warehouse this size on the West Coast, and is one of the major ways Via attracts its customers.

Via Trading doesn’t only cater to walk-in business however. Their website, www.viatrading.com , displays all of their products and offers visitors information about national and international shipping rates, industry resources with hints and tips on reselling merchandise, and news about the company’s upcoming events.

While many wholesalers provide printed catalogs or require a special login to view products and prices online, Via Trading makes this information publicly available to all. “We want our prospective customers to be able to see what’s in stock on any given day, and purchase easily and quickly if they want,” explains Stambouli. In a world where technology is quickly taking over communications, Via Trading is embracing the practicality of a web interface to facilitate interaction with its customers. Via Trading will be launching a Spanish version of their website in the coming months.

 Another way in which Via Trading pioneers the industry and offers a completely different buying experience is through monthly events that they hold in their facility. The company puts up 3 events each month including their Live Auctions, 300 Pallet Discount Day and Raffles.

Each of these days welcomes upwards of 200 people to their warehouse to participate and take advantage of pricing below what are already very competitive prices.

Their monthly Live Auctions feature over 300 wholesale lots put up for bid, with over 200 bidders and no reserve price.  “Pallets go for as low as $1 and customers walk away with great deals,” says Stambouli. “Our 300 Pallet Discount Day is also a great way to get even better deals. We line up 300 pallets outside and customers pick the ones they want at a first-come first-served event. We like to present many opportunities for people to see and get their hands on new merchandise for a great price.”

Once a month, they raffle off a flat screen television and two pallets of free merchandise to 3 lucky winners. Participation in the raffle requires a customer to purchase something during the month preceding the event. 

You may have seen Via Trading’s name before- they are reach out to new prospective buyers using a variety of media including internet search marketing, television, radio and print advertising.  In times of economic recession, even large corporations are forced to carefully choose where their advertising dollars are spent, and analysis of an advertising campaign’s returns is integral to a company’s success.  “We have been with Solomayoreo for almost 8 years and are pleased with the number of new customers the publication brings us each month,” says Stambouli. “Of all the magazine advertising we do, Solo has been one of the best performing within the Hispanic market.”

A family owned and operated business, Via Trading calls itself a customer experience oriented company. Their entrance features vending machines, free coffee, balloons for kids, a reduced mobility scooter, a touch-screen registration kiosk, flyers with information and resources and friendly receptionists. “We care about our customers’ success. If they have a good experience and make money with our products, they’ll come back and we’ll all be successful.”

Prosperidad en medio de la crisis

Via Trading, ubicada en Lynwood, es una bodega en la cual muchos desempleados se surten de mercancía para revender

Rodolfo Martínez y Alicia Sánchez llegan tres o cuatro días días a la semana a la inmensa bodega de Via Trading, en Lynwood. Ha sido así desde hace un año y medio, cuando ambos perdieron sus empleos.

"Si nos gusta lo que hay lo compramos. Buscamos las cosas que sabemos que se venden más rápido: mercancía general y electrónica", explica Rodolfo, un carpintero cuyo empleo en la construcción fue borrado por la recesión. Sánchez se ganaba la vida limpiando casas, pero ahora sólo consigue trabajo dos días a la semana. La necesidad los lanzó al comercio. Compran bultos al por mayor y revenden el producto en uno de los tres swap-meets –mercado de pulgas- de La Puente.

Martínez es el tipo de cliente fiel que está a la base del asombroso crecimiento de Vía Trading, una empresa mayorista de Lynwood que navega viento en popa a pesar de la contracción económica. O diríase, en buena parte gracias a ella, al aportar una alternativa de ingresos para los que quieran probarse en las ventas.

Sus productos provienen de mercancía de liquidación –overstock--, esa que las grandes cadenas no alcanzan a vender por una u otra razón, la devolución de tienda y la que procede de tiendas que se fueron a la quiebra."Hace algunos años nuestros clientes tenían un trabajo regular y venían con nosotros para surtir un negocio de fin de semana, hoy algunos de ellos están aquí día a día. Ese es el cambio que hemos visto", explica Jacques Stambouli, quien inició la compañía en un pequeño local de Westlake de 6,500 pies cuadrados en 2002.

A mediados de 2008, la empresa se trasladó a un local de 240 mil pies cuadrados en Lynwood, pues ya no le bastaban los 65,000 con que operaba en Vernon. Alex Antypas, el jefe de operaciones de la firma, estima que alrededor de mil personas visitan la vasta bodega del negocio cada mes. La mayoría son hispanos, y para atenderlos se abrió un sitio en español: wj20test.com/mayoreo.

En su enorme interior los lotes están ordenados por categoría, dispuestos sobre sendos bastidores de carga –pallets. En ellos se descubren las combinaciones más inusuales. En uno se mira un enfriador de agua, juguetes, ropa. En otros, aparatos electrónicos, herramientas, juguetes, productos de belleza, una miscelánea. La empresa no se hace cargo del funcionamiento de los aparatos o enseres que contiene cada lote, y en cierto sentido cada uno resulta una caja de sorpresas y una apuesta.

El lote mínimo cuesta 45 dólares, y de ahí en adelante no hay límite. Recintemente un comprador se llevó 100 mil prendas de vestir.Guadalupe Rodríguez empezó con 300 dólares poco después que éste perdió su empleo como tallador de baños y cocinas de mármol, y lo negociaron en un swap-meet de Cudahy. Poco después regresó con 600. "Pero eso es todo el dinero que tenemos, le dije a mi esposo. Le sacamos el doble". Hoy está por montar una tienda, y su esposo le dice que ya no volvería al trabajo de tallado. Via Trading está en el 2520 de Industrial Way, Lynwood, CA 90262 y opera de lunes a viernes de 7 am a 7pm, y los sábados de 9 a 5.

Click here to read the article on www.impre.com/laopinion.

Wholesale Auctions

July 2009

In a business world full of buyouts, bailouts and bankruptcies, closeout wholesaler, Via Trading Corp., is a notable exception. According to president, Alain Stambouli, the company (based in Lynwood, CA in Los Angeles) has recorded significant revenue growth over the past six years. In 2006, Via Trading took in $10.25 million, in 2007 $14.25 million, and last year $19 million.

"We were on target last year for $21 million," Stambouli says, "but the last quarter of 2008 was poor for us, as I guess it was for everybody." Nevertheless, he says, business has rebounded nicely this year, with Via Trading on pace for $24 million in revenue and hoping for $26 million. Not bad, to put it mildly. But how does Via Trading keep succeeding while others continue to struggle? It's no secret, Stambouli says. The popularity of the company's monthly onsite auctions of closeout lots, as well as a longstanding commitment to smart customer relations, combine for a formidable one-two punch.

Stambouli, who with his brother (and Via Trading CEO), Jacques, started the company in 2002, says that, as is so often the case, the successful formula was a blend of solid business planning and luck. Stambouli's background was initially in Bulgaria, where his father ran a company operating over 40 retail stores, and a distribution sales force numbering over 200, before moving on with his father's mail order business based in Cyprus. It found him traveling around Eastern Europe (including Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan) and Egypt, helping to oversee a company sending out 1 to 2 million mailings per month of specialized mail order items.

