Simple Strategies for Quickly Selling Overstock Inventory

In business, you are constantly trying to measure the demand for your products. Though this is quite easy with reporting metrics on current items, it is largely a guessing game when it comes to newer ones. In fact, you may end up with a considerable overstock of poorly anticipated items laying around in your warehouses, wasting precious space and money. To get rid of this extra supply, try these simple strategies for quickly selling overstock inventory.

Put on a Promotion

Your overstock items may be high quality, but people are simply not as interested in paying for it. If you put the items on sale, though, you will increase attention to the product. Promotions and discounts pique people’s interest to grab their gaze with a creative and appetizing sale. The heavier the discounts, the more likely people are going to buy the product. Big percentages off original prices attract many shoppers who pride themselves on finding good deals. They may purchase the item because they like it enough, but even more so because it represents a “good find.”

Discounting overstock or putting it in a designated sale area also appeals to a particular demographic of shoppers. Many people will visit your store looking to purchase your items at full price as you intend. However, many people try to pinch their pennies and cannot necessarily afford the full-priced items. So, they peruse your sales racks for more attainable deals. When you put overstock in the categories, you are opening the products up to a whole new clientele that would otherwise walk straight past them.

Sell the Items Online

Though you may have an online store where you sell your products, if you have overstock, your website alone may not be enough. Consider reaching out to third party vendors who will list your products on their sites for a small percentage of the profits. If you have a significant amount of overstock, this small cut of the revenue will be minuscule compared to the loss of underselling the product at your store alone.

Ensure Adequate Signage

How you present information to your customers is critical to the success of your business. If your displays are difficult to understand or your posters too distant to read, people will be less likely to take advantage of sales or find what you want them to. On your shelves, be sure to have the right price tag molding that displays the amount clearly. You may not be selling overstock items because people do not know how much they cost. Customers also may not be able to read the label itself to know what exactly the product is. If items on your shelves consistently move around, people will not know which items match up to the prices underneath. So, ensure you have adequately accessible signage and tagging for people to know both the name and price of your products.

Remarket the Items

Your overstock issues are not necessarily due to poor quality or off-trend products. It could be that you are not advertising the product well or not placing it in a prominent enough location in the store. There is a myriad of ways that storefront design and shelf organization impact the visibility of a product. Make your space more intuitive to navigate and your products clear to see. With the right reorganization and remarketing, you can sell poorly presented overstock in no time.

Bundle Your Products

Chances are your overstock items fall into a broader category of product types or lines that you sell. For example, if you have extra athletic shirts, you likely sell a whole slew of activewear. Or if you have canned beans, you likely provide many types of canned vegetables. This opens the door for you to create product bundles. Offer customers the chance to receive a reduced price if they buy your overstock item in conjunction with another item at your store. This way, you can promote another product while making sales on overstock. If you have overstock of two items in the same category, consider pairing these products together for the bundling promotion. This way, your sales will work twice as efficiently.

Run Giveaways

Customers do not know that a particular item you sell is in fact overstock. They only think of it as a product they can buy from your business. Capitalize on this by offering giveaways to customers. Advertise your deals online, or even better—use social media marketing to conduct the giveaway. You can do this by posting on all the social media platforms about the promotion. Invite users to comment, like, follow, or subscribe to your business page to receive the promotion. Or, you can make a larger event out of it and create a game that users must play to win the prize giveaway. This marketing and overstock methodology generates interest in your business while passing off unwanted overstock.

Donate the Items

If you have expended yourself trying to remove overstock from your store but cannot seem to accomplish the feat, think about outright donating the items. Many stores, second-hand vendors, and food pantries will take the extra items you cannot sell. Donating will help you free up much-needed space in your warehouse while improving your relationship with the community. You do not necessarily have to advertise your good deed, but the organizations you interact with will know that they can reach out to you for future needs. Many of these organizations are non-profits that put on fundraising events that you can sponsor and be a part of, further improving your community engagement. Depending on the situation and recipient of your donations, you can even receive a tax write-off for the overstock hand-over.

Use a Resale Service

Many companies simply do not reach the appropriate clientele to sell their overstock products. However, other businesses do, and they would be willing to pay you for the extra items in your storage. If you do not know who to contact to buy your overstock, use a resale service to sell unwanted goods to other parties for a profit. This way, everyone walks away from the deal as a win-win-win situation.

At the end of the day, you simply want to make some form of a profit on your underselling or over-stocked items. Use these simple strategies for quickly selling overstock inventory and watch as you free up space in no time. If you have any questions about improving your product visibility or displays, reach out to us at The Global Display Solution today for more information.