Managing inventory is always a challenge and there's no perfect way of doing this. Too little inventory and you sell out, losing sales and potentially customers. Too much inventory and a business isn't using working capital efficient and stock sits idle.
Whether sales haven't been on target, poor weather has impacted shopping or a large customer cancels an order at the last minute, excess inventory is an issue for any business, regardless of size. Selling excess inventory makes room for new products, reduces storage costs and creates much needed liquidity for a business. The cost of excess inventory can be debilitating for a business, needlessly encumbering vital funds which could otherwise be used in marketing or launching new products.
The cost of excess inventory can be debilitating for a business, needlessly encumbering vital funds which could otherwise be used in marketing or launching new products.
Managing inventory effectively is essential for growing a business. Without this, too much working capital will be lost to inventory or too many sales will be lost from the inaccuracy of forecasts and, essentially, scaling your business becomes even more difficult.
The speed in which you have to or want to sell your excess stock, or the remaining shelf life of a perishable item, will have an impact on the price that you will receive. 
So what are the best ways of selling excess inventory fast?
1. Flash Sale
Flash sales are limited time/limited stock promotions designed for customers to take immediate advantage of and, in turn, selling excess stock quickly. Black Friday offers are a great example of flash sales and a great way to turnover excess inventory.
2. Bulk Discounts
Sales are great for one-off purchases or getting customers back for a repeat purchase but why not encourage customers to take advantage of bulk buy, especially for stock encumbering warehouse space. Bulk discounts increase average order values, a key metric in e-commerce, whilst saving money on per unit shipping cost and not to mention clearing excess stock quickly.
3. Liquidation Wholesalers
There are many liquidation wholesalers that will purchase excess inventory, in bulk. This enables you to sell excess inventory quickly. The downside is that the price will be heavily discounted. This is in order for the liquidation wholesaler to sell the stock on again quickly to retailers such as discounters, liquidation stores and online discount websites. Some wjolesaler
4. liquidation.store
liquidation.store is a new and innovative way of selling excess inventory. Operating as an online liquidation store, we cherry pick excess stock and liquidation inventory to provide our D2C customers with the best in flash sale offers. Simply fill in the form here, providing information about the excess stock and the team will get back to you.
We'll also be launching a brand led marketplace where brands can list their own excess stock listing and offers, fulfilling via dropshipping
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5. Amazon
Amazon is another effective way of selling excess stock but only if the product already exists on the platform. Should you need to create a new listing, Amazon's algorithm means that it will take a lot of time, sales velocity and marketing effort to gain an organic position for the stock to sell through. Season products or limited edition batches are notoriously difficult to sell on Amazon.
Amazon also has it's own liquidation facility whereby they will sell excess and aged inventory through their own network of liquidation wholesalers. But, as warned on their website 'The maximum recovered value is 5% to 20%* of the average selling price of your ASIN' - not a very attractive proposition.
To conclude, ensuring that you sell excess inventory quickly is vital to keep overheads down and freeing up working capital stuck in slow selling stock. The speed of selling this excess stock will be reflected in the offers that you will receive so be prepared and shop around.
Our team are ready and waiting to help you with any excess stock that you may have. You can email them here
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