Best Tactics for Liquidating Deadstock

by Adam Czach

Deadstock, every Shopify merchant has it but no one wants to talk about it. The merchants we work with tend to tell us that they’re too busy to find ways to liquidate deadstock/excess inventory, however, the shelf space deadstock takes up is costing them hundreds (or in some cases thousands) of dollars per month.

If you own a Shopify store and are dealing with excess inventory, here are a few strategies you can undertake to liquidate your deadstock.

1. Discounting Items

The first step eCommerce merchants can take to liquidating excess inventory is listing your items for heavy discounts. One strategy some stores take is to have a “sale” or “clearance” section on their website.

One issue with this strategy is that stores may start to discount items for 20–30%, however, since the items originally did not sell well on the site, Shopify merchants end up discounting items for up to 70–80% and lose money on items. Additionally, although this method allows merchants to be in control of their deadstock, they still have to deal with the inventory and shipping.

2. Liquidation Sites

The next step could take is selling their items on a general liquidation site. The benefit of this is that Shopify merchants liquidate their deadstock quickly and in bulk. Additionally, merchants don’t need to worry about the shipping costs of selling items individually. However, most liquidation websites operate on a bidding system which tends to lead merchants to liquidate their inventory for breakeven prices or a loss.

3. Multi-channel Approach

The third and most effective option is to sell your inventory on multiple sales channels. By taking this approach eCommerce merchants are able to maximize their sales outreach and gain access to a wide and diverse customer base.

The more channels you place your product on the more exposure you will attract to your brand. Additionally, brands will have the ability to have full control of their inventory and sell stock individually.

In recent years online shoppers have become more comfortable buying on marketplaces. By taking a multi-channel approach, merchants can easily reach more customers as listing their products on marketplaces allows users to access more products, compare prices and ultimately make fair product comparisons, thus allowing your products to shine.

The benefit of this approach is that merchants will have the opportunity to sell their products for a profit and expand their customer base.

Although profitable, this approach can be very time consuming for merchants as they now must manage their inventory on multiple online marketplaces and they still have to manage their inventory as it is not sold in bulk.

Luckily, Firesell offers a solution to this.

At Firesell, we manage your entire multi-channel sales strategy. We help eCommerce merchants by taking care of your product listing and placing it on marketplaces that will yield the best return for your product.

Simply select which products you want to sell and your minimum price and Firesell will take care of all the marketing and product listing.

Click here to join our early adopter's program to get early access to our system and give feedback on how we can help you maximize your multi-channel sales approach.