Selling used products also involves logistics (and it’s not always pleasant)

Online trade in second-hand goods is currently experiencing a renaissance growing popularity. As we noted in our last article research published in the journal Logistics and managementusers consider these collaborative platforms to be particularly “state-of-the-art”, “virtuous”, “competent” and “plain” tools for shopping and selling on the Internet.

These platforms are also considered “optimal” and “quick” for finding a specific product at the best price. This is the main reason why users apply them. By comparison, the older mechanisms of peer-to-peer trading seem antiquated: classified ads are almost non-existent, while flea markets, second-hand stores, garage sales, and house sales are considered “affable,” “affable,” and “distracting.” They have real advantages (walking, meetings, etc.), but they are not very crucial for linking supply and demand in Merchant logic.

Buying and selling is a pleasure

In other words, the apply of online platforms is seen as a way of buying and selling between individuals who have no counterpart or competitor: they facilitate buying at the lowest possible price or selling to maximize profit. This strongly puts into perspective motivations that would be based on altruism or interpersonal bonds. These remain secondary among the users of the three different platforms we interviewed in dozens of semi-structured interviews.

Read more: Bonnes Feuilles: “The Recent Youth of the Second-Hand Market”

We have observed that respondents generally perceive the commercial activity (purchase or sale) as a fun moment. In the case of purchase, the product research phase is perceived as a fun and non-restrictive stroll through the Internet, which allows you to “find out things you didn’t know about,” “discover unexpected products,” or even “realize the value of what we have in our cupboards.”

Game-related phrases (“we’re having fun,” “it kills time”) are very common, as are metaphors referring to department store windows or mail-order catalogs. The fear of “missing out” also remains common when they are no longer up-to-date: respondents say they see products posted online and can browse them for hours. However, this constant vigilance is never associated with stress or anxiety.

As for individual sellers, placing available products on the Internet, which might seem tedious (you have to photograph references, write instructions, take measurements, etc.), is done with zeal. Particular attention is paid to this “showcase” that presents products or clothes, sometimes using the consummate art of staging.

However, the logistics of selling used products remain more cumbersome than some people think. First, you need to stock up on the products for sale. It is crucial to realize that some people have several hundred (!) ads on the Internet and, consequently, just as many bulky, heterogeneous objects at home. Then, both in the case of purchase and sale, the terms of exchange of the product are determined jointly by the two parties involved: delivery to the hand, home delivery or delivery to a collection point managed by a professional.

The respondents are largely aware of the need to avoid damage to the packaging and/or the product during transport; they are usually also buyers and have all experienced the inconvenience of a damaged package. Therefore, great attention is paid to the packaging of the product or the preparation of the packaging. The key word here is reuse. In most cases, products are packed in bags (personal delivery) or packages from previous purchases. The elements protecting the product are also recovered (plastic protective film covered with air bubbles, kraft paper, cushioning particles). In addition, sellers apply everyday items: leaflets, newspapers, egg cartons, rolls of household paper, etc.

“It’s everywhere, it’s overflowing”

If the act of buying or selling is perceived as pleasant and virtuous, performing these logistical activities is perceived as laborious self-production, a repulsive and burdensome duty. In tiny, work. This is the only activity so poorly appreciated by the respondents, although selling used goods on the Internet is a desirable activity for everyone, undertaken on a voluntary basis and without the need associated with a social or financial necessity.

Stocking products for sale is clearly experienced as a limitation: “it’s everywhere, it’s overflowing”; “it prevents me from receiving”; “with these boxes I feel like I’m constantly moving”; “Sometimes I feel like throwing all these clothes away!” » In addition to using up space, respondents believe that their inventory generates stress.

The choice of delivery method leads to prudent confrontations, masked by the very civilized (even falsely toasty) nature of online exchanges. Respondents in electronic conversations are polite, understanding and nice, sometimes sharing jokes or compliments, but at home they make raucous comments and raucous protests against their interlocutors. In general, in the case of sales, manual delivery to the door is preferred, because it eliminates both the stages of preparing the package and shipping. When making a purchase, it is the other way around: we count on shipping, offered by the seller, if possible.

The package is made carefully because we do not want a bad review or dispute ex post. However, the care put into this stage is considered a “punishment”, a “burden”. This work is considered so burdensome that amateur sellers sometimes give up potential earnings because they cannot ship their clothes: “everything went well online, but then there was just the thought of packaging, sticking tape and so on, pffff, let me go.”

Unproductive logistics

This individual logistics also turns out to be exorbitant, not very socially responsible and not very competent. Costly above all because the individual shipment of used products of very little value generates transport and handling costs proportionally higher than the logistics of up-to-date products, delivered in quantities. In addition, people underestimate the costs and never value the time spent on this informal work or the costs of travel to the points of dispatch or delivery.

Peer-to-peer logistics are also not very socially responsible. Participants seem indifferent or unaware of the social aspects, environmental or the ethics of treating physical flows, thus opposing the position allegedly referring to the second-hand trade and the socio-environmental virtues attributed to it. In the case of all the logistics operations observed, none of the respondents mentioned or demonstrated practices that respected the ecological dimension or were socially responsible. If the reuse of packaging materials could be described as “green”, it had a clearly ironic connotation.

Finally, these logistics seem ineffective: packaging is poorly or not at all suitable, non-standard packaging makes handling arduous, cumulative transportation times are long, failures are repeated (buyer not attending the meeting, product not arriving or not as advertised, confusion with another customer order, etc.).

If conventional trade were to be affected so much, this lower quality would be particularly badly assessed and would provoke outrageous protests. The leniency of individuals towards their peers is due in particular to the fact that they generally do not see these logistical failures, while identifying the advantages… which they tend to overestimate!