Unilever Goals Excessive on Sustainability—and We’re Serving to
In the event you’re studying this, odds are you’ve used lots of Unilever’s merchandise over your lifetime. In actual fact, you’ve in all probability acquired not less than a number of of them dwelling in your toilet, pantry, or fridge at this very second. Based in 1929 by way of the merger of a British cleaning soap maker and a Dutch margarine firm, this London-based multinational company has stayed true to its roots producing principally private care merchandise and packaged meals—and as of 2024, it’s grown right into a $116 billion enterprise that sells its manufacturers in practically each nation on Earth.
With two to 3 billion folks utilizing these merchandise every single day, Unilever’s market penetration and profitability are past query. However such monumental and constant manufacturing may be one thing of a double-edged sword—there are, after all, social & environmental impacts to operating an operation of such scale. That is why Unilever has dedicated itself to one of the formidable company ERG initiatives the enterprise world has ever seen. Certainly, if any group is able to “make sustainable dwelling commonplace”—their self-stated objective—it’s Unilever.
Whereas this can be a large effort involving an intensive multi-pronged technique that relies on numerous leaders, staff, companions, providers, and instruments, this piece will focus particularly on the issue of client items waste and the way Unilever is tackling this drawback with B-Inventory as a key associate.
Extra Stock: A Common Problem
The pillars of the Unilever Compass, what they’re now calling this sweeping initiative, embrace performing towards local weather change, defending and regenerating nature, and constructing a waste-free world. Inside that third pillar, there are two alternatives to scale back waste: (1) stopping the technology of waste and (2) making certain the outflow of all extra stock.
Regardless of high-efficiency manufacturing and top-notch demand forecasting, Unilever acknowledged an unlucky actuality: some portion of products produced will at all times go unsold. After analyzing each the environmental affect and enterprise implications of those unsold items, Unilever understood that novel and efficient channels for reselling this stock could be essential to the general effort.
The place Legacy Processes Fall Brief
Traditionally, when Unilver wanted to maneuver out extra items, it could attain out to provoke negotiations with its many separate stock discount channels—a set of liquidators, wholesalers, and brokers that commerce in unsold items. Whereas such providers could have labored properly sufficient up to now, fashionable global-minded enterprises must be searching for extra subtle alternate options, particularly given the handful of vital shortcomings of conventional approaches.
Firstly, these old style liquidation companions could provide simply pennies on the greenback for unsold merchandise with little room for negotiation. And as soon as these surplus items are offered off to such patrons, they will change palms many occasions earlier than reaching customers, and every time the brand new proprietor takes their reduce of the objects’ worth—worth that ought to ideally be working for the unique model or retailer.
It’s additionally powerful for manufacturers and retailers to foretell the place their surplus will wind up when promoting to those conventional companions, so if model repute is in any respect a priority, an organization could be higher off promoting the excess on to a vetted and certified enterprise purchaser who will cross them instantly on to finish customers.
Lastly and most significantly come the issues of scale and effectivity. Whereas there’s definitely no scarcity of liquidators and brokers ready to tackle slow-moving stock, manufacturers must be cautious of participating with too lots of them. Whereas it sounds counterintuitive, the extra resale channels a enterprise makes use of, the extra time and assets it should spend to handle these relationships by way of disparate strategies together with cellphone calls, emails, shared spreadsheets, and so on. And protecting your liquidation companions right down to a choose few comes with a draw back too: utilizing fewer channels—whereas a lighter carry by way of man-hours—signifies that the entire recommerce technique hinges on only a few factors of failure. If, for no matter cause, a trusted associate strikes, closes its doorways, or just can’t purchase as anticipated, then a model or retailer may be left scrambling to maneuver out extra stock as warehouses clog up.
Now that the business-oriented issues are laid out clearly, how precisely does sustainability consider?
The pessimists of the world may take into account monetary success and sustainability to be at odds with one another, if not completely mutually unique. Whereas that is an unimaginative perspective (and an unfaithful one, as we’ll see shortly), a member of this crowd may pose an fascinating query: If the frequent, conventional recommerce strategies are so inefficient, why hassle in any respect? With no scalable, easy-to-use methodology for clearing out unsold stock, leaders are disinclined to make a bonafide effort to enhance sustainability, opting as an alternative to landfill or incinerate their slow-moving items. But when there existed a confirmed answer that would assist manufacturers and retailers obtain each targets, the cynics may change their tune.
Thankfully, Unilever discovered one such answer—one which addressed all the problems above, proving itself to be a superior choice for each enterprise and sustainability.
The Advantages of B-Inventory for Enterprise and Past
In late 2019, Unilever reached out to B-Inventory Options, the world’s largest B2B recommerce market for returned and extra items. B-Inventory has spent practically 20 years connecting the world’s main manufacturers and retailers on to a worldwide community of trusted enterprise patrons who compete to buy high-quality unsold stock that they depend on to inventory the cabinets of their very own client items companies. Unilever rapidly got here to grasp the large worth of this strategy and determined to associate with B-Inventory. As a substitute of soliciting and evaluating many affords by way of a number of rounds of phonecalls and emails, this on-line market centralizes recommerce efforts beneath a managed subscription mannequin—and it made all of the distinction.
