Surplus Studio
A drop-in workspace where a brand's merchandising team uploads an unsold-stock spreadsheet and gets a decision per SKU (discount to outlet partners, donate, refurbish, or recycle) plus a ready-to-send partner brief.
Merchandising and planning managers at EU fashion brands sitting on end-of-season stock
- Bulk SKU uploader that classifies each item by category, condition, season, and original margin
- One-click partner matching that pulls live offers from registered EU resellers, charities, and remanufacturers
- Margin impact simulator comparing liquidation price vs. donation tax credit vs. recycling cost per lot
- Tamper-proof audit log of every routing decision to satisfy national inspector requests
The ban hit large firms on 19 July 2026 and mid-sized firms in 2030; merchandising teams need a defensible decision trail before auditors arrive and have no off-the-shelf tool to produce one.
EU ban confirmed for 19 July 2026 (large enterprises) and 2030 (medium-sized); EU has ~119,960 clothing companies facing a hard regulatory deadline, creating forced demand for compliance tooling.EU Unsold Clothing Destruction Ban: Brand Guide (2026) ↗The EU Ban on the Destruction of Unsold Clothing: Scope, Exceptions and Open Questions ↗Fashion Statistics - European Union ↗
Dedicated search for ESPR/unsold-goods compliance software returned zero hits; no off-the-shelf tool specifically turning unsold-stock spreadsheets into audited SKU decisions and partner briefs appears to exist yet.EU Unsold Goods Rules: Final Requirements and 2026 Destruction Ban ↗EU bans destroying unsold fashion: Regulation or fast-fashion… | COSH! ↗
B2B compliance SaaS to regulated fashion enterprises is a proven willingness-to-pay pattern, but no public pricing benchmarks for an ESPR-specific SKU-decision tool were found and the initial ICP is limited to large enterprises, capping near-term monetization confidence.New EU rules to stop destruction of unsold clothes and shoes ↗Europe Apparel Market 2026 to 2034 ↗
EU ESPR regulation is primary EU law with staged enforcement (2026/2030) and is extremely unlikely to be reversed, giving a multi-year, regulatorily-backed product tailwind plus a 2030 mid-market expansion event.The EU Ban on the Destruction of Unsold Clothing: Scope, Exceptions and Open Questions ↗
Core MVP (CSV ingestion, rule-based SKU routing, partner-brief generation) is straightforward with an LLM plus standard data pipelines; main build risk is sourcing/maintaining outlet-partner marketplace data and ERP integrations rather than the decision logic itself.10 Best Apparel Inventory Management Tools for 2026 ↗