Unwanted Inventory: Decoding the Excess Inventory Lingo.

Every business, from retail giants to local warehouses, have to deal with the problem of closeouts, excess stock and unwanted inventory at some point. These terms might seem interchangeable, but there are subtle differences between closeouts, excess inventory, discontinued items, and abandoned stock. Understanding these distinctions is crucial for devising effective strategies to clear out unwanted items from the warehouse, and free up valuable space.

We will dive into the world of unwanted inventory, explaining the various types, the reasons behind its existence, and most importantly, how to get rid of closeouts and excess inventory as effectively as possible.

What is the Difference Between Closeouts and Excess?

• Closeouts: These are items a business decides to sell at a significant discount to clear them out quickly. Reasons for closeouts can be seasonal changes (think winter coats in summer), outdated styles, or simply needing to make space for new products. Getting rid of old products is an age-old problem and something all companies should be working on regularly. Inventory liquidators can be helpful in buying up stock sitting in the warehouse, and another option would be closeout websites and liquidation websites selling unwanted inventory
• Excess Inventory: This refers to having more stock of a particular item than you can sell within a reasonable time frame. It can happen due to miscalculations in demand forecasting, unexpected changes in consumer preferences, or bulk purchasing gone wrong. Whether you have excess inventory of houseware products, overstock lawn and garden goods or overstock hardware items, the goal is to offload inventory before it becomes too costly to hold.
• Overstock Products: This is a subset of excess inventory. Overstock products are typically still relevant and usable, but the quantity exceeds what the business can realistically sell at its regular price point. In this case it may be better to offload the excess inventory and make room for new products arriving. If you are moving warehouses and downsizing, you can try searching for an inventory liquidator online. Look for buyers of closeouts, overstock merchandise, companies that liquidate excess inventory, shutting down business operations, going out of business and offloading entire warehouse of products, closing Amazon seller account, looking to liquidate inventory.
• Discontinued Items: These are products a company in liquidation has decided to permanently stop manufacturing or selling. Reasons can include low sales performance, changes in technology, or a shift in business focus. You might also want to get rid of canceled orders and discontinued products due to needing to clear out your warehouse, downsizing warehouses, or going out of business by end of the year. Closeout housewares, overstock sporting goods and excess inventory of lawn and garden products are all examples where you may need to reduce inventory.
• Abandoned Inventory: This is leftover stock from a closed business, a failed product launch, or returned merchandise that cannot be resold. It often sits unused and deteriorates in storage facilities. These unsold goods are too expensive to continue paying storage fees and it's much cheaper to offload the inventory. Liquidation stock to buy often is from this king of a situation, and the goods have to be sold to closeout liquidators and removed from the warehouse because they are too expensive to keep.

The Cost of Clutter:

Clearly, the most important thing in business is to keep selling and keep turning goods. This is a great reason to sell old inventory and keep replacing it with fresh goods. Liquidation companies and inventory liquidators can help with this because they are always in the market for discount merchandise. There has even been an increase in demand among deep discount retail chains and an increase in consumer spending on overstock products, excess inventory, liquidation products and other abandoned inventory. If you want to sell your excess inventory this would be a great time to discontinue merchandise, get rid of old stock and clear stock from the warehouse.

Unwanted inventory is a drag on any business. It ties up valuable storage space, eats into cash flow, and requires ongoing maintenance and management. Additionally, older stock can become damaged or obsolete, leading to further losses.

Here's a breakdown of the hidden costs associated with unwanted inventory and excess stock:

• Storage Costs: Warehousing and storage space come at a premium. Excess inventory and other excess products occupy space that could be used for more profitable products. When you don't have enough room for new products arriving, it is time to consider offloading merchandise at a loss. This may be painful, but in the long run it is much better than paying warehouse fees for dead stock, month after month.
• Carrying Costs: These include insurance, security, handling, and potential spoilage of the items. When you figure out how much you are really paying to store old merchandise you will probably decide to get rid of all your closeouts and excess merchandise for whatever somebody will give you. Take offers, have auctions, contact inventory liquidation buyers, call buyers for overstock products, whatever. Just get rid of the unwanted products.
• Lost Sales Opportunities:Overstocked items can take up valuable shelf space, hindering the visibility and accessibility of more in-demand products. If you haven't done a deep dive recently into how old your inventory is, this may be a good time. Getting rid of stock that hasn't sold in the past 1-2 years is a great idea for keeping the inventory fresh, making room in the warehouse for new products arriving, and generating cash flow. Your customers aren't interested in buying old and outdated closeouts. So, get rid of your excess inventory that's been sitting in the warehouse, clear old stock to inventory liquidators and reliable closeout buyers and overstock buyers.
• Price Reductions:Businesses often have to resort to deep discounts to sell off unwanted inventory, impacting profit margins. For example, if you are closing your warehouse at the end of the month and need to offload inventory, consider reaching out to an inventory liquidation specialist. This is a company that only buys overstocked products and re-sells them to secondary markets so they don't disrupt your everyday distribution channels. This way, you can get rid of overstock merchandise that isn't selling, make room in the warehouse for new products and not have to rent more warehouse space at high cost.

Strategies for Clearing Out Unwanted Inventory:

TNow that we understand the different types of unwanted inventory and their associated costs, let's explore some practical strategies for getting rid of closeouts, excess inventory, unwanted items and abandoned stock.