One chief at Unilever broke down the partnership’s strengths into 5 key areas:
- Value of Items (CoG) Restoration
B-Inventory’s list-and-bid gross sales mannequin forces many potential patrons to compete amongst themselves, naturally extracting the very best willingness to pay. Whereas tax writeoffs and donations had been bringing in 0-20% CoG restoration, Unilever discovered that B-Inventory was securing them 55-200% CoG restoration—an plain enchancment. - Comfort & Effectivity
For each public sale that the corporate holds on the B-Inventory platform, both the client or a third-party shipper picks up the lot from a Unilever warehouse and brings it to its vacation spot. This has eradicated the necessity for Unilever to move the surplus items itself. Reducing out this step saved each time and demanding logistics assets that would then be put towards shifting round newer, extra worthwhile objects. - Attain & Demand
As a substitute of counting on a number of acquainted liquidation companions, B-Inventory’s purchaser community introduced in a whole bunch of recent, related, and certified—however beforehand unknown—patrons. Additional, B-Inventory expanded Unilever’s purchaser base to incorporate operations with restricted or inconsistent shopping for energy. Underneath the standard liquidation mannequin, managing relationships with such patrons wouldn’t be value Unilever’s time, however on the B-Inventory platform, it’s as straightforward to promote to a thousand patrons as it’s to promote to 1. - Pace at Scale
Holding multi-user auctions on a single centralized platform enabled faster, extra environment friendly outflow of products. Between excessive purchaser demand and help from B-Inventory’s recommerce specialists, the answer additionally scales up simply. In a single week, Unilever has offered over 35,000 client models by way of 8 separate auctions, leading to a turnover of over €8,000, though B-Inventory may simply improve or lower resale cadence as wanted. - Sustainability
Promoting extra stock to enterprise patrons helps these items discover new life within the palms of customers moderately than merely taking on area in a warehouse—or worse—piling up in landfills, leaching into waterways, or poisoning the air as incinerator fumes. From an environmental perspective, rehoming these items is a vastly preferable final result.
B-Inventory Drives Constructive Outcomes
Whereas Unilever overtly acknowledges that B-Inventory was a pure match for its issues and priorities, B-Inventory nonetheless maintains extremely granular efficiency information to permit for steady evaluation and data-backed program optimization over years of partnership. Generally, we prefer to let these numbers communicate for themselves.
From the launch of this system in 2019 by way of 2024, B-Inventory has expanded Unilever’s base of enterprise patrons from only a small handful of liquidators to practically 1,000 distinctive bidders and greater than 230 distinctive patrons throughout over 30 nations in Europe and North America. Furthermore, about 4 out of 5 of these auctions had been received by loyal repeat prospects. However whereas these numbers bode properly for enterprise, it’s the sustainability affect of this partnership that’s actually spectacular.
Over the past 5 years, B-Inventory has hosted over 3,000 auctions for Unilever, with the overall variety of particular person models offered topping 10 million, lots of which might have been destined to finish their lives unused and destroyed or buried in a landfill. If these quantities are powerful to conceptualize, take into account the overall weight of products offered: about 20 million kilos. For reference, that’s roughly the load of Paris’ 984-foot wrought iron Eiffel Tower.
Is Demand for Surplus Right here to Keep?
Whereas Unilever’s outcomes definitely make a powerful case for partnering with B-Inventory, manufacturers and retailers from throughout our community are benefiting from each record-high demand for sustainable enterprise practices and curiosity within the round economic system.
An in-house survey revealed that 75% of B-Inventory’s patrons take into account sustainability to be crucial or extraordinarily essential to them, indicating that initiatives like Unilever’s do matter. Additional, 65% of patrons surveyed responded that buying sustainably is both crucial or extraordinarily essential to their very own prospects. Lastly, over 90 % of B-Inventory patrons discover it essential to work with firms that worth sustainability in enterprise practices.
Whereas enterprise patrons monitor numerous metrics and work across the clock to run their very own shops, it’s clear that they do have sustainability on their minds after they’re
sourcing and buying stock. And these numbers signify only one consumer. For good measure, take into account that throughout the whole B-Inventory market, we’ve facilitated the sale of 144 million models over our existence—that’s over 488 million kilos of client items given a second probability at life within the palms of customers world wide.
The truth that forward-thinking firms resembling B-Inventory are enabling sustainable practices with out sacrificing optimistic enterprise outcomes factors to a vivid future for each our personal community of patrons and sellers and for the worldwide round economic system.
A Partnership You Can’t Afford to Go Up
As customers and company leaders across the globe get up to the fact that our purchasing and promoting habits actually do matter, extra companies will observe within the footsteps of Unilever and start laying out lofty plans for a extra sustainable future. A part of this development is the inevitable realization that revenue and accountable practices should not mutually unique, as B-Inventory demonstrates every single day.
The worldwide secondary marketplace for client items is hungry and thriving, so why not take full benefit? By unmatched purchaser demand, deep information insights, and a suite of sensible instruments and providers, we’ll assist your group maximize restoration on surplus merchandise—no matter class, situation, or amount—all whereas reaching new heights of operational effectivity. And since there’s not a necessity to decide on between boosting your backside line and preserving the planet for future generations, B-Inventory is one answer you undoubtedly can’t afford to sleep on.
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