Meanwhile, brother Jacques was studying at Harvard Business School and formulating a plan to launch a company in the closeout industry. He asked Alain to join him in California, where they first opened a retail store, and a few months later, added an online operation. "We were by then learning the salvage goods business," Alain says. "We were taking on some merchandise that needed repair and some that was junk, which we threw away."

Within a few months, the ebusiness and wholesale sales from within the store were doing, "two or three times," what the brick and mortar store was, so the brothers converted the store and opened their first 6,000 sq. ft. wholesale based warehouse, which was supplanted 18 months later by a 24,000 sq. ft. space, which itself was supplanted another 18 months later by a 65,000 sq. ft. repository. Some two years after that, in summer 2008, Via Trading moved into its current, 240,000 sq. ft. facility. By August they'd decided to add in-person auctions at the warehouse. "It was always something we'd wanted to do," Alain recalls. "We had a steep learning curve at the beginning, because we had no background as auctioneers."

The kinks were soon worked out, though, and now Via Trading typically attracts over 225 registered wholesale bidders to its auctions, held the first Thursday of each month. Stambouli notes that each of those registrants usually accounts for 2 to 5 people each, meaning that large screen TVs have been installed so that all the bidders can see what's going on. While most of the prospective buyers are from the southern California area, Stambouli notes that they regularly see out of state bidders coming in as well.

"From a marketing point of view, it's great to have over 200 wholesalers onsite," he notes. "There's several million dollars' worth of merchandise that they can look at and buy. It introduces our company to a range of new potential customers who would not have otherwise thought of visiting us, as well as a wider variety of customer demographics, because there's a different crowd that comes to auctions than the regular wholesalers we work with. And slightly larger companies take advantage of the fact that this is a channel for them to sell what they can't through their own channels, whether it's furniture, clothing, paper goods, or whatever."

Sellers are required to fill out forms that can be picked up onsite or online, explaining what merchandise they're looking to move, its condition (four categories are offered: Customer Returns (Untested); Customer Returns (Tested, Not Working); New/Overstock; and Mixed), and whether they wish to be paid by check or in-house credit, along with various other details. Each consignment must be at least six pallets in size, or at least approximately $10,000 in original retail value. "We don't have the resources to deal with 100 different people/vendors with one or two pallets each," Stambouli remarks.

Via Trading takes a percentage of each sale, depending on how much work, if any, Via Trading needs to do on the merchandise to make it presentable. The fees range from 25 to 50 percent. Photos of the lots being offered go up on the company's website (www.wj20test.com) on the Friday before each auction, while onsite, a dedicated television scrolls through the same photos. Registration begins at 8 a.m. on the day of each auction, and inspections of the merchandise are offered until 11 a.m., when the bidding begins.

The auctions usually last about four hours, Stambouli says, with a break for lunch that's free to registered users. Typically they move around 100 lots per hour, so the action can be fast and furious. Via Trading advertises that they offer over 300 palettes, starting at $1, in many categories. Via Trading has considered adding online auctions to its operations, "but we're happy with what we're doing right now," Stambouli says. "It's feasible for us to have online auctions, but it would require significant development in our IT, or sub-contracting out to a third party."

As for what sells, both in the auctions and directly from Via Trading, Stambouli says that in the salvage/closeout game, "Supply tends to be king. We're in a position of selling what's available. I can't call up a department store and ask for 10 trucks of disposable diapers. That said, what we get the most requests for, and what remain very popular, are high end electronics, game systems, designer handbags, personal care items like deodorants and after-shaves, paper goods, even grocery items do well. But supply for those is usually very limited. What we tend to sell a lot of," he continues, "is tools, clothing, footwear, and general merchandise."

The other major factor in Via Trading's ongoing success, customer service, has been a focal point from day one, Stambouli says. "Selling one time to a customer is a very easy thing," he declares. "But to sell to the same customer the next time, the time after that, month after month, that's where the skill comes into it." As such, Via Trading trains all its staff to take a long term approach to transactions. "It's very difficult to get rich in one day, or one week or one month," he admits. "But we put right in our sales manual, 'Don't try to sell as much as you can the first time.' We want the customer's business, of course, but not just today; for months and years to come." And with salvage and closeout merchandise, he adds, "If customers don't make money themselves down the line, they won't come back here and buy again."

Via Trading currently employs 11 salespeople, of whom three are sales managers. "They all have laptops and BlackBerrys, and we now do quite a bit of business through text messaging," Stambouli notes. In addition, "Customers will always get a human voice at the other end of the phone during business hours. I hate having to go through automated menus myself. We recently added a second receptionist, because we monitor our phone wait times and saw that business was getting to be a bit too much for just one. "Everyone who answers the phone is trained fairly well," he continues, "and can answer most questions, or direct callers to someone who can. All voicemail and email is answered, not within 24 hours, but the same day it's received."

First time customers routinely receive follow up email surveys about their experience, often with an added incentive (for example, a $25 off coupon for their next order) to respond. The company also offers a "live online help," tab on its site, which is usually open during business hours (7 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday). "It's something we definitely believe in," Stambouli says. "It's a very nice benefit to have for some of our customers, and many times can lead to a sales conversion."

Stambouli decries what he sees at too many other websites. "They want you to register just to ask a question, then you have to email back and forth before you can get access or an answer. Ours is a much more normal approach." Add in the facts that no appointments are necessary and that most forms of payment, cash, credit, PayPal, are accepted, and the picture of Via Trading Corp. as a, "customer first," operation becomes complete.

"Look, there's always room for improvement," Stambouli says. "We're human, and we make mistakes. But when we mess up, we admit it, and where necessary we compensate the customer. We also offer for sale typically only what's in our warehouse, and usually can provide a tracking number for orders the same day." The long term approach may take more effort, Stambouli asserts, but it's the most logical, and as Via Trading's numbers indicate, the most successful approach. "Everyone always wants to move beyond the basics and move quickly ahead to the next steps," he says. "But if you don't do A-B-C well, what's the point of even learning X-Y-Z?"

Click here to read the article on www.webwholesalermagazine.com.

Via Trading – Overstocks & Customer Returns

Via Trading is a large volume purchaser of major department store and big box retailers overstocks and customer returned merchandise.

Via Trading has developed relationships over the years that allows them to obtain truckloads of merchandise that they are able to sell for as little as 5% of retail, pricing the product they sell well below wholesale pricing. They receive new product on a daily basis and have a fast turn of inventory so you need to check the site often as well as call them to see what is new. The good thing about buying from them is it allows you to get major brand name products at amazing prices.

