#5 - Melodie van der Baan, Co-Founder & CEO at Max Retail
Slice of Retail Team
Mar 10, 2025
Join us on this week's episode of the Slice of Retail podcast, hosted by Jared S. Taylor! Our Guest: Melodie van der Baan, Co-Founder & CEO at Max Retail.
What you’ll get out of this episode:
- Solving the Excess Inventory Problem – How Max Retail helps retailers recover costs from unsold stock.
- The Importance of Inventory Turnover – Why poor turnover is the biggest challenge for struggling retailers.
- Max Mondays for Success – A simple strategy to maximize sales and maintain fresh inventory listings.
- The Future of Retail Staffing – How hiring and training challenges impact small businesses.
- A Founder’s Perspective – Melodie van der Baan’s journey from retail owner to CEO of Max Retail.
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Retailers today face a major challenge: what to do with excess inventory that doesn't sell. Without an efficient system in place, slow-moving stock can tie up cash flow and make it difficult for businesses to bring in new merchandise.
This is the problem that Melodie van der Baan, Co-Founder & CEO of Max Retail, set out to solve. As a former independent retailer herself, she knew firsthand how frustrating it was to have thousands of dollars stuck in unsold inventory. Instead of accepting losses, she built Max Retail—a platform that helps retailers get their costs back by selling past-season inventory online.
Why Inventory Turnover is the Key to Success
For struggling retailers, the number one issue is inventory turnover. If products aren’t selling quickly enough, retailers can’t reinvest in new stock, and cash flow suffers. Melodie explains it simply:
- A retailer buys an item for $10 and sells it for $20 the next day. They reinvest the $10 and pocket the profit, repeating the process multiple times in a month.
- However, if that same item sits on the shelf for 10 days before selling, the profit cycle slows down dramatically.
Understanding when to list slow-moving items is key. Successful Max Retail sellers proactively monitor their inventory and list unsold items early, increasing their chances of selling at a good price instead of liquidating for pennies.
Max Mondays: A Simple Strategy for Retailers
To help retailers stay consistent, Max Retail encourages “Max Mondays”—a habit of reviewing inventory reports and listing older items every Monday. Data shows that weekly listers earn four times more than those who list only once a month. This regular cadence ensures that inventory stays fresh and receives optimal online placement.
Beyond Inventory: The Retail Staffing Challenge
Aside from inventory, staffing is another major challenge for small retailers. With teams typically ranging from two to eight employees, store owners often find themselves wearing multiple hats. Many struggle to find reliable staff or delegate responsibilities effectively.
While Max Retail doesn’t directly address staffing yet, Melodie sees an opportunity to support retailers in hiring and training employees. Whether through partnerships with fashion schools or retail training programs, she hopes to help store owners build strong, sustainable teams in the future.
From Retailer to Innovator: Melodie’s Entrepreneurial Journey
Melodie van der Baan didn’t just create a solution—she lived the problem. As a fashion distributor and later an independent store owner, she saw the struggle firsthand. That experience shaped Max Retail into the only platform that allows retailers to sell excess inventory at full wholesale cost while keeping stock available in-store.
For retailers looking to stay profitable in an unpredictable industry, platforms like Max Retail provide a much-needed safety net, ensuring that past-season inventory doesn’t become a financial burden but instead an opportunity for revenue.
