Inventory is one of the main elements that need special attention due to the important impact it can have on determining the cost of products, the cost of sales, and thus on measuring income and financial position. According to statistics, the Worldwide cost of inventory distortion (including shrinkage, stockouts and overstock/excess inventory) is an estimated $1.1 Trillion. And reducing excess inventory can lower your overall inventory costs by 10 percent.
In this article, I will share how you can sell your entire excess inventory without losing your money. But first, let’s answer those 3 important questions:
- What is excess inventory?
- Why you may have lots of excess inventory?
- What are some of the best strategies to sell excess inventory?
What is Excess Inventory?
In order to know how you can sell excess inventory, you need to know what excess inventory actually is in the first place. In very simple words:
You can always find these goods on the shelf or in the warehouse, and they cause a huge loss of revenue. Some marketers think that they can re-sell them again, but that’s not always the case.
Why you may have lots of excess inventory.
While I cannot tell you specific reasons why you have lots of excess inventory, I can give you some hints to help you know why you have overstocks in your warehouse.
- Miscalculating the right demand and sales. You may find that you have many goods, but you can't sell them anymore because no one is still interested in them.
- Doubling or tripling your typical manufacturing order could cause a disaster to you, especially when the fad ends, and you still have many goods in your store.
- Lowering the quality of your goods to meet demand. Then you will have to bear the responsibility because although you may gain money in the short term, your customers may stop buying your goods when they notice a drop in their quality.
- Focusing on selling one single product, and not paying attention to other products.
10 professional strategies to sell excess inventory
If you want to be more practical and take advantage of your excess inventory, you will need to follow some professional strategies, which could also help you earn more money. Some of these strategies are:
- Build your online store.
- Make irresistible offers & discounts.
- Use BOGO
- Give products more exposure
- Bundle items into packaging
- Make special offers for range members
- Remarketing
- Turn purchases into contests
- Liquidation
- Donation & giveaways
Let’s jump right into it, shall we:
1- Build your online store:
If you have your own local market but you have many excess inventory, then you need to think about building your online store and try to sell them online.
This move will help you to spread and reach a broader audience, increasing the possibility of sales automatically. You can check GoDaddy E-store and Arabic Website Builder tools.
Related articles: Introducing GoDaddy Arabic Website Builder and E-Store
2- Try to make irresistible offers and discounts:
People love to see "sale" signs when they walk down the street, so running an online sale can be a good chance for you to make irresistible offers and discounts on your excess inventory and get a return on your investment.
There are many different types of sales. We recommend trying one of the most popular ones, which is "Flash Sale".
A Flash Sale is one of the most effective ways to get your customer's attention. You can use it for only one day and this way you will encourage your customers' sense of urgency.
Related articles: How to use discount coupons to increase your eCommerce sales and this article on how to create coupon template design without experience.
3- Use the BOGO (buy one, get one) sale:
The BOGO (buy one, get one) sale is a very effective type of sale. And, most likely, it will be your best option if you want to get rid of your excess inventory.
You can make wholesale discounts, so when people buy one of your products, they will get the other one for free.
For more, you can check the ‘how to boost online store sales in 2022’ guide from GoDaddy.
4- Give products more exposure:
This strategy will help retail stores as it can help to double or triple-exposing the merchandise. It will make your customers see the same product in multiple places, so they will automatically be more aware and potentially interested in them.
5- Bundling items into packages:
If you create Multi-Item packages, then your selling process will be much easier for you. You can fulfil this strategy by offering a slow-moving product with a complementary product that gives you high sales.
Gift baskets are excellent examples of how businesses deal with excess inventory. They add a bit of everything in a package and sell them altogether.
6- Make special offers for range members:
88% of consumers used coupons when making purchases in 2020.
You can take some advantages from your teams, league members and range members by offering special deals for them. You will find that perks engage customers on a higher level and encourage brand loyalty.
7- Remarketing your items:
If you didn't get any satisfying results from the past strategies, all you have to do is to remarket your items by using new keywords in product titles and descriptions too.
You can also upload new pictures of the items to attract your customer's attention, or you can try to change the product’s placement in your store.
Related articles: How to SEO, a beginner’s guide from Google.
8- Turn purchases into contests:
Try getting your customers’ attention by turning purchases into contests. Just highlight one specific product and then make your customers enter into a contest to buy a featured product for a limited time.
When your limited time ends, you will need to pick one or two names to win a prize, like waived league fees, a gift card, a free bow-tune up, or free-range time.
9- Sell your goods via liquidation:
You can always sell goods via liquidation, so always keep this in mind. All companies sell excess inventory to other companies, so you can try this strategy and it will give you great results.
10- Try donations and giveaways solution:
Donating your items or using them as giveaways can be beneficial if you want to increase customer engagement or boost followers on your social channels. You may lose money at the beginning, but you can gain other benefits, such as a trade-off with an increase in online followers.
Final words
No matter how much excess inventory you have in your store, you will always find a way to get rid of them if you follow the previously mentioned strategies.