Making money off of returned store merchandise can be hard work. However, if you are willing to put in the effort you can make good money. If you have a retail store, swap meet, flea market or sell on line with eBay or even have your or online store this can be a great source of wholesale merchandise. Keep in mind that most of the time, the products you are buying are in pallets and assorted without manifests and that an x% factor of product you will not be able to sell do to damage. You will never get the same mix of product unless you are buying a specific overstock item. This can make it a bit confusing as you will need to spend the time sorting and digging through the product to make sure you maximize your profits.

The website is easy to use and has products broken down by the following categories: Hard Goods, Soft Goods, Fashion, Fashion Accessories, Footwear, Tools, Cosmetics, Perfumes, HBA. They list product by pricing categories and even have an area of the site that shows merchandise that is appropriate for eBay. They also have live online help that can assist you directly from the website.

They welcome you to stop by the warehouse without an appointment and are open 68 hours a week. If you can’t see them at the warehouse or not able to buy online, you can visit them at one of the trade shows they attend. I just saw them at the ASD/AMD show and the booth was packed. That is always a good sign that you have something people can sell.

Click here to read the article on www.wholesalereview.com.

Surplus Success At Via Trading

By Christopher Heine, Jul 1, 2007

Jacques Stambouli was brainstorming one day in the library, while working on his master's thesis. His professor had assigned him to come up with a business plan that pertained to retail or wholesale. In the final grading, like for most papers, there would be an emphasis on innovation and common sense.

"The idea I came up with was dealing with overstock merchandise, using both online and offline tactics," Stambouli explained. "I wrote my paper about a surplus model that leveraged the Internet." The institution he was preparing to earn his post graduate degree from was the Harvard Business School.

Stambouli received his master's in June of 2002, but he was not about to brush off the surplus idea. By October of the same year, he launched Via Trading Corp. with his brother, Alain, who is president of the firm. "When we started out, we were going to both retail and wholesale surplus products," said Jacques Stambouli, CEO of the company in Vernon, CA, an industrial area just outside of Los Angeles. "On the retail side, we soon discovered the challenges of being able to find enough good products to sell. We found a lack of regular, reliable, good wholesale suppliers out there, so we decided to focus exclusively on that area, abandoning retail after two or three months. We gradually built the wholesale business up, establishing relationships with major retailers across the country."

There is no question that the Stamboulis' shift in strategy paid off. They generated $2 million in sales during their first 12 months and certainly did not stop there. During 2006, they reported $10 million in sales, and they are hoping to reach $15 million this year. On the logistics end, Via Trading typically turns over inventory within 30 days, shipping customer orders that can range from a full truckload of merchandise for a discount store, to a single UPS box for a stay at home mom selling handbags on eBay.

"Our growth has been very, very quick," Jacques Stambouli said. "We sell to eBayers, Craigslist resellers, independent eretailers, traditional merchants and flea marketers. I think it is worth mentioning that Craigslist is growing and becoming more present in cities and towns around the U.S. It can actually be extremely profitable from what we have seen. Craigslist is still free of charge for advertising or posting items in a lot of cases."

Masterful Marketing
So from a marketing standpoint, how has the company achieved this incredible growth? Via Trading has done a marvelous job establishing high keyword rankings at Yahoo, MSN, Google, AOL and other search portals.

"We have been a longstanding advertiser with Web Wholesaler Magazine, Cover, and Western Merchandiser," Stambouli explained. "And WholesaleCentral.com has been one of our better vehicles in driving traffic, too. It is a great value for the money invested at the site. We have so much new and repeat business that I know I am doing something right. It also helps that we have great deals on clothing, cosmetics and electronics, among other types of items."

Such targeted marketing strategies have helped the firm build to the point of recently moving into a 65,000 foot warehouse, the third one it has called home in four years. The company has had to keep moving to bigger spaces to accommodate its growth. And originally, there were only three or four company employees, but the staff has grown to 20 strong.

"We are hiring an additional employee every six weeks or so," he said. "We have really expanded our range of products. Whether you are a retail store, a flea marketer or an eBayer, we have the products that suit your needs. That is one of the ways in which we have distinguished ourselves from our competitors."

While the majority of the company's business has come regionally from the West Coast, it has secured some ability to serve other parts of the country. Several East Coast department stores with which Stambouli has established relationships allow Via Trading to drop-ship their inventory directly to eastern based customers if Via picks up the shipping tab.

"We actually have plans to open a warehouse in Florida in the future so we can serve our East Coast customers even more efficiently," he added. "It is more than likely going to happen during 2008."

Top CRM, Live Chat
One of the first ideas that the Stambouli brothers instituted at www.wj20test.com was that the company was going to offer top notch service. They were determined to provide the convenience of online with the warmness of old fashioned customer care. They soon implemented a live chat feature, training their service team how to juggle phone, email and then chat responsibilities.

"It helps when people are browsing online, and they might be hesitant about what to buy or what they need," Jacques Stambouli explained. "They might be in a situation where they do not want to bother picking up the phone, or perhaps they simply cannot call. This gives them another channel to reach out to us and allow us to help them."

Email is another important part of the customer relationship management (CRM) mix at Via Trading. The company intelligently put its, "Join Our Email List," box right in the middle of the homepage design, making it easy for prospects to signup for regular communications. During registration, Stambouli has designed the process so that prospects can sign up for specific categories, such as, "new truckloads," "Canadian specials," and, "goods shipped from within the European Union." Thousands of merchants have been signing up every year to receive early, special notices on the latest Via Trading offers.

There is also information available that lets them know how to contact customer care in case they do not receive the, "Welcome," email. Or, if for some reason they want to discontinue their list membership, there are instructions on how to opt out.

"The email list has grown to more than 23,000," Stambouli said. "We started out with a very basic website. But we are actually in the process of rolling out a whole new website that will support everything we have offered in an increasingly enhanced manner."

Indeed, the relaunched version will offer online ordering, faster navigability, more interactivity and customer login. In terms of the latter, customers will be able to keep track of their transactions in a secure environment. They will be able to easily send pages to friends, as well as forward email campaigns.

The Stamboulis have been working on the redesign for months. In fact, underscoring how seriously they take the small details in running their web based business, they actually scrapped a nearly finalized version in order to start anew. The old adage, "If it is worth doing, it is worth doing right," definitely applies to the executive leadership style at Via Trading. "It will be like a completely different website, compared to the one we have now," Jacques Stambouli explained. "The look and feel will be dramatically improved."

Personal Touch
For now, www.wj20test.com visitors immediately notice the bevy of hotlinked photos that are displayed around the site. The images showcase many angles to what the work environment looks like at the fulfillment center in Vernon. Stambouli added that similar photos will appear at the new site when it debuts.

"We want people to know that we are a legitimate company that owns the product that we sell," he said. "The photos demonstrate that we are not one of those Internet characters from The Wild West we have all heard about. I think this is especially important to make clear in our sector of mixed merchandise."

People who click on the images are taken to a page that states, "Visitors Welcome. Open 67 Hours a Week! No Appointments Needed." This is an invitation to come in and get a first hand glimpse of what is exactly on the pallets. Viewers can also find video links at the website that will take them behind the scenes, with footage shot during featured news segments from various broadcast networks and stations.

