If you are in retail business, you may find out at some point in time your business has excess inventory in your store. When you bought the products, you thought they would sell fast like during the holiday Christmas sales, but for some reason, they haven’t. Now you are stuck with goods that are tying down cash, obsolete, and taking up storage space. Whatever the case, don’t fret. In the blog post, we will show you 6 smart ways you can use the excess stock in your business.
What is Excess Stock?
Excess inventory, also known as overstock, refers to having too many products that haven’t sold yet and aren’t expected to sell anytime soon. This could be from several reasons including incorrect forecasting, lack of customer demand, or knowledge of the product.
Often this surplus stock has stayed long for weeks, months, and even years without being sold.
How To Clear Out Excess Inventory or Stock?
1. Remarket, Refresh
When an item isn’t selling, the issue may not necessarily be the product itself but the marketing. So, the first step is to remarket the product. For a physical store, make an effort to refresh the shelf arrangement, replace worn-out tags, and place slow-moving or old inventory in a more visible area in your store. If you are online, run more ads on them, etc. All these will give a new sense of life to older products that customers view as outdated.
2. Sell at a discounted price
If the above doesn’t work, it may be time to sell at a discounted price- but be strategic about it. Start small with a 25% discount or you can run a flash sale in-store or online on those slow items. If successful, you can use your old inventory to attract new customers that would become regulars for your business.
3. Bundle products or Services
Bundling items together is a major marketing strategy to try out.
Consider putting complementary products as a package, then sell them at a slightly lower price than if bought separately. This also applies to bundling slow-moving products with fast-selling ones. Whatever the case, it’s a win-win situation for your business as customers are satisfied and you get to clear out yourout the your excess inventory.
4. Offer Buy Now, Pay Later option
Another strategy to consider is to offer buy now, pay small small. Offering this payment option to customers will lure customers who are on a budget and want to make small payments over time to buy. However, remember to only sell to customers you know and have proven to have good repayment credibility.
However, remember to consider the formal and informal credit scoring of the customers as in only sell to customers you know and have proven to have good repayment credibility
5. Sell online
If you’ve only been selling in-store, it’s time to get online. Sell excess inventory on WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram or major eCommerce websites or marketplaces to help sell out excess inventory. Note, that marketplace requires creating a storefront and uploading images and they also have terms and conditions on those platforms.
6. Offer freebies
This works best for low-cost products. If a product is tough to sell, offer it as a free gift or incentive to encourage higher purchases from customers.
Bottom Line
Finally, the best way to manage excess inventory is to avoid it in the first place. If you register as a merchant MyBiz by NowNow, you can use the tool to manage your inventory and get clear insights on which products are selling well and how to forecast customer demands so you don’t end up having excess inventory in your store.