Brock Kowalchuk, former CEO of the now-defunct e-commerce company Kaspien Holdings Inc., has been named co-CEO and recognized as a co-founder of Spokane-based online auction startup BuyWander Inc.

Kowalchuk joins Matt McGee, who is based in Las Vegas, and Jordan Allen, a Spokane-area entrepreneur known best for his vacation rental company Stay Alfred Inc., which reached $100 million in revenue before closing due to the pandemic.

“I’ve been talking with (Allen) for a long period of time,” Kowalchuk says. “He had lots of questions about the (e-commerce) space.”

The three co-founders determined that once Kowalchuk completed his role at Kaspien, he would step into the BuyWander role full time. BuyWander officially launched in early February.

“I finished with Kaspien in early April,” Kowalchuk says.

As previously reported by the Journal, Kaspien decided in December to wind down operations following an assessment of its "current cash and liquidity position and near-term debt maturities."

In addition to his relationship with Allen, Kowalchuk’s experience at Kaspien made BuyWander a natural fit for him.

“This is something I lived through firsthand in e-commerce for many years,” Kowalchuk says.

BuyWander buys and sells returned retail items that otherwise might end up sitting in a retailer’s warehouse, destroyed, or in a landfill.

“Having firsthand experience of what those returns look like, what happens to them, the pain points of the brands, of the retailers, I think that helps improve our credibility,” Kowalchuk says.

In 2023, $743 billion in merchandise was returned in the U.S., according to a National Retail Federation report.

Customers who purchase items through BuyWander auctions pick them up at the company’s warehouse, located at 402 E. Sprague, just east of downtown Spokane.

“We’re looking forward to making this successful in Spokane, across the region, and eventually across the U.S.,” Kowalchuk says. “I can’t think of a better community than Spokane for us to build this.”

BuyWander has experienced positive trends since launching.

“When we launched, we were seeing about an average of four bids per auction, and now we’re seeing an average of 12 bids per auction,” Kowalchuk says. “Our average order value when we first started was around $25 to $30 in February, and now we’re approaching $60.”

The company now has four part-time employees, in addition to the three co-founders.

Kowalchuk says he and Allen complement each other well.

“(Allen) is an entrepreneur through and through, and he’s got incredible vision for identifying what customers want,” he says. “I have the operations and the finance aspect.”

The company’s other co-founder, McGee, is an expert in supply-chain logistics who previously worked for online retailers Overstock.com and Wish.com, as well as Maersk, an international shipping company.

Going forward, BuyWander will continue to invest in its technology and use customer feedback to make improvements, Kowalchuk says.