"We encourage people to come in, touch and see the products before they buy them," Stambouli explained. "We almost operate like a cash and carry business. We do not just have our southern California customers come in. There are also people who drive from Nevada, Utah, northern California and Mexico. They have grown to trust our offers, but they still like the personal touch our in-house team gives them. We truly like to put faces to names and names to faces. Person to person customer service is an irreplaceable part of our online-offline vision."

Without question, the original vision that inspired his master's thesis has turned out even better than he could have imagined. Since that fateful day in the library, Stambouli has been combining two elements, of which there is never too much surplus: innovation and common sense.

Now that he and his brother are growing the company like crazy, there is little left to contemplate. Well, actually, there is one thing:

What grade did he get on that thesis paper?

"It was one of my better papers, let me put it that way," Stambouli said, being a bit modest at first. "I actually ended up getting my best grade in that class."

Click here to read the article on www.webwholesalermagazine.com.

Via Trading Corporation Ranked Multiple Times on the Inc 100/5000 Series as It Approaches 5-Year Anniversary

VERNON, Calif. -- Via Trading Corporation was ranked on the 2007 Inc 100/5000 list as the 27th fastest growing Consumer Products company, 47th fastest growing private company in the Los Angeles area and 898th overall on the Inc 5000. Founded by Harvard Business School graduate Jacques Stambouli and his brother Alain, Via Trading provides asset recovery and reverse logistics services to multiple retailers and manufacturers nationwide.

"We are pleased to have our growth recognized by being named to the prestigious Inc 100 and Inc. 5000 lists," said Jacques Stambouli, Founder & CEO of Via Trading Corporation. "Our success is the result of the trust placed in us by our supplier partners as well as the hard work of our staff."

Since 2002, Via Trading has been influential in helping retailers and manufacters maximize recovery rates. Their services include the purchase, de-labeling and defacing as well as the pickup and removal of salvage or distressed and damaged merchandise. Via Trading assists all types of retailers including large drugstore chains to discount stores, high-end department stores, specialty chains and catalog companies. Stambouli helps his customers maximize the recovery they can get on unwanted product while at the same time making sure that the product stays well away from their existing sales channels. "We make sure unwanted product will hit the secondary market and not a competitor," said Stambouli who operates Via Trading out of a 65,000 sq. ft. Los Angeles-area walk-in cash and carry warehouse and international website.

Via Trading is a multi-channel and multi-lingual operation adding new suppliers and buyers every week. Their 65,000 sq. ft. Los Angeles-area walk-in warehouse is filled with overstock merchandise sold to secondary markets of eBay powersellers, flea market vendors, dollar store merchants, and independent stores.

Click here to read the article on www.bnet.com

New Life for Unwanted Gifts: It's High Season for Firms That Resell Returned Items

Ylan Q. Mui 2007

The ugly sweater with the tags missing. The book you already have. The digital camcorder you couldn't figure out how to use.

Each holiday season, we relegate our unwanted gifts to the return bins of retailers across the country and never think of them again. But these items have a second life.

Third-party businesses known as liquidators swoop in and rescue truckloads of returned, damaged and unsold merchandise from retailers and resell it to other merchants, who in turn sell it back to consumers. The busy season lies ahead for those companies, which buy up a windfall of post-holiday products ranging from artificial Christmas trees to consumer electronics over the next several months -- not as romantic as the Island of Misfit Toys in the classic TV movie about a certain red-nosed reindeer, but this is real life.

"We help [stores] rapidly convert those excess items into cash sales," said Bill Angrick, chief executive of Liquidity Services, a District company that works with many big-box stores.

The holiday season is the most lucrative time of year for retailers, accounting for 20 percent of annual sales. But not every purchase is a success. A recent survey by the National Retail Federation, a trade group, found that 36 percent of consumers made a return last holiday. The NRF estimated that 7 percent of merchandise sold in stores wound up coming back.

Dealing with returns is a headache for retailers, which would much rather focus on selling goods than on taking them back. Sometimes, an unopened item in pristine condition can simply go back on the shelf. Stores may stick returns with beat-up packages in a discounted section or ship them to their outlet stores. Retailers can even send a small amount of returned merchandise back to its manufacturer or resell it to other stores or on eBay.

But often, retailers just want to shift the headache to someone else. Perhaps the item is defective. Or the instruction manual is missing. Maybe the box is so wrecked that shoppers would turn up their noses. Restocking the merchandise, fixing the packaging or even simply shipping it to a retail distribution center could cost more than the product itself.

"They don't want it to end up back in their stores," said Dan Butler, vice president of merchandising and retail operations at the retail federation. "When they get rid of it, they want to get rid of it."

That's where the liquidators come in. These companies receive unwanted merchandise from stores. They then sell it for a profit to mom-and-pop shops, discount retailers, eBay power sellers and even exporters. Dale Rogers, director of the Center for Logistics Management at the University of Nevada at Reno, said the market for such goods in the United States totaled $223 billion last year.

"Today, because there are so many secondary markets for things, you can drain stuff out of the system and not get hurt as badly," he said.

With Liquidity Services, retailers ship their unwanted merchandise to one of the company's six distribution centers across the country as frequently as once a week. The company then inspects and sorts the goods before holding a private online auction for interested buyers, typically small businesses. Liquidity Services keeps an average of 20 percent of the selling price, and the retailer gets the rest.

The company, which was founded in 1999 and works under loose contracts with retailers, has sold $840 million of merchandise in its online auctions since 2002, Angrick said. The average transaction is $1,100, and only rarely do products not sell, he said.

"There is a buyer for any quantity or condition of merchandise," Angrick said.

The bulk of unwanted holiday products begins to reach liquidators in February, as many retailers give shoppers 30 days or longer to make returns. Angrick said he moves a lot of consumer electronics after Christmas. Recipients often return them because they are too complicated to use, and technology progresses so rapidly that stores frequently end up saddled with out-of-date merchandise.

Jacques Stambouli, chief executive of Via Trading in California, said his liquidation company has already begun receiving Christmas trees and other seasonal products. The amount he must pay for the merchandise ranges from 2 to 20 percent of its value, he said. Holiday decorations are especially cheap.

"Christmas trees sold in January will not get you a lot of money," Stambouli said.

Out of sight does not mean out of mind for many stores, however. Some retailers place stringent restrictions on the products they turn over to liquidators for resale. After all, they don't want them reappearing at a rival down the street for half price.

Stambouli said some retailers request that their products be sent outside the area or even overseas. They also want to ensure that any evidence of the goods' original home is erased to prevent return fraud.

But in a retailer's utopia, there would be no need for liquidators. Stores would have just enough merchandise to meet demand at just the right time. Every product would work perfectly. And every gift would be loved.

"The retailer's goal is to touch the merchandise as little as possible," Butler said. "It's not their goal to have a lot to send back anywhere."

Click here to read the article on www.washingtonpost.com.

