Last year, San Francisco-based Reseat stormed onto the scene with a win in Integrated Technology Solutions. A mere eight months later, the very same brand is back with an even more impressive three wins in the same category: the Innovation award, the Sustainability award, and Best of NeoCon Silver, all in the category of Integrated Technology Solutions.

Wherefore this veritable flood of accolades? Chalk it up to an idea whose time has come, as well as a clever new feature called the Enterprise ID Tool.

If you haven’t guessed by now, Reseat is effectively a marketplace for re-purposed furniture, a way of organizing inventory so dealers and clients know exactly what they have, when they got it, and when they’d like to transition it elsewhere.

Obviously, the logistics of this aren’t easy, but Reseat has recently made great strides in organizing all the different lifecycle manifestations a given piece might experience, targeting not only vendors and dealers, but also facility managers.

The process begins with Reseat ID (pictured above). This is a data collection tool and project management resource that tracks specification and logistics details, essentially “aggregating new information to create a viable, proactive plan for the second life of the furniture.”

The Enterprise Tool upgrade goes beyond the data on company-owned product for a proactive platform to handle all logistics of relocating, selling, or donating furniture. With a simple, intuitive dashboard, users may coordinate all the details involved in making requisitions: “communicating with potential buyers, receiving status updates, and scheduling deliveries—all designed to support the circular economy by connecting to the Reseat Marketplace.”

Right now, the bulk of activity on Reseat is in California. With warehouses in Oakland and Hayward, most of the marketplace activity is confined to California. However, that’s about to change in a big way. Reseat’s ultimate objective is to be a national inventory data management tool and web-based marketplace for vendors, dealers, and facility managers to create end-of-use plans for furniture inventory well before that date actually arrives. By creating a network of relationships with dealers across the country, Reseat will enable users in all markets to facilitate transfer (or in some cases recycling) of furniture in an intuitive and seamless way.

Here’s a quick example. It’s actually in Hayward, CA, but let’s say the chair below is in an office in Chicago. Reseat lets the facility manager list it for sale on the marketplace. The manager may choose to deal directly with buyers (and some Reseat users do this), but the more likely scenario is to use Reseat as the proverbial middle man—for handling the transaction and all logistics associated with transporting the furniture. If the inventory required storage, Reseat would access their regional network of dealers, who would facilitate storage and/or transport to the buyer.

I asked Mary Jean Dyson of Reseat—beyond the innate impulse to keep stuff out of the landfill—what are the incentives for a dealer or facility manager to use Reseat? Whether the free ID tool or the membership-based Enterprise Tool. She responded that, beyond doing their part to help the environment, there are a variety of reasons, not limited to fair after-market resale value, the good press associated with donating or recycling furniture, and a whole package of perks for paid members, including LEED points, a 10% trade discount on marketplace items, and a hassle-free return policy. Nor should we forget all the benefits of organizing inventory, including saving cost and time by streamlining relocations and moves. Sounds like a win-win to me.

Visit Reseat at NeoCon 2022 at 7-5130.