 |
|
|
|||||
Americans are likely to have spent a record $1 trillion-plus this holiday shopping season alone, and about $5.5 trillion in retail sales in all of 2025, according to estimates by the National Retail Federation. That includes many unhappy returns for retailers: And when it comes back to them, a lot of the $850 billion in returned merchandise is often cheaper to discard than to inspect, sort, and reselladding millions of tons to landfills every year. “This is a massive ecological problem, as well as a financial problem for these companies,” says Ryan Ryker, CEO of rScan. Based in South Bend, Indiana, the startup has developed software and logistics services to help transfer these products from the beleaguered original sellers to resellers more eager to do the work of making money on a returned product. “Theres a lot of people who are looking to make side cash,” says cofounder and chief logistics officer Julian Marquez about their small-business clients. But it’s not easy. Instead of getting, say, a shipping pallet of all the same product, such as a power tool, resellers have to sort through a mishmash that can contain dozens of different itemsincluding many one-offs. rScan’s offering for them sounds simple: a barcode-scanning app. But behind that is an entire data infrastructure to help resellers understand what they’ve got and how to sell it. Scanning the UPC barcode on a box pulls up the item’s product name and brand, images, detailed descriptions, and manuals. Resellers can first ascertain the product’s condition and whether everything that should be in the box is. If they decide it’s worth selling, rScan can pull from its database the dozens of product attributes required by online marketplaces and format complete product listings tailored to venues such as Amazon, eBay, or Shopify. The company regularly scrapes these sites to survey what products are selling for and estimate a price for the reseller’s listing. rScan charges 30 cents per month per unique item that is scanned and in their catalogue for as long as its listed for sale online. (So selling 10 of the same product would cost 30 cents per month, total.) The company also takes a percentage of monthly sales, from 1% to 3.9% on a sliding scale that ramps up as vendors sell more. Clients range from newbies working out of a garage to what Ryker calls, “sellers that are doing multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. Retailers from High School For Ryker, rScan was tailored to the challenges he’d personally encountered. “Resale is something I previously dabbled in prior to the pandemic. From there, there was a lot of returns going on with COVID, the rise in e-commerce sales, things of that nature,” he says. But his retail experience goes back to high school in the 2010s when he and Marquez established their own apparel brand, called Culture Clothing, which ran for a couple years and grossed about $45,000 in its best year. They mostly sold at concerts and show venues, but also called on another classmate, Rod Baradaran, to set up an ecommerce site. In 2021, the three reunited to cofound rScan. Baradaran reprised his tech role, coding the app and the online services, developing the price-setting algorithm, and serving as COO. (A fourth cofounder, Michael Altenburger, joined a few months later.) The companywhich was bootstrapped by the foundersnow has 36 employees. Taking on a Clunky System It’s not that returned goods would all go into the trash without rScan. “The real advantage of being able to get this online faster and on ecommerce [platforms] is that you have a much wider market where these products can be distributed and actually used, says Baradaran. The three seem especially proud of helping side-hustlers make ends meet. Marquez also works in the RV manufacturing industry around South Bendwhich has taken a hit in recent years, with hundreds of layoffs in 2025 alone. He helped one of his coworkers get into online resale as a safety net when his earnings dropped. “If he didn’t have rScan at the time, he would have had to either sell something or lose a part of the lifestyle that he was already used to living with,” says Marquez. He was able to take advantage of rScan’s physical as well as virtual services. The company runs a warehouse to receive returned goods from retailers, hold them for small clients who don’t have their own storage space, and help arrange shipping to buyers. It was also a chance to test and refine the software by running their own resale business. “We kind of dogfooded our own product when we first started,” says Baradaran. In May 2025, rScan upgraded to a 53,000-square-foot warehouse in South Bend. Living Up to Values While they have eschewed outside investors so far, rScan recognizes it may need to go that route to scale up. “We want to make sure that they share the same vision as us, and as long as that’s alignedabsolutely, says Baradaran. Helping not just sellers but the planet is a key part of that vision. By its own accounting, rScan says it has saved over 840,000 pounds of products from going into the trash. After rScan scales more, the founders plan to seek independent verification of their ecological impact in the process of becoming a Benefit Corporation. To be certified as a B Corp, a company has to pass an initial and ongoing evaluation by the nonprofit B Lab of its environmental impact, social responsibility, transparency, and accountability to all stakeholdersnot just investors. “Ultimately, our goal is to democratize entrepreneurship,” Baradaran says in an email. “In doing so, we drive sustainability by extending the lifecycle of consumer goods that would otherwise end up in landfills.”