Managing Returns, Surplus: A Win-Win-Win Situation

by Jordan K. Speer 2/1/2006

From the middle, Via Trading offers small and large apparel businesses a way to clear out unwanted inventory or stock up on much-needed merchandise. You're a large national apparel chain, ready to bring in your new 2006 summer line. Problem is, returns and other unsold winter merchandise are clogging the warehouse. What do you do?

Enter Via Trading. The Los Angeles-based company buys returns, overstocks, surplus goods, closeouts and liquidation items from major retailers and manufacturers and sells them wholesale at what it describes as very, very good prices to small retailers, discount shops, eBay resellers and other secondary channels, including outlet stores in international markets.

Jacques Stambouli, founder and CEO of Via Trading, says that apparel and footwear comprise approximately 40 percent of its sales, which totaled $7.5 million in 2005, up from $2 million in 2003 and $4 million in 2004.

Returns comprise approximately 75 percent of Via Tradings merchandise, and about 4 percent to 6 percent of all U.S. retail sales, he adds.

Projecting sales of $12 million this year, Stambouli says he attributes the rapid growth of his company to the huge, untapped niche of small and discount retailers that don't have a good, steady, reliable, well-priced source of supply.

Via Tradings 65,000-square-foot warehouse is open to the public, with minimums as small as one case or one pallet, depending on the merchandise, which runs the gamut from Oakley to Def Jam to Tommy Hilfiger.

Usually if [a small retailer] wants to buy something nice and in small quantities because it cant afford to buy 1,000 dozen, its not going to get a good deal, says Stambouli. The only way you can get a good deal is by buying it on the secondary market, and this is a niche that's not well served. For the big guys, Via Trading offers a solution to the problem of unwanted merchandise, by

1. freeing up valuable space in warehouses, distribution centers and stores;
2. paying for the merchandise, albeit pennies on the dollar;
3. and removing the merchandise in a manner and to a location that suits the retailer or manufacturer.

For example, it cuts out the labels of all of the apparel it purchases from Abercrombie & Fitch. Via Trading also arranges all of the logistics to pick up and haul away merchandise.

Its not exactly a profit center for [retailers and manufacturers]. Its more of a loss minimization or cost control, says Stambouli.

Click here to read the article on www.apparelmag.com

eBay Sellers Shop for Closeouts on Via Trading

Lissa McGrath 2006

While some eBay sellers are still thriving on eBay's post-Christmas "get what you really wanted" ad campaign, others are looking forward to the new year's inventory. Many sellers usually rely on wholesale distributors, but at this time of the year, when gift returns are so prevalent, closeout dealers are often the best suppliers.

Via Trading is one such dealer. Company CEO Jacques Stambouli has worked hard for his relationships with both national department stores and local retailers. The result is a one-stop-source for eBay sellers (large and small) looking for closeout merchandise.

As every successful eBay seller knows, you make money in turning inventory. Retail stores would much rather sell returns in truck loads to closeout companies like Via Trading and clear space for the new hot item, than deal with repeated price reductions to shift old stock.

Via Trading has been in business for 3 years and employs 18 people in their 65,000 square-foot warehouse in Vernon, California. They offer mixed pallets in many categories, from clothing and accessories, to electronics, tools, jewelry and watches.

So why would eBay sellers want to pay Via Trading's marked up prices rather than dealing direct? Well, most of us don't have the contacts or the cash flow to buy in the quantities Via Trading does. For a $100 retail item, Via Trading may pay $10 and sell it to you for $20. There is still a huge mark up to be made when listing it on eBay.

As with any purchase from a closeout dealer, it is important to do your research. Items are sold as part of a pallet (without exact manifest), "as is" with no returns, so Caveat Emptor (let the buyer beware!). The website states they welcome buyers to visit their warehouse and choose their pallet from those available (no mix and matching). So if you are in the Los Angeles area, this may be the source you are looking for. (Note: California buyers must provide a reseller's certificate before their first order will be accepted.)

This market is not for everyone though. In their website FAQs, Via Trading is very clear about who should and should not be purchasing department store returns:

"If you are not prepared to test items do not purchase. If you are not prepared to repair items - do not purchase. If you only want to deal with 100% retail ready items do not purchase. If you are not prepared to expect a percentage of items to be out of box, defective, cosmetically blemished etc. do not purchase.

If you are prepared to test, fix, clean, cannibalize, be creative in sales, open new sales channels in order to get the most revenue back when needed - then do purchase."

eBay Silver PowerSeller Holly Dowd (User ID innovationsltd) has been buying from Via Trading for about a year, and 90 percent of her eBay inventory comes from them. "They got me started in this business," she says. About 75 percent of the 2-3 electronics pallets she purchases each month are sold on eBay (admittedly some of these items need minor repairs before she lists them). The other 25 percent gets donated or recycled. When asked about Via Trading's overall service and value, Dowd said, "I never give anyone a rating over an 8, but Via Trading gets a 9." I asked her if she had any comments for other eBay sellers who might want to try Via Trading's services, jokingly she said, "Stay away! They're mine!" I think this is as good a review as you can get from a competitive seller.

Another PowerSeller regular is Barry Riemer (User ID hookedonhandbags). Riemer purchases handbag pallets as often as they become available. Approximately 20 percent of the pallets are sold on eBay (mainly designer bags). The remainder he sells in his brick-and-mortar store. Everything he sells on eBay is purchased from Via Trading, keeping him a Gold PowerSeller with over 4600 feedback (99.8 percent positive). "Via Trading subscribes to "old school" merchandising,...they demonstrate that the small customer such as myself is as important as their biggest customer."

Both Dowd and Riemer purchase in person at the warehouse, however Via Trading will ship pallets for between $90-$200 depending on the pallet, with an extra $45 fee if shipping to a residential location (if they cannot use UPS). This may make some pallets less cost-effective, but it is an option to consider particularly if you plan to purchase multiple quantities, which reduces the per-pallet cost.

According to Stambouli, there are plans to expand Via Trading to include a full-service warehouse on the East coast. At this time, plans are still tentative and no firm dates or locations have been released, other than "sometime next year."

 

Click here to read the article on www.auctionbytes.com.

Take It Back

January 9, 2006

Jacques Stambouli knows about deals, but not the kind that his fellow Harvard Business School alums are accustomed to, with the handshakes and million-dollar transactions.

Stambouli's deals involve shaving a few dollars off merchandise that customers return to retailers and he's doing a lot of them, especially now, in the post-Christmas season when unwanted gifts are returned.

The warehouse of Stambouli's company, Vernon-based Via Trading Corp., is a kind of grocery store of returned goods, where everything from fake Christmas trees to PlayStation parts to poker sets to dishware is crammed into boxes lined up in rows. This conglomeration is then sold to vendors, who in turn market the goods at yard sales, discount stores and both real and virtual flea markets, eBay Inc. being the biggest.

"You are selling to people wholesale who are reselling it, but it is not really established businesses," said Stambouli. "It is more of this big underground economy."

