More and more people are being led to start their own business as a means to produce extra income due to our struggling economy. Online or offline, people are looking for merchandise to resell, and they’re discovering the advantages of the wholesale liquidation industry.
The traditional wholesale industry, for the small reseller, usually places the purchasing of name brand merchandise well out of reach because of high initial purchase requirements in place by product distributors and manufacturers. The small reseller simply cannot fork over $50-$100k for an opening purchase of electronics, apparel, etc.
Problem solved! Purchase wholesale pallets of liquidation merchandise.
For those who are looking to start a part or full time business, wholesale liquidation merchandise (customer returns, shelf pulls, odd lots, etc.) represent the most economical way to source name brand merchandise at fair pricing.
The wholesale liquidation industry is made possible because retail stores, catalog companies, manufacturers, and importers have merchandise that needs to be sold at drastically reduced pricing. This stock is often sold in pallet and truckload quantities to small, independent resellers who place items on eBay, Amazon.com, and the shelves of small discount stores Nationwide.
Not so fast, watch out for the learning curve!
Before you jump in to start your own business selling customer returns, shelf pulled items, and closeouts, make sure you’ve done your homework in reference to liquidation suppliers and overall merchandise conditions. Buying excess consumer retail merchandise is unlike traditional wholesale purchasing; items should not be considered new and can exhibit varying degrees of damage. There is risk involved as you, for the most part, are buying pallets and truckloads of merchandise sight unseen.
Often a liquidation buyer receives little information about the merchandise he is about to purchase. Most of the time, pallets and truckloads are minimally described and you might have some sort of manifest (written inventory list), but that’s usually the extent of information you will receive prior to a purchase. The liquidation buyer typically does not know the overall condition of merchandise he is about to purchase (broken, disheveled, soiled, etc).
I’ve written a complete liquidation product sourcing course entitled, The Liquidators Guide, where I share my experience, thoughts, and suggestions for purchasing and reselling distressed merchandise. As mentioned earlier, here is a tremendous learning curve for those who want to take advantage of purchasing liquidation merchandise. Without careful research and a well devised product sourcing plan, individual buyers stand to lose a great deal of time and money buying the wrong merchandise from the wrong sources.
This is one of our many Liquidation Boot Camp posts where we talk about the basics of liquidation product sourcing. If you’re new to the idea of purchasing liquidations, please review more Liquidation Boot Camp Posts here.
