You’ve overstocked again! It’s not your fault, though – it’s probably the most common inventory mistake that businesses make. You care about your clients and you don’t want them to be deprived of your products, but the cost can often be very heavy. So what do you do?
Drop the price – This is probably the first thing that people try. This will work for a lot of moderately priced items and is at least worth a shot
Bundle up – A lot of people are irresistibly drawn to packages that contain multiple valuable products – it just seems to trigger our hoarding instincts from our hunter-gatherer days. You have to be careful with this one though, collections of low-value items may offend your customers’ finer sensibilities
Commission – If you have enough employees and you sell items that have relatively high value, you should consider offering your salespeople a large commission for selling hard-to-sell items. It’s up to you how much you want to give up but if you know that the product isn’t about to be picked off the shelf anytime soon, it doesn’t cost you anything to be generous. Your employees will also thank you!
Sell Online – You definitely don’t want to spend your time trying to sell individual products online – you have better things to do! Instead you should be selling your excess inventory as a lot. You can start here: Liquidation, Dead Inventory Store, Sell my Inventory and of course E-bay (Look for the ‘Wholesale Lot’ features)
Give it up – You’ve tried everything and nothing works, but before you take the trash out consider donating your dead stock to a non-profit organization. In addition to being a gesture of good will from your business to the community, you will also be able to salvage some of your costs in tax credits
Of course the best way to avoid getting yourself into this hole in the first place is to watch your inventory very carefully. If you don’t use inventory management software, Start Now!
Your inventory purchases are a sunk cost. The more you hold on to your stock, the more its value decreases. It takes up real estate in your store and just sits there glaring at you with its uselessness and eating up carrying costs. However, with a little careful planning you can salvage a good chunk of your dead stock. Good Luck!
We want to hear from you! Let us know which tips work for you and share your experience with us.
The Map Makers 