When brick-and-mortar retailers find themselves in possession of surplus inventory that's been taking up shelf space for months, they only have a few options for dealing with it. After trying to sell the items on clearance or return them to vendors, they'll probably resort to donating the remaining inventory and claiming a tax write-off that will only partially recoup their losses.

BoxFox aims to fix this problem through a unique online marketplace that connects retailers with bulk buyers of surplus stock. When retailers list their items using the Web or iOS app, prospective buyers place bids and the seller has the option of accepting or rejecting the highest bid. If a sale is agreed to, BoxFox handles payment transfer and shipment of goods, collecting a 5% transaction fee from each party.

A Smarter Way to List and Sell Surplus Inventory

Despite the modern rise in streamlined, Cloud-based business software, many retailers still rely on offline solutions or tedious, error-prone online tools to buy and sell surplus inventory. BoxFox stands apart in a few key ways. The marketplace is for new, brand name inventory only that just didn't sell in the retail store. No refurbished or returned products for buyers to have to navigate around. The platform allows sellers to easily list items from a manifest through a Web interface, or the additional iOS app allows retailers to add products to a lot simply by scanning the barcodes with their smartphone. This method speeds up the listing process and also helps reduce human error in the form of incorrect entries.

BoxFox also includes a unique appraisal algorithm as part of its software. If an item is among the 80 million products listed in the platform's internal catalog, the algorithm uses Big Data analytics to automatically calculates its fair market value when it is added to a lot. This feature positions BoxFox as a "Kelley Blue Book of retail," facilitating better transactions through access to fair market information.

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