• Promotions and Discounts:Strategic sales campaigns with significant price reductions can entice bargain hunters and clear out excess stock. Consider flash sales, bundle deals, or promotions targeted towards specific customer segments. Flash sales are a good way to offload excess inventory because they create a level of excitement that is often required to get a group of closeout buyers and inventory liquidators excited about buying bulk merchandise.
• Liquidation Sales: Partnering with a liquidation company, inventory liquidator or other buyer for excess products can be a quick and efficient way to offload large quantities of unwanted inventory. Liquidators typically buy the stock at a discounted rate and handle the reselling process themselves.
• Online Marketplaces: There are numerous online platforms like eBay, Amazon Marketplace, or Facebook Marketplace where businesses can sell their unwanted inventory directly to consumers. Closeout websites and online inventory liquidation sites have become quite popular in the past 5 years. Getting rid of overstock and excess inventory online with bulk closeout buyers and closeout websites can be an effective way to liquidate.
• Donations and Charity Sales: Donating unwanted items, excess products stuck in the warehouse, closeouts and other overstock merchandise to charities, or holding charity sales, can be a win-win scenario. It clears storage space, generates a tax deduction, and benefits a good cause. One of the great things about getting rid of closeouts is that you give low-income buyers an opportunity to get great stuff at reduced prices. Just because you are having trouble liquidating products and getting rid of merchandise doesn’t necessarily mean you have bad inventory. It simply means your pricing may be too high. Old inventory and abandoned products can become new and exciting inventory if repriced to lower price levels.
• Repurposing and Bundling: Get creative! Can you repurpose some of the unwanted inventory into new products or bundles? This strategy might be particularly useful for raw materials or slightly outdated items. For example, if you have old inventory of kids toys that isn’t selling, can you bundle these with some closeout sporting goods for kids and sell as a package? Getting creative can be a great way to get rid of closeouts and other excess products. You can have an inventory liquidation sale and bundle like items together!
• Return Policy Review: Analyze your return policy and consider tightening it up if excessive returns are contributing to unwanted inventory. Often, returns pile up in the warehouse and create a clutter of dead stock. If you limit the things, you are willing to take back, you will also decrease the amount of excess inventory taking up space in the warehouse. If you are keen to clear stock this is a good place to start. Whether you have a large warehouse filled with bulk closeouts or a smaller storage area overloaded with unwanted items, consider returns.

Preventing Unwanted Inventory in the Future:

The best way to deal with unwanted inventory, abandoned products, excess stock and closeouts in general, is to prevent it from happening in the first place. Here are some proactive measures you can take:

• Accurate Demand Forecasting: Use data-driven tools and historical sales trends to accurately predict customer demand. Consumer demand changes quickly; companies that liquidate inventory are busier than ever due to the massive amount of excess inventory currently on the market. Consumers have all kinds of choices, and they have become finicky shoppers. Liquidation companies have to carefully choose what bulk inventory offers they are willing to invest in. Slow selling inventory that just sits on pallets in the warehouse is dead stock. It doesn’t make any money – in fact, it costs money in high warehouse costs, and it takes up valuable warehouse space needed for new products arriving. Getting rid of closeouts and liquidating old inventory should always be a top priority
• Just-in-Time Inventory Management: This method focuses on receiving inventory only when it's needed for production or sales, minimizing the risk of overstocking. If you only buy inventory as you need it, you won’t be storing all kinds of overstock products hoping a buyer comes along. Liquidation buyers and other companies that buy overstock products are only going to be interested if the prices are low. What this means is pricing has to be low enough that the goods can be sold because it is such a great deal, customers can’t pass it up. If regular price for dog leases and collars was $19.99 retail and they can be bought as a closeout deal for $1.00, you won’t get many questions and you should be able to liquidate the inventory quickly.

Merchandise USA has been in the closeout liquidation business almost 40 years. When a business needs to unload merchandise to make room for new products, they typically offer something called closeouts or an inventory liquidation sale. Seasonal goods, overstock products, abandoned inventory, old products replaced by newer goods and returns are all typical examples of closeouts. These are products that are sold below original wholesale costs to liquidators, overstock companies and closeout suppliers. They are often referred to as bulk sales. This is where Merchandise USA can help you.

We buy brand name closeouts for resale. Excess inventory buyers look for excess stock that can typically be purchased for 10 cents on the dollar. At these prices, businesses can resell closeouts for significant discounts. They may be overstock housewares, excess inventory of toys, closeout lawn and garden, abandoned stock of sporting goods, home decor, or any other product where the warehouse had too much inventory. Closeout buyers are always on the lookout for these deals on overstock merchandise.

There are many product lines that simply will not – can not – be sold, even in a business liquidation if you are approaching the wrong market. For example, if you have a company that sells pet related merchandise it is unlikely you will be able to continue with business as usual if you try liquidating overstock inventory to a customer base that specializes in lawn and garden closeouts. We are seeing unprecedented changes in the way business is being done post pandemic. We are looking at more offers than ever of excess inventory, surplus merchandise and unsold or unwanted products. Companies are closing down and downsizing warehouses, they are moving warehouses in an effort to find cheaper storage, and looking for other ways to reduce inventory. So, for many reasons there is a large volume of excess merchandise that is getting liquidated. But we are faced with the same challenges as every other business. We can only buy those categories of merchandise that fit the needs of our customers.

Merchandise USA can help you through the liquidation and closeout process. If you need to liquidate inventory and need product liquidation companies, Merchandise USA can help. We buy overstock merchandise of all consumer goods, and we can help if you are having a business liquidation, shutting down operations or moving and downsizing your warehouse. If you are keen to clear stock from your warehouse we can buy the entire inventory of liquidation goods.