There will be times in your business life when you wind up with unwanted stock and inventory. One day, you’ll walk into your depot and find mountains of unused goods that are never going to sell, no matter how much you discount the price.
You shouldn’t give up all hope, though. The trick here is to get smart about liquidation. Instead of allowing items to go to waste, you need to find methods to ensure that you get at least some money for them.
Here’s what to do.
Tactic #1: Double-Expose Old Inventory
Double exposure is a tactic that brick-and-mortar clothes retailers have been using for a long time to shift stock. The idea here is to display the same items multiple times around the store, giving buyers more opportunities to consider them.
Retail industry expert Christine Guillot has been advising that clients use this tactic for years and years, putting old inventory at the front of the shop as well on traditional racks, according to www.vendhq.com. You can use it too.
Tactic #2: Sell Excess Inventory To Specialist Dealers
But what happens if you don’t sell products in a store? What other options do you have?
According to www.esdsales.com, there are other tactics you can use. One strategy is to go to specialist buyers in your industry who will purchase any remaining stock from you and then distribute it through their specialist channels.
Remember, there is almost always some demand for the products you have in your inventory. It’s just a question of finding willing buyers. Third-party companies are usually much better than this than you are.
Tactic #3: Bundle Items
Okay, so you’ve still got a bunch of items in your inventory that won’t sell, no matter what you do. What else can you do? One strategy you can use is bundling. Here, you charge a single price for multiple products, flogging the stuff that won’t sell alongside lines that will.
The reason this strategy works has to do with consumer psychology. In general, people are much more willing to pay a small premium for a product already in your inventory if they feel like they’re getting a bargain. Bundling takes advantage of the fact that customers assume they’re getting a good deal. And usually, they are.
Tactic #4: Offer Freebies As Incentives
Sometimes, you can leverage products that won’t sell as freebies to incentivize additional purchases. For instance, if a product won’t sell by itself, you could turn it into marketing material, send it out to your customers, and use it to get them to buy products in your line-up they do want.
Tactic #5: Adjust Your Sales Team’s Attitude
Sometimes, the reason a product doesn’t shift has less to do with the item itself and more with your sales staff’s attitude. Members of your organization might have some sort of bias towards certain lines, which stops them from selling.
Thus, liquidating inventory could be as simple as telling your sales team that they have to focus on lines overstocked in your warehouses instead of the items they prefer.