Although underground, this economy is getting larger as more people take a stab at Internet commerce and search for wholesale suppliers. Via Trading is one of a small number of the larger wholesale players in an industry where solo brokers channeling goods from retailers to vendors are the norm.

"There were very, very few established companies that dealt with wholesale. There are no wholesale chains across the country," said Stambouli. He partially attributes this hole to the demise of mom-and-pop stores that, unlike chains, would fill their shelves with goods from wholesalers like Via Trading.

Stambouli estimates that Via Trading will make $13 million this year, up from $7 million in 2005 and $4 million the prior year.

Via Trading gets most of its items from department stores and big-box retailers. These companies off-load customer returns, which make up about 4 percent to 6 percent of all retail sales, when they can't put merchandise back on the shelves.

Via Trading gets the goods at 10 percent to 25 percent of their wholesale cost, depending on the size of the order. And Stambouli expects his customers, who typically buy hundreds of items gathered in boxes at about $200 each box, to be able to double their money and still sell at half regular retail prices.

Barry Riemer sells purses that he buys from Via Trading at Hooked On Handbags at the Valley Indoor Swap Meet and online. He discounts handbags at his 800-square-foot swap meet location at 60 percent to 90 percent off the retail price. A purse he sells for $15 to $50 might go for $50 to $150 at department stores.

It's turned into such a booming business for Riemer that he's phasing out of his job as a vocational teacher. Last year, he sold $60,000 worth of handbags at the swap meet and $100,000 worth on eBay. He doesn't see his sales ebbing because he said others don't sell the high-end bags he has.

"I don't feel the least bit threatened. They are selling junk from China. Nobody can compare with a major department store," said Riemer.

Reliable supply
Even in the underground economy, Stambouli's MBA came in handy. In fact, Via Trading was the result of a business school exercise: he had to conjure up a new retail concept.

"It was going to deal with returns, (but) be a lot more Web-focused. I had done some research, and I had seen a lot of wholesalers trying to do it, but no retailers," he said. "After a month or two of it, I found it was really difficult to find a reliable source of supply."

Stambouli decided he would be that reliable source, and Via Trading was born. As Via Trading has grown, it has used its size to attract more retailers that it buys from and customers it sells to.

On the retail end, Via Trading can swoop in and scoop up large quantities of goods because it houses inventory in its warehouse. That helps retailers avoid the complication of having to deal with scores of smaller operators, most of whom don't have the space to store a lot of merchandise.

Buying large quantities also benefits Via Trading's customers. That's because retailers reduce the price for surplus wholesalers who pick up larger quantities and, therefore, the wholesale price is knocked down.

Among Via Trading's most popular merchandise categories are electronics, tools and clothing. In December, toys were the biggest sellers. In the warehouse, Stambouli groups the goods according to their sources and can track which stores his customers are most interested in buying returned goods from.

Stambouli is coy about releasing information about the stores. As part of his agreement to buy their returns, stores instruct Via Trading and its customers to deface the labels on items. The stores don't want items to get returned again, a problem that Stambouli said he hasn't had to deal with yet.

Calls to Target Corp. and Costco Wholesale Corp. for comment were not returned. Sharon Weber, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., said the company doesn't sell returned goods to surplus dealers. "We either sell them back to the supplier or, in some cases, if it is merchandise that is unused, we will put it back on the shelf," she said. "Other than that, we destroy it."

Some retailers who sell to surplus wholesalers make an extra effort to ensure their products don't make their way back to their stores. One retail chain that Via Trading just started buying goods from doesn't have stores in California and went with Stambouli to make sure that surplus merchandise is sold far away from its locations.

After the Christmas holiday season, the supply of goods spikes and Via Trading can load up its inventory. However, Stambouli said that's not necessarily the best time to do so, because the flood of returned goods drags down the price he can command and, after all, the highest demand for the products is right before Christmas.

For the most part, Stambouli said he can get returned merchandise all year, and both the flow and demand for the products isn't particularly seasonal. In Southern California, where the weather is good, flea markets are held throughout the year, and vendors constantly need to replenish their merchandise.

Higher prices
But selling surplus isn't always easy. There's a wide variation in the quality of customers: some have little knowledge about what it takes to vend returned goods, while others learn that different products work well in different venues.

"You don't quit your day job. It is $200 to start your own business. If it works, it works. If it doesn't, you got $200 worth of merchandise," Stambouli said.

Those for whom it doesn't work skipped the necessary legwork. It takes time to sift through the merchandise, pick out the products that aren't too damaged and can be sold with a higher return, and price accordingly.

Those for whom it does work get a good handle on where to best sell the items. For instance, it is not cost-effective to sell cheaper goods on the Internet, where the shipping costs can equal the price of inexpensive items. But more expensive, branded goods can fetch a premium online.

Riemer has found that averaged priced handbags, like a Nine West purse, are good swap meet items. On eBay, Fendi or Coach bags sell for higher prices than they would at the swap meet, where people who are looking for low-price deals shop.

The discounts on Riemer's handbags aren't what they once were. In the past two years, he said his prices have gone up 20 percent to 25 percent, as he passes on higher wholesale prices to his customers.

At Santa Fe Springs-based wholesale surplus supplier Rhino Mart Inc., owner Drawlon Tsang said his prices have risen because retailers are charging more, sometimes triple or quadruple what they were four or five years ago. Retailers can raise more prices because there are more players in the wholesale market, and they've increased demand for their returns by making the goods available to the same customers Rhino Mart and Via Trading are after: flea market and Internet vendors.

At the same time, Tsang said retailers are more diligently identifying and retaining the quality items, leaving wholesalers with badly damaged goods that they can only sell at slim margins. "It is now riskier to buy. There are problems with every single item," he said.

At Via Trading, Stambouli can rely on his scale to heighten his bargaining power. With stores dependent on his services, he can make price and quality demands. That's one reason why, once he hits $20 million in revenues, Stambouli might merge with other regional players to make a $100 million company with even more leverage.

"I can't see this business ever slowing down. There are billions and billions of dollars worth of merchandise that is resold and reprocessed," he said.

Click here to read the article on www.labusinessjournal.com.

Using Internet Coupons to Grow Online and Off

Sarah E. Neddleman 2006

Whether your business is online, off or both, Internet coupons can be a simple, low-cost way to draw sales from a wide audience, as entrepreneur Jacques Stambouli has learned. The co-founder and president of Via Trading Corp. says that since offering Web coupons, he's been able to track the sales they generate because each has a unique code.

His four-year old venture, which sells surplus goods from about a dozen major retail chains, first measured the benefits in November in 2004. Its storefront was closed for the Thanksgiving holiday for four days, so Mr. Stambouli sent out an email with a coupon for 10% off purchases through the Web site. The company received 75 orders -- all of which used the coupons -- compared to 25 during the same period the year before, when no coupons were offered, Mr. Stambouli says.

