How Do I Sell On Overstock?

Founded in 1999 Overstock.com initially sold exclusively surplus and returned merchandise over e-commerce marketplace, providing liquidation to the inventories of nearly 15 failed and unsuccessful companies, by retailing their product below-wholesale prices. With time it expanded and started to sell new merchandise.

Some quick facts about Overstock –

• In first three months Overstock had 1.8 Million $ in sales.
• Presently it has over 30 million visitors per month
• Revenue in 2014 was 1.5 Billion $
• It also has worldstock (market for handicrafts), Shop Main Street (For small US based entrepreneur), Adopt a pet (Connecting pet shelters across the country), Shop farmer Market (For freshly out of farm items).
• Overstock also accepts payment in form of bitcoins.
• Has its products in more than 46 Million homes.

Overstock primarily deals in bedding, home décor, and furniture. Though there are lot many other categories that sell on Overstock, such as –

• Jewelry and Watches
• Electronics and Media
• Health and Beauty
• Apparel
• Sports, Hobbies and Toys
• And more.

Products you can’t sell on Overstock –

• Adult Only Category
• Alcohol
• Animals & Wildlife products
• Artifacts
• Drugs & Drug Paraphernalia
• Explosives
• Government related documents
• Hoverboards, electronic jammers, pirated hardware, etc.
• Hazardous & Regulated Materials
• Currency Selling/Exchange
• Weapons & Firearms
• Tobacco

To start selling on overstock you will have to fill a form on Overstock Partners Page. It contains three sections –

• Organization Information – This includes all your information as an organization. How big a organization you are, and what kind of seller you are. What experiences you had with other ecommerce platforms. It also contains your basic information like contact details, and your preferred mode of communication.
• Product Information – It collects all information about the products you are going to list and sell on the site. You can upload the product images along with other information about the product. It also enables you to choose their category and takes input of the shipping time (Time taken by you to dispatch the order when once placed)
• Comments – Here you can drop any additional information about the products you plan to sell on site, or any important info you would like overstock to take notice of. You also get to input any trade shows or exhibitions you will attending in recent future with details about the event.

Once you submit all the information, it usually takes 2 to 3 business days to get is approved if so, and you get intimated through your preferred mode of communication. The process involves overstock taking a closer look at your information of organization and products you plan to sell. They have to match the minimum standards overstock had set.

Once you are approved, you create your seller account.

For selling the products on Overstock, there are two methods :

1. You can upload your products on Overstock panel through CSV
2.  or, You can upload the products through Overstock API integration.

CSV uploading will enable you to upload and update price, inventory, and other details on overstock panel only. That too it is a very manual process. But if you also have a ecommerce store it is not feasible to through CSV, as you won’t be able to sync real time between your store and overstock. There will be a lag of inventories, and control over orders, returns and other things.