Merchandise is a very important part of any business enterprise. These are the commercial goods which are available for sale to clients. They include the commodities, wares, personal goods and products that are sold in wholesale or retail. It is possible for a business to have too much merchandise in their inventory. This is one of the situations that business owners try their best to avoid. This is because excess merchandise in their inventory takes up shelf space, ties up capital, prevents cash flow and inhibits your ability to invest in your own business. Should you find that there is excess merchandise in your inventory, here are 10 ways to liquidate excess inventory.

Refresh and re-market the merchandise


Marketing a product in a different way is a method that can be used to sell excess merchandise. You can also place it in a different spot in your store. This refreshes the products and lets clients see them in a different light. This can increase the sales and help sell excess merchandise.

Sell it at a discount

Reducing its prices is an effective way to sell excess merchandise. Discounting products helps to sell them faster. You can create a flash sale of discounted products to create a sense of urgency during sale. Doing this sells excess merchandise and increases your customer base. Major department stores such as Macy's use this strategy.

Bundle items together

This is where you group related items together and sell them at a price which is lower than selling them individually. This strategy helps to sell many more items with a low impact on profit. Bundled products actually create a win-win situation for customers.

Give away excess merchandise

You can identify low cost items in your inventory and give them away. They can be offered for free upon the purchase of other items. These goods can be offered for free if you spend a certain amount of money in the store.

Return the products

In some industries, you can return the excess merchandise to your suppliers for credit or new ones. If you have a good relationship with your vendors, you can return these products for more recent versions. Moreover, they can be handed in for credit. This is a method of taking advantage of the customer-vendor relationship.

Sell it online

An effective way of selling excess merchandise is exposing it to a large customer base. The Internet is a perfect location for this. There are websites which offer the opportunity to sign up and sell your merchandise. Examples of these are eBay, Etsy and Amazon. Simply create a page and profile for your products and sell them to online customers.

Sell to liquidation companies

There are some companies which specialize in taking inventory off the hands of businesses. They are known as liquidation companies and buy your excess merchandise. While they pay very low prices for your items, they can help to take excess inventory from you and free up space for fresh items. There are many liquidation buying companies, such as my business, Closeout Explosion, as well as other companies like Via Trading, CloseoutCentral.com, Kole Imports, and DNA Closeouts. 

You can also use online auction companies such as Liquidation.com and BStock.com to clear out your unsold goods.

Donate the items and gain special advantages

Instead of having inventory filling up your storage, you can donate it and enjoy advantages such as tax benefits and marketing opportunity. You can enjoy tax benefits whenever you donate items from your store to charity organizations. This also gives you an opportunity to create favorable exposure for your enterprise. 

I have donated some of my excess merchandise to Ohel, a Brooklyn social services agency that runs foster homes and women's shelters, and to a toy drive run through Tomche Shabbos, a Kosher food pantry in Brooklyn.

Create discounts for bulk purchases

An effective way to get rid of excess inventory in your store is to create discounts for bulk purchases. For example, you can have an offer where clients get a free item whenever they buy another. Such offers can spur purchases and help to eliminate your excess merchandise.

Turn your excess merchandise into gifts

An effective way to eliminate any excess merchandise is to make it gifts for your customers. For example, you can offer a free item whenever they refer a new customer to your store. This turns your customers into friends and word of mouth marketers.

Conclusion

Having excess merchandise in your store can slow down the growth of your business. Customers want to see new merchandise on a frequent basis, plus merchandise that sits around too long tends to not look as fresh as recently arrived products. Therefore, it is important to liquidate old stock.