Mr. Stambouli says he thinks the coupons clearly helped boost revenue. Annual sales were about $4 million in 2004, up from $2 million the year before, says Mr. Stambouli, who partners with his brother, Alain. Sales reached $6.6 million in 2005, and he anticipates hitting the $11 million mark by the end of 2006. The company also spends about $225,000 a year advertising in print and online.

Mr. Stambouli, 33 years old, says he dreamt up the idea for his company in 2002 for a class at Harvard Business School in Boston where he earned an M.B.A. Its customers are mainly small retail concerns, such as thrift and discount shops. Others include flea-market vendors, online retailers and independent sales pros such as eBay sellers, he says.

Most sales are made over the Web, but the company also benefits from foot traffic at its Los Angeles storefront, which is also its warehouse, says Mr. Stambouli. Shoppers can bring in printed copies of online coupons to get discounts on purchases. The online coupons help in-store sales, he says, though to a lesser extent than they do Internet sales.

Mr. Stambouli says he was inspired to use Internet coupons when business surged after he inserted print coupons in ads he'd taken out in trade magazines. "The success of the offline experience definitely pushed us to transfer that to our online campaigns," he says.

Here are his tips:

Include an expiration date. Coupons -- whether online or off -- should have a deadline to encourage shoppers to take advantage, says Mr. Stambouli. "You're telling people this is something out of the ordinary," he explains. "If there are no time restraints, all you have done is decreased your price."

Insert catchy sales terms. For example, the word "free" helps grab readers' attention, says Mr. Stambouli. Also, include the word "coupon" in the subject line of coupons sent via email to try to signal to customers that they're not ads or spam.

Require a code. By instructing buyers to enter a number or word on their online orders, or show it to sales clerks when shopping in person, Mr. Stambouli says you can keep track of discounted purchases.

Use email. Coupons are most effective in emails because they give the recipient a sense of personal attention, says Mr. Stambouli. But one downside is that you may need to pay for help in distributing them. At first, he says he emailed coupons on his own for free, but the number of subscribers grew so large, his computer began to frequently crash. Today he pays a small technology firm about $1,500 a year to email coupons to more than 18,000 subscribers as many times as needed, he says. They go out on average once a month and generally are tied to a theme, such as a holiday, says Mr. Stambouli.

Post on related Web sites. Mr. Stambouli says he also occasionally includes coupons in the ads he posts on wholesale-industry Web sites, such as Wholesalecentral.com. He continues to insert them in ads in print publications, as well.

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Reseller Sees Many Happy Returns

Tom Van Riper, 2005

As the nation's retailers look ahead to bagging profit in the final weeks of the year, Jacques Stambouli is looking forward to people marching back to the malls with ill-fitting clothes, duplicate DVDs and unfashionable watches.

The 32-year-old wholesaling entrepreneur thrives off of what retailers hate--customer returns. Come January, his business figures will turn brisk. That board game you got for the niece or nephew who, it turns out, already has it? It may well turn up at a Southern California flea market for half of what you paid.

Call it re-gifting on steroids. Stambouli's Vernon, Calif.-based company, Via Trading, which he founded with his brother, Alain, four years ago, is in the business of swooping in and grabbing up big retailer's returns and excess inventory by the truckload, then selling it to discount stores, eBay (nasdaq: EBAY - news - people ) sellers, and proprietors of flea markets, garage sales and yard clearances. By taking the higher-risk strategy of owning the goods and reselling them rather than acting as a fee-based broker, Via Trading is positioned to benefit from high markups on goods such as tools, electronics and clothing. The firm often gets 100% markups on those products, according to Stambouli.

"About 70% of returns are functional," Stambouli said. "A microwave oven with a dent can still heat food."

The company is on course to double sales for the second straight year--to an estimated $8 million this year from $4 million in 2004 and $2 million in 2003--while turning a $400,000 profit. It's part of a $500 million industry that turns unwanted goods into money, according to Jason Prescott, president of TopTenWholesale.com, a company that helps match wholesalers with buyers. Via Trading's competitors include Rhinomart in California and RJ's in Kansas.

That's still just a small fraction of the $600 billion retail industry, though these specialists have driven the return and surplus market to become more fluid and to move more quickly compared with back-of-the-store clearance tables.

"They allow the Federated Department Stores of the world to move excess more quickly," Prescott says.

Studies have shown that an average of 4% to 6% of all retail purchases are returned, costing the industry about $40 billion per year. The demand for fast-paced inventory turnover keeps many stores from undertaking a comprehensive plan to maximize the value of returns, opting instead to get back something while making way for new merchandise. Historically, most has been sent to clearance centers on or off site, with only unopened items in mint condition returned to the shelves.

Enter Stambouli, who offers to take the stuff off the store's hands in bulk. He's forged deals with several large department stores, including. Since some items are unique to certain stores, labels and markings need to be removed to ensure they won't be presented for a return a second time.

Via Trading buys merchandise and stores goods at its own warehouse in Vernon, an industrial area just outside Los Angeles. They typically turn over inventory within 30 days, shipping customer orders that can range from a $50,000 palette of clothing for a discount store to a single UPS (nyse: UPS - news - people ) box for a stay-at-home mom selling watches on eBay or Craigslist.

While the company mostly limits its purchases to the West Coast, near its California-based facility, it has secured some ability to serve other parts of the country. Federated gave Stambouli free rein to access the inventory of its East Coast warehouse, letting him deliver goods directly from there to East Coast customers if he agrees to pick up the shipping tab.

"He's figured a way to turn trash into cash," said retail analyst Britt Beemer of America's Research Group. And they'll do it with almost anything, generally staying away only from food or other perishable goods.

Otherwise, as Stambouli said, "If it's legal and it makes money, we'll sell it."

Stambouli says he got the idea for the venture while getting his M.B.A. at Harvard Business School from 2000 to 2002. While offering plenty of retail-related case studies, the school didn't address what truly interested him, he says.

"They never addressed the issue of reverse logistics, of what happens to obsolete or excess products," said Stambouli, who spent his youth watching his father run an importing business in Bulgaria before heading to the London School of Economics for his undergraduate degree. "I decided I wanted to try a different type of retail business online, though it turned out to be wholesale."

His company, which now employs 18 people, recently moved into a 65,000-square-foot warehouse, ten times the size of its original facility. Mexican immigrants running flea markets in the area routinely roll up their trucks to buy up clothes, furniture, gadgets and other items in bulk.

"A lot of that group just subsists on flea markets," Stambouli said, while indicating that his flea market/yard sale clients account for as big a chunk of his annual sales as discount and dollar stores do.

His future vision includes a desire to tap into venture capital to help grow the business to $25 million in annual sales (he started the company with family money), followed by a merger with a few of his competitors. That could produce a $200 million a year power, ripe for a public offering.

"Put a brand name on it, create a true national wholesale chain," Stambouli mused. "And make the business more respectable and upscale."

Click here to read the article on www.forbes.com.

