In an exclusive interview with CanadianSME Small Business Magazine, Disney Petit, the Founder and CEO of LiquiDonate, shares how her innovative platform is revolutionizing the way retailers and small businesses handle excess inventory and returns. By diverting unsold goods from landfills and repurposing them for social impact, LiquiDonate offers a sustainable solution that not only reduces logistical costs but also benefits communities in need. Disney discusses the company’s mission to create a circular economy, the growing role of sustainability in business, and how small businesses can take their first steps toward purpose-driven profitability.
Disney Petit is the Founder and CEO of LiquiDonate, a sustainable social impact software company that matches excess inventory from retailers, brands, and businesses with nonprofits and schools to help recover sunk logistics costs. LiquiDonate combines her years of experience working with tech companies reverse to implement social impact programs that leverage their existing business model and evolving technologies with her love for the work and people of nonprofits.
LiquiDonate offers a unique zero-waste solution for excess inventory. How does your platform help retailers and small businesses turn return and overstock challenges into opportunities for social impact and cost savings?
LiquiDonate is a logistics technology platform transforming how retailers and brands handle excess inventory and returns. Founded in 2021, the company matches unsold, overstock, and returned items with vetted nonprofits in real time—diverting products from landfills, lowering logistics costs, and driving measurable social and environmental impact. LiquiDonate’s 4,000+ nonprofit network allows items to be routed within 30 miles, exponentially decreasing reverse logistics transit costs. By embedding sustainability into supply chains and leveraging AI for smart routing, LiquiDonate helps companies turn waste into value and build a circular economy that benefits both communities and the planet.
Return abuse and rising return costs are major concerns for retailers. What trends are you seeing in this space, and how does LiquiDonate’s new returns policy address these pain points for your partners?
Returns are an enormous burden for retailers, especially smaller businesses who can’t eat the costs of “free returns” like Amazon, but also have to compete with similar policies. The unprofitability of returns (a $20 item costs $15-$25 to return), has led to the new trend of “keep it returns,” where retailers tell the consumer to just keep the item and refund them the money, leading to increases in fraud.
LiquiDonate’s returns software reduces the costs while eliminating keep it returns altogether. The software integrates with the existing RMS to automatically reroute selected SKUs to a local nonprofit or school. To the consumer, the return process is the same, but to the business, the impact is enormous. One UK-based retailer, Built Different, saved over 3.9 million miles in transit costs alone using LiquiDonate.
We introduced the Returns Policy to help hard-working retailers during a very financially challenging time. We appreciate what we offer is new, so the policy enables them to protect their current margins while also testing LiquiDonate for themselves. In the end, we know we can help everyone to win: the retailer, the local community, and the environment.
With growing pressure around sustainability and ESG, how are your retail partners leveraging LiquiDonate to strengthen their brand reputation and deepen customer loyalty?
We love it when retailers brag about what they do with LiquiDonate. It’s no secret that younger generations are holding their retailers accountable for their work practices, so doing good for the community and environment is also doing good business. We send all of our customers quarterly and annual Impact Reports, including their total items donated and what kinds of organizations received their donations, as well as testimonials from their recipients. They are welcome to use this content or collaborate with us on communicating their impact to their followers.
Small businesses often face tight margins and limited warehousing space. How can they rethink their inventory strategies to benefit from donation models, and what operational efficiencies have your partners experienced?
LiquiDonate was originally started to help retailers free up valuable warehouse space without having to turn to the landfill, which is often the cheapest option. Historically, donations at scale have been a challenge with increased logistics burdens. With LiquiDonate’s dense non-profit network and matching software, they can now implement direct routing to organizations which is both more efficient for their supply chain and a reduction of their carbon footprint.
Finally, what advice would you give to Canadian SMBs looking to align profitability with purpose, and what first steps can they take to make their excess inventory a force for good?
Canadian SMBs should definitely all look beyond the landfill. There are several options for excess, damaged, or unsellable items including upcycling, downcycling, peer-to-peer returns, and of course, donations. They should also consider that their customers are demanding better business practices, and doing better by the community and environment has already been proven to help increase loyalty and revenue. Whether it’s using LiquiDonate or setting up donations themselves, supply chain professionals have a lot to gain by acting more sustainably. If they are worried about their luxury brand value, they can also donate items as auction-only, letting nonprofits raise funds for the supplies they need.
