Sure-Fire Strategies to Sell Your Slow Moving Inventory

 

 

Sometimes products stay around longer than they should, or sales don’t go quite to plan.

It’s not always the product’s fault. How it’s described, positioned, marketed, and displayed on your website impacts sales performance.

Whatever the reason, the stock is there and it must go.

But, before you decide to donate the lot, check out these strategies to move the merchandise and improve your conversion rates at the same time.

 

Marketing 101

Let’s have a look at basic marketing. It’s defined as the act or business of promoting and selling goods or services. A healthy bottom line depends on how well a company markets its products.

Promotions are marketing. And because everyone loves a bargain, they come in many shapes and sizes.

When faced with a glut of slow-moving stock, most store owners immediately think “sale.” For customers, sales act as physiological triggers.

It’s an excellent first step but not foolproof. You have a better chance if you fine-tune your tactics and take a more focused approach.

So, what are these highly effective strategies to get rid of your old inventory?

 

Targeted Emails Bring Buyers and Products Together

Targeted emails work because personalization sells.

Let’s face it. Who doesn’t like to get exclusive offers tailored just for them? With slow-moving inventory, you must get it in front of the customers that are most likely to buy it.

But targeting can only work if you segment your list into buyer groups. Your database is the secret for getting your promotions to the right customer at the right time.

When new customers buy from you, you learn a little more about them. Every email signup, every sale you make should be gathering valuable information for your database. If your opt-in program isn’t doing the job, you need to be looking for another solution.

Everyone signs up for a different reason — was it a free offer, a giveaway, a first-time purchase or…? What started as a list of qualified leads becomes a mixed group of future clients and existing customers who’ve engaged with your brand.

Segmenting allows you to create highly targeted groups.

And with targeted emails, you focus on marketing your merchandise specifically to the individuals most likely to buy.

 

Use Seasonal Promotions to Move that Sluggish Stock

Seasonal or holiday promotions use the principle of scarcity. It’s best understood as; limited supply of product plus high demand for product equals increased value. As humans, we value scarce things.

With the extra value of a reduced price, adding even better savings, your offer becomes irresistible.

Christmas, Black Friday, Mother’s Day, Earth Day, in fact, any holiday can be used as a reason for a seasonal or holiday promotion. However, customers want relevant offers, so be sure to show holiday promotions at the right time and not after the date.

Take advantage of the scarcity principle and offer your old inventory for a short time only at a reduced price. Keep the marketing momentum going with a feature that counts down the days, hours, and minutes left before the promotion ends.

 

Sell Old Inventory with a Flash Sale

A flash sale is usually a (very) limited time offer you can use to get slow-moving stock out of your eCommerce store. They are a highly effective strategy for clearing out excess inventory. Enhance the urgency with a countdown timer on your website.

Flash Sale emails have an excellent reputation, giving much higher transaction rates when compared to other offers. On average, more than two times an increase in sales rates. Generally, Flash Sales generate a 35% lift in transactions, as shown below.

Running your flash sale in the evening is even more useful, as illustrated by this graph. Transaction rates are 23% higher for nighttime Flash Sales, compared to lunchtime sales, and revenue per email is 30% higher in the evening.

 

Market Static Stock Using an Up-sell Popup

Try an up-sell popup to offer your old inventory in several ways. With this tool, your eCommerce shop can offer the slow-moving stock with a “Customers who bought X, also bought Y” popup.

Automatically showing a direct offer to customers when they are buying, tempts them to purchase the suggested products. By offering relevant items, you can get more sales from an order.

 

Take advantage of the fact that people are impulsive purchasers and put your popup where they’re about to check out. Just don’t put too many options in your up-sell. Decision fatigue is very real.

An up-sell popup can also be used to offer items (at a reduced price) as a reward for making a purchase.

 

 A BOGO is Made for Slow-Moving Inventory

A buy one, get one free offer (BOGOs) is intended to disperse your stagnant stock. If your eCommerce shop is sitting with old products, a buy one, get one free offer gives your customers real value for money.

Because BOGOs encourage the clearing of inventory, they’re sometimes called self-liquidating campaigns. And your eCommerce business doesn’t have to be stock-based, BOGOs work for service-based companies too.

Few people can resist the lure of “free.” There isn’t a better deal around to entice customers to buy.

 

Bundle Up Your Products

Grouping items together lets you partner those not-so-popular products with fast-selling stock for better sales. Customers purchasing these bundles get a better deal, you clear slow-moving inventory and everybody wins.

By creating bundles, you’re putting products together that make sense as a collection. A cosmetic company may group eye-shadow, eyeliner, and mascara as a package. The eye-shadow may be old stock, but the mascara and eyeliner are popular products making the bundles sell fast.

This tactic takes the guesswork out of shopping for your customers. Buying grouped products instead of an individual item gives consumers the perception they are getting more value. It’s one of the reasons customers like gift sets and collections. Just don’t include any identical products.

 

How About Giving It All Away

This simple plan allows you to use your slow-moving stock as the basis for an easy giveaway that will boost your customer engagement.

You can run a giveaway where customers enter their names and emails for a chance to win one of several prizes. Of course, the rewards come from the old stock you need to move. The customers get the prize and you get the customer’s details for your database.

Present your visitors with a targeted offer at the perfect time using Yes/No style, multi-step forms. With a multi-step promotion, you can offer visitors two different lead magnets. By having two buttons for your campaign, you can double your call to action and increase your chance of a conversion.

Unlike other store owners who sit with unsold stock, you can offer the products to gain new email subscribers and grow your brand. Even if you have to write the old stock off as a monetary loss, it will be a worthy investment in your growth hacking strategy.

 

Let Slow-Moving Stock Inspire You

Every eCommerce business needs to grow its list. Your online store is no exception.

Possibly the best solution for your sluggish inventory would be to offer the products as incentives to add subscribers to your list.

Remember, people love freebies. Keep that in mind, and those slow-moving products can become a valuable marketing ploy.

Try one or more of these strategies to shift that sticky stock. Use old inventory to help sell your new products faster or motivate visitors to sign up for your mailing list.