Behind eBay's Entrepreneurial Buzz

Stacy A. Teicher, August 2003

In the beginning, there were beanie babies. Whole menageries piling up in basements and being put up for auction on eBay.com.

Now, nearly six years after that craze popularized the virtual flea market, eBay-spawned businesses are coming out of the basement - filling warehouses and employing new college grads who otherwise might find themselves pounding the pavement during this summer of the jobless recovery.

Plenty of eBay sales are still orchestrated from people's homes in their spare time. But the past few years have seen full-time eBay businesses proliferate. The San Jose, Calif., company estimates 160,000 Americans make a significant income, or their entire income, by selling everything from collectible porcelain to used scuba gear on the website.

These businesses constantly evolve to keep pace with the shifting bargain-hunters' market. And much of eBay's development has come in response to their needs, says eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove.

For instance, new lingo and services have been added to accommodate full-time sellers. Peddle at least $1,000 worth of merchandise a month for three months straight while receiving customer feedback that's 98 percent positive, and you earn the label "PowerSeller." Of the 33 million active eBay users, 65,000 have earned this designation.

Last year, the website also set up an area where people unfamiliar with online auctions can find local "trading assistants" to sell items online for them for a commission. The list of 25,000 is gaining about 30 new people a day, Mr. Pursglove says.

And at eBay's recent national gathering in Florida, the Small Business Administration gave a two-hour seminar about taxes and legal issues related to making a living off the auction site. It's the kind of education that's needed as more people find a onetime clean-out-the-attic project morphing into a full-fledged business.

"It's so easy to start an eBay business that a lot of people go in ill-prepared," says David Steiner of Natick, Mass., who publishes an online-auction newsletter for people who need tips about the process.

To be an eBay seller, he says, you have to be a researcher, photographer, master packer, customer-service rep, and computer technician. "The tradeoff is that many of these people have a real entrepreneurial spirit and they love the autonomy. They'd rather do the extra work to be able to do it when they want - like at 3:00 in the morning in their pajamas."

Young auctioneers

Now, rather than falling into eBay as a second career, some people are planning it as their first.

Take the scruffy-faced young men who run Yoozed.com, a business that's 95 percent eBay sales. Matt Solar and Artie D'Onofrio reign over a second-floor office in Boston with a décor that's part dorm room, part dotcom.

The small room where items are photographed is draped with a bright green cloth, a background that's easy to edit out once the photos are on the computer. Shelves are stacked with clothes ready for shipping once they're sold. In the main area, where customer-service staff sit at computers to answer e-mail from eBay bidders, the walls are adorned with nerf guns and posters for movies like "The Matrix: Reloaded."

The two met at Babson College, a suburban Boston school with a business focus. Mr. D'Onofrio had gotten into eBay during its early days, selling, yes, beanie babies, for extra cash. Then, looking for a more plentiful product, he started scouring flea markets and auctioning off used clothes.

He and Mr. Solar became business partners in their senior year. They took the used-items idea, applied some creative spelling, and launched Yoozed.com last fall - a few months after graduation. Each put in about $1,500 to start it up.

Half of the sales fall under the trading-assistant label - items from people who don't have the time or knowledge to navigate the auction system themselves. One person wanted to sell three bleacher seats from the dismantled Boston Garden sports arena. Another brought in a collection of 800 Bibles. Commissions vary, but average around 20 percent.

The other half they find themselves. Sales staff venture onto local campuses, buying used clothing from students.

They also go to estate sales. And one employee finds surplus electronics and oversees its shipment from a warehouse in Philadelphia.

The business has grown so fast in the past 9 months that the company has hired nearly a dozen people - mostly 20-somethings who are comfortable with co-workers walking barefoot around the office.

Yoozed has a competitive edge because of its size, D'Onofrio says. "The setup we have is rare. We can take on anything, but people [selling] in their [own] house can only do so much."

Other than wishing that eBay offered more support to businesses like theirs, D'Onofrio and Solar don't have much to complain about. Their average profits match those of a regular retail store, Solar says, but at times they have fetched a few hundred dollars for items on eBay that they bought for just a few bucks.

There's also money to be made by getting the right connections in the world of retail surplus.

"About a third of our business goes to entrepreneurs who use eBay as a resell channel," says Bill Angrick, CEO of Liquidation.com in Washington, D.C., a company with 2 million square feet of warehouse space.

With 3 to 4 percent of retail goods becoming surplus, it's a $100 billion market - a fragmented market full of inefficiencies, he says. "It doesn't take long for the people with the MBAs ... or long, successful track records to figure out that where there's inefficiency, there's margin, and where there's margin there's the birth of new business."

'Where the supplier is king'

One of those businesses is Via Trading in Los Angeles, run by Jacques Stambouli. After earning his MBA from Harvard a year ago, Mr. Stambouli decided to channel excess goods to customers through both eBay and a bricks-and-mortar store. But after a few months he abandoned the store and switched to online sales alone. Now he employs five people and moves a truckload of electronics, clothes, and other surplus items every day or two.

His motive for skipping a more traditional business career, he says, was "a desire to be an entrepreneur, and not to be employee No. 2,627 out of 6,418. It's fun ... and the potential [for profit] is bigger than most people realize."

Stambouli found goods through Liquidation.com and also developed direct contacts with department stores. His company examines and tests products before posting them on eBay.

Recently, he's shifted into helping other eBay PowerSellers find merchandise to sell. The key to keeping an eBay business going is finding the right sources of supply, he says. "You have to find random and weird sources that specialize in [certain] products... It reminds me a lot of communist times, where the supplier is king."

One of the most common mistakes for new eBay businesspeople is that "they don't pay attention to the need to purchase as well as sell," says Greg Holden, author of "How to Do Everything with Your eBay Business."

At the same time, it's important not to have too much inventory, because once an item starts selling well on eBay, the site is likely to be flooded by copycats who bring the value down.

"If you're not smart about it, you're gonna lose a lot of money," says Gretchen Franz of Scappoose, Ore.

Ms. Franz sells clothes both through online auctions and through an eBay store, a linked page on the site where she can sell items at fixed prices. "You have to keep the prices low because you're dealing with a garage-sale mentality."

She buys up to $25,000 worth of goods at a time. Recently, she took a chance on magnetic shoe insoles, designed to have a massaging effect on the foot. "I haven't sold a one. They're gonna be a freebie giveaway come Christmas time."

Big retailers in on the action

As bigger businesses, including traditional retail stores, such as Sears, start putting more items up on eBay, Mr. Holden wonders if the person-to-person culture that has attracted so many to eBay might start to fade.

But eBay's original strengths are still evident to Franz. What she most appreciates about eBay is that everyone's on a level playing field. Excellent customer service is what keeps her business going, she says. It fits the original at-home model, with the basement serving as warehouse and her husband making the post-office runs.

For her, competitors on eBay are also an essential community network, because illness confines her to the house much of the time.

"This is my window of being able to be civil and social," she says. "It is an opportunity that five or 10 years ago I would not have had."

Read the article on www.csmonitor.com.