Building for the Long Haul: What 2025 Taught Us — and What Comes Next
2025 was a big year for our retail community.
Over 1,300 new independent retailers joined Max Retail, bringing us to more than 3,000 partners.
Inventory listed on the platform grew over 200%.
Categories like apparel, footwear, handbags, eyewear, and jewelry saw major increases in sell-through.
With that growth came more operational complexity—but it wasn’t a surprise. We invested early in new products, features, and insights designed to support you as your business scales.
It was a great year.
And we learned a lot.
What We’ve Learned
One of the clearest takeaways: Max Retail works best when it’s part of your ongoing markdown strategy—not a once-in-a-while rescue plan.
Here’s what the data showed us:
✔Sellers who list weekly see 4× higher daily sales and payouts than those who list monthly
✔Sellers with two trained points of contact consistently earn higher ratings and significantly higher payouts
✔70% of sales happen within the first 90 days of an item being listed
✔Price drops of 20%+ increase sell-through on aged listings by 50–100%
Max Retail is most effective when it’s integrated into your day-to-day operations.
Max Retail Is Not a Marketplace — It’s a Distribution System
Max Retail isn’t a single marketplace. It’s a distribution system built to work on your behalf.
Over the years, we’ve tested more than 30 sales channels. Each one requires a significant upfront investment from our team—partnership negotiations, technical integrations, channel-specific listing requirements, and time spent learning how inventory actually performs once it’s live.
Our job is to absorb that complexity so you don’t have to.
And candidly? Not every channel is a winner.
We shut down channels that don’t deliver meaningful sales or an experience we’re proud to stand behind. That’s intentional. At the same time, we’re always building toward the next opportunity that can responsibly increase exposure and sell-through for your inventory.
From last year’s work, two channels are especially worth highlighting.
ThredUp
This partnership took years to establish.
Early on, ThredUp believed resale should focus exclusively on already-worn goods. When we showed them how much brand-new inventory sits untouched in stores—often for entire seasons—it changed the conversation.
Through Max Retail, you access ThredUp in a way that works far better for retailers.
What this means for you:
✔No sending off inventory — your product stays in-store and available for walk-in customers
✔Higher payouts — you avoid ThredUp’s traditional consignment commissions and aggressive markdown cadence
✔Faster payment — you’re paid as soon as you ship, not at month-end
In 2025, we launched accessories, handbags, footwear, and select swim, with additional category expansion planned for 2026.
Snagged & Bagged (Our Owned Channel)
Snagged & Bagged exists for a very specific reason.
Even strong third-party marketplaces don’t sell everything. And in the second half of 2024, something more concerning happened: 10 channel partners shut down due to acquisitions, funding challenges, or cross-border issues—completely outside our control.
Each time a channel closed, sellers lost an outlet overnight.
That didn’t sit right with me.
Snagged & Bagged was launched out of necessity. It’s a significant operational and financial commitment from our team and investors—but today, it benefits a large portion of our sellers and has had an outsized impact on inventory that previously wasn’t moving.
Because we own the channel, we can:
✔Put paid advertising behind harder-to-move inventory
✔Feature products through email and on-site merchandising
✔Actively create demand, instead of waiting for it
All of this happens without additional setup, cost, or operational lift for you.
Why Listing Enhancements Matter
The biggest operational investment we make today is in listing creation and enhancement.
Product details—like composition, wash care, fit, inseam, and rise—are what turn online browsing into sales. In most cases, this information isn’t readily available, and it’s not worth your time to add for past-season inventory.
That’s why we built a dedicated Ingestion Team to do this work on your behalf.
In 2024, it took our team about six minutes to create one fully enhanced listing ready for upload. Listing 100 styles meant roughly 600 minutes of work before a single unit sold. We only earn our 15% commission when something actually sells.
In 2025, we invested heavily in AI to reduce “time to list.” Today, 65 of 120 attributes across categories can be generated automatically from images and minimal data—cutting listing time to about three minutes.
Lowering listing costs is how we keep listing creation free for you, while continuing to invest in the people and technology required to do it well.
How You Can Help
A few small actions make a big difference:
✔Check your inbox bi-weekly for our Matchmaker emails highlighting fast-selling brands and categories
✔Keep inventory accurate and up to date so orders are approved quickly (that’s how we all win)
Why This Matters to Me Personally
I’m a retailer like you.
I understand the reality of running a store today—the constant tradeoffs and competing priorities. Max Retail is built to quietly take work off your plate, so you can focus on selling full-price, new merchandise to your in-store clientele while increasing turnover on inventory that’s not performing.
The Leadership Team Behind the Platform
As Max Retail has grown, so has the need for deep experience. I’m still just a retailer on a mission—but I’m fortunate to be joined by an incredible leadership team dedicated to your success:
The Truth
Max Retail is just getting started.
We’re not profitable yet.
We’re still building.
But we’re building with discipline—for retailers who want a long-term, low-lift way to move unsold inventory.
If you’re here, it’s because you’re building for the long haul too.
From,
Mel (Co-Founder & CEO of Max Retail)