Category:
E-Commerce
Every January, were bombarded with resolutions rooted in consumptionbuy this, try that, subscribe to something new. For Gen Z, this consumer-first vision of the New Year feels outdated and hollow. Instead, Gen Z is turning to peers for a community-driven soft start to the year ahead. Popularized on TikTok, January resets offer a modern alternative to the outdated idea of resolutions. This shift from consumer-driven goals to community-supported resets is especially visible in how Gen Z is approaching health and wellness in 2026. Its not surprising either. Earlier in 2025, millions of young people took to social media to publicly document their quit journeys using #QuitNic. The content didnt resemble traditional wellness influencer culture. It wasnt polished or aspirational. It was candid and raw, discussing withdrawal, setbacks, cravings, and the emotional work of quitting. The transparency resonated. Comment sections became support networks. More and more young people posted their own progress. Quitting nicotine became a shared, communal wellness actnot a private health struggle. GEN Z PLANS TO QUIT As we enter this new year, this momentum continues. Truth Initiative data shows that 67% of nicotine users ages 1824 plan to quit in 2026, with 60% planning to quit within the next year. Their primary reason: to improve mental and physical health. The trouble is that quitting has never been more urgent or more complex. Todays nicotine market has been deliberately engineered for dependence. Nicotine products are larger, cheaper, and more potent than ever before. Even as unit sales declined, the total amount of nicotine sold in e-cigarettes surged by 249% from February 2020 to June 2024. From disposable e-cigarettes to high-potency nicotine pouches, and smart vapes with screens, games, and Bluetooth connectivity, these products are flooding the market illegally. Its happening faster than oversight can keep up. Its no wonder that quitting often feels like trying to outmaneuver an industry designed to restrict freedom and undermine agency. The result? Millions of young people remain trapped in a cycle of nicotine addiction. New research shows that the share of daily middle and high school e-cigarette users who attempted to quit but were unable to rose from 28.2% to 53% between 2020 and 2024, and a Truth Initiative study of teens who vape indicated that 76.2% vaped within 30 minutes of waking up, pointing to signs of growing nicotine dependence. For young adults aged 18-24often dubbed the JUUL generationnicotine use remains stubbornly high, with many dual-using cigarettes or newer pouch products, like ZYN, VELO, or on!. THE NEED FOR EVIDENCE-BACKED TOOLS A wide body of evidence shows that young adults make more quit attempts than any other age group, yet they are the least likely to use evidence-based quit support. Why? Many arent aware of quitting resources available to them. Leaning into this Gen Z social movement, Truth Initiatives Quit Collective pulls together influencers who are acting on the #QuitNic trend. By supporting them with real resources, like EX Program from Truth Initiative, our organization is bringing light to the conversations about nicotine that have otherwise been stigmatized or ignored. While Gen Z is listening to social influencers online, we also know from focus groups and qualitative data that they are looking for evidence-based tools. Truth Initiatives approach is to pair advice from experts and experienced quitters in a free and confidential program. It guides users every step of the journey, from understanding triggers to coping with cravings. It meets young people where they already areon their phones, online, and on social platformsmaking support accessible in real time. Gen Z is absolutely walking into 2026 with goals and aspirations. By prioritizing genuine connections and well-being, theyre redefining what it means to set intentions for the year ahead. In the process, they are offering a lesson for organizations and brands alike: Authenticity beats aspiration, connection matters more than consumption, and wellness cant be built on systems that profit from dependence. Kathy Crosby is CEO and president of Truth Initiative.
Category:
E-Commerce
Investors are feeling less hot about the makers of cooling systems for data centers after the CEO of Nvidia Corp. stoked concerns that demand for their products could dry up. Shares of Modine Manufacturing Co. led declines in this sector, tumbling as much as 21% Tuesday before recovering some of those losses to close about 7.5% lower. Other makers of water-cooled systems and similar productsincluding Johnson Controls International PLC, Trane Technologies PLC, and Carrier Global Corp.also fell as much as 6.2% on Tuesday. To blame? The next generation of Nvidias computer chips, announced on Monday, which won’t require the same type of cooling systems. Thats because the new Rubin platform will feature extreme codesign that integrates chips, trays, racks, and more, Jensen Huang, the chipmakers CEO, said during a keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on Monday. 100% liquid-cooled system Describing the 100% liquid-cooled system thats now in production as a breakthrough, Huangs brief remarks in a hourlong-plus presentation managed to rattle investors, as chillers have previously been a crucial component in data centers. The comments create some questions/concerns about the longer-term positioning of chillers within data centers over time, particularly as liquid cooling becomes more prominent, Baird analyst Timothy Wojs wrote in a note to clients, as Bloomberg reported. Liquid cooling allows systems to operate at higher temperatures, Wojs added. More fallout from CES And makers of cooling systems werent the only victim of Huangs CES comments: Shares of Amphenol, which makes cables, sensors, and other connectors for data centers, fell as much as 6.6% on Tuesday before ending the day 1.1% higher amid worries that its products would no longer be needed, as Barrons reported. While Huangs comments caused turmoil in other parts of the stock market, Nvidia stock also fell even as the S&P 500 notched a new record high on Tuesday. The stock closed nearly 0.5% lower.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||