Excess stock is a familiar challenge for all retailers. It’s a common issue, and such problems can arise due to numerous factors outside your control. Market trends change, and demand forecasts don’t always pan out. Whatever the reason, there are several ways you can liquidate excess stock effectively without harming your bottom line.
At Bartercard, we’re all about turning excess into profit! Rather than heavily discounting, running last-minute deals, or writing off surplus stock, you can keep its value by selling it through our B2B community at the normal selling price. We will provide you with the tools to sell your excess stock and liquidate inventory, ensuring you maximise your returns and your productivity during slow periods and utilise spare capacity.
What is excess stock?
Excess inventory is when a business carries more stock than they need to meet their forecasted demand. This can cause a wealth of operational challenges, such as limiting your cash flow. Cash flow is the lifeblood of many businesses. Without good cash flow, businesses can struggle to pay employees, pay debts, and even continue trading.
The Negative Impacts of Unsold Inventory
Unfortunately, excess stock is a major culprit for sucking up working capital. If cash is invested in items sitting in a warehouse that have limited or volatile demand, then it’s being wasted on assets that are not going to reliably generate revenue. Managing inventory is a delicate balancing act, as you want enough inventory to fulfil all your orders, but not so much that you can’t sell it all, and the costs of carrying excess inventory can be huge, potentially costing businesses millions each year.
For example, if most of your cash is tied up in inventory, you lose the opportunity to invest in other areas of the business, such as marketing activity, new machinery, or taking on more employees.
What to do about excess inventory
One of the most important (and challenging) duties of small business ownership is effectively managing and selling inventory. Slow-moving stock that takes up extra shelf space is always tricky to handle, especially if it ties up your capital.
Heighten Exposure
A good idea to liquidate inventory is to double or triple its exposure. For retail stores, this can be done by displaying items towards the front of your store and having the same products visible at the back.
Alternately, you can offer certain items as a freebie or use them as an incentive. This is ideal for low-cost items, as excess products can be used for giveaways or incentives without necessarily impacting your business profits. You can encourage customers to sign up to your mailing list and offer these products as rewards in return. You can also extend them as giveaways in events, deploying the cost of the product as a marketing expense.
Bundles
Another technique to sell inventory is to pair excess stock with products that you know people will always buy. Bundle complementary products together and offer them at a more economical price, compared to when customers purchase the items separately.
Take advantage of online marketplaces
Finally, if you find that there’s not too much demand in your local market, you can try to place your slow-moving products online. This allows you to reach a broader audience and improve the chances of selling your excess inventory.
Move and Sell Excess Stock Online with Bartercard
You can move and sell excess stock online with Bartercard, getting rid of excess or slow-moving stock without the heavy discounting. Bartercard is a B2B networking platform that introduces your brand not just in local markets but also internationally, bringing you better business results. With thousands of members from all over New Zealand, you can gain access to our wide-ranging online platform and our offices in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and more.
Joining our network allows you to reach new markets and increase your chances for profit as you sell excess inventory at competitive prices. Interested in joining? Learn more about our Bartercard membership packages today!
