Surpluss Alternative for Shopify Surplus: Forthclear (2026)

TL;DR: Surpluss is a managed, cross-border liquidation service operated from Pune, India: you submit your inventory, its team matches it with buyers and helps close the deal, and its homepage says it is completely free for sellers and charges buyers a transaction fee after the deal completes. Forthclear is a self-serve B2B surplus marketplace: listing is free, sellers pay 5% of the item subtotal only when a lot sells, and buyers pay no platform fee.

Reviewed by the Forthsuite Team | Last updated: September 2026

Disclosure: Forthclear publishes this comparison and operates one of the two platforms. Surpluss details are taken from surpluss.co as observed on 7 September 2026; confirm current terms on its site before you commit stock.

Quick Comparison: Forthclear vs Surpluss

The two platforms differ mainly in who does the work: Forthclear is a marketplace you operate yourself, while Surpluss describes a service its team runs for you. The table lists what each platform states publicly.

Question	Forthclear	Surpluss (per surpluss.co, 7 September 2026)
What it is	Self-serve B2B surplus marketplace	Managed cross-border inventory liquidation service
Cost to list	Free	Free for sellers, per its homepage FAQ and its FAQ page
Fee when a lot sells	5% of the item subtotal, paid by the seller; buyers pay no platform fee	A transaction fee charged to the buyer after the deal completes, per its homepage; the amount is not published
How a listing is created	Store-URL prefill, manual entry, or CSV/XLSX import staged as drafts	You submit inventory details through "Join Surpluss" and its team gets in touch
How buyers find stock	Buyers browse listings and request a quote	Its buyer page: explore inventory, request a quote, its team connects you with offers, close the deal; deals are also shared in a WhatsApp community
Who arranges shipping	The seller, directly with the buyer	Its seller page describes its team matching inventory with buyers and the deal being finalised with them; ask Surpluss who handles freight
Shopify integration	None; standalone web platform	None stated

What Forthclear Is, and Is Not

Forthclear is a standalone marketplace where merchants list overstock, deadstock and seasonal excess for bulk B2B buyers. It does not buy inventory itself, does not guarantee a price, does not sync with a Shopify store and does not detect slow-moving stock for you.

• Free to list, 5% on completed sales. Sellers pay 5% of the item subtotal only when a sale completes. Buyers pay $0 to use the marketplace. There are no subscriptions, listing fees or auction fees.
• Three ways to create a listing. From store (paste a product URL to prefill the listing), Type it in (product name, category, quantity and unit price are required), or Spreadsheet (CSV or XLSX rows staged as drafts you publish or roll back as a batch). The store path is a one-off prefill, not a sync.
• Quotes, not auctions. Buyers request a quote on a listing; you answer with your price and terms from the dashboard and arrange shipping with the buyer directly.
• No vetting promise. Forthclear does not vet or verify every buyer or seller; treat a quote request the way you would any new trade enquiry.

What Surpluss Says About Itself

Surpluss, operated by WSYS Platform Private Limited in Pune, India, calls itself the world's first cross-border inventory liquidation platform. Its site describes a managed process rather than a self-serve marketplace.

• Listing. Its FAQ says you list by clicking "Join Surpluss" on the seller page and providing inventory details, after which its team gets in touch.
• Fees. Per its homepage FAQ, sellers pay nothing and buyers pay a small transaction fee after the deal completes; its FAQ page adds only that sellers are not charged for listing. The fee amount is not published.
• Buyers. Its buyer page describes browsing inventory and requesting a quote, with its team connecting buyers to offers; its FAQ points buyers to a WhatsApp community for deals.
• Process. Its seller page lists three steps: list your inventory by sharing details with its team, its team matches the inventory with buyers in its network, and you close the deal and receive payment. Its homepage describes an end-to-end service for the deal and calls itself an AI and data-analytics driven platform.

We have not used Surpluss and cannot verify its buyer reach, deal speed or effective cost. Ask Surpluss directly for its fee schedule, who pays it, when payment is made and who handles freight before you commit stock.

Pricing: What Each Side Charges

Neither platform charges a seller to list, so the comparison comes down to what is charged when a lot sells and to whom. Forthclear publishes its figure and charges the seller; Surpluss charges the buyer and does not publish the amount.

On Forthclear, a $10,000 lot that sells costs the seller $500 (5% of the item subtotal); the buyer pays no platform fee, and freight and any taxes are agreed between the two parties. A lot that never sells costs nothing. On Surpluss, the seller side is free per its homepage and FAQ, and the buyer pays a transaction fee after the deal completes; the size of that fee, and whether it affects the price a buyer will offer you, is something to confirm with Surpluss in writing, because its site does not state it.

How to Choose

Choose on who you want doing the work and how much visibility you want into the fee. Forthclear suits a merchant who will write the listing, answer quotes and arrange freight in exchange for a published 5% fee; Surpluss, as described on its site, suits a seller who wants a team to run the process and is comfortable agreeing the terms directly.

Forthclear fits if:

• You want to set your own asking price and quantity and answer quote requests yourself.
• You hold product data in a store or a spreadsheet and want to import it as draft listings you review before publishing.
• You want the fee stated up front: 5% of the item subtotal, only when a lot sells.

Surpluss may fit if:

• You want a team to take your inventory details, match them with buyers and help close the deal.
• You are selling cross-border and want a service that says it manages that process.
• You are prepared to get its fee, payment and freight terms in writing first.

Switching from Surpluss to Forthclear

Moving stock to Forthclear means creating listings from your own product data, because there is no import from Surpluss. Collect your SKU list, unit counts, condition notes, asking prices and photos, then use the spreadsheet import to stage them as drafts you can review before publishing.

How long that takes depends on your catalog size and how clean the data is; Forthclear does not quote a setup time.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does Forthclear pricing compare to Surpluss?

Forthclear is free to list and charges the seller 5% of the item subtotal when a sale completes; buyers pay no platform fee. Surpluss's homepage says it is completely free for sellers and charges buyers a small transaction fee after the deal completes; the amount is not published, so ask Surpluss for its terms in writing.

Is Surpluss only for India-based sellers?

Its site does not say so. Surpluss is operated from Pune, India, and markets itself as a cross-border, global liquidation platform; which buyers it can match for your category and region is a question for Surpluss.

Does Forthclear connect to my Shopify store?

No. Forthclear is a standalone marketplace with no Shopify sync and no automatic dead-stock detection. You can prefill a listing from a product URL, type it in, or import a spreadsheet. If you use the Forthcast inventory app on Shopify, it can send a product to Forthclear as a listing, but Forthclear itself does not read your store.

Does Forthclear offer features that Surpluss doesn't?

The difference is the model rather than a feature list. Forthclear gives you a published fee, direct control of price and quantity, and three self-serve listing paths; Surpluss describes a managed service in which its team handles matching and deal closing.

Is Forthclear good enough for growing Shopify stores?

Forthclear's fee stays at 5% of the item subtotal whatever the volume, and listing remains free, so cost scales only with what sells. It is a younger marketplace, so expect buyer interest to vary by category, and note that sellers handle their own shipping.