Turn Your Dead Stock and Excess Inventory Into Assets – Part II – Cont’d

by | Dec 15, 2013 | Stocking Decisions

For the past few months we have been discussing how to identify and dispose of your dead stock and excess inventory.  This month we discuss how you can use the internet to help you turn your unwanted material into cash.

There are several reasons why you should utilize the internet when liquidating unwanted material:

  1.  You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to take advantage of this method of inventory liquidation.  There are many established “surplus market place” sites.  To locate ones that will help you the most, perform a web search with the words “surplus” and “inventory” followed by the product line containing the items you would like to liquidate.  If you have a considerable amount of inventory  you would like to liquidate, consider subscribing to an inventory sharing service; WarehouseTwo.com is a good example of on these cooperative sites.
  2. Websites can be easily updated as you sell unwanted material and discover other products you want to liquidate.
  3. The internet is continually available to your potential customers.  They can search for products they need 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
  4. The internet provides you with a world-wide market.  A product may no longer be used in your area, but it is still needed by customers in other regions or countries.

 

You must realize that not all excess material can be sold over the internet.  Look at the following graph that depicts a product’s internet sales potential:

 EIM_image 12-13

 

 

 

 

 

 

Excellent – Generic products (or products whose quality is assumed by buyers) that have a large number of potential customers and a large number of possible applications or uses.

Good – Generic products (or products whose quality is assumed by buyers) that have a large number of potential customers but a small number of possible applications or uses.

Fair – Products with a large number of uses but a low number of potential customers.  You will probably get better results if you directly approach these customers.

Poor – Products with a small number of uses and potential customers.

Combined with the other inventory liquidation methods we have previously discussed, the internet will help you remove the “fat” (i.e., unwanted stock) from your inventory.  Remember that inventory is not worth what you paid for it……it is worth what someone else is willing to pay you for it.