What Is Meant by Liquidating the Amazon Inventory?

In any business, which sells certain products, will have to liquidate inventory at some point. Amazon’s inventory is no exception. It will require liquidation as well.

In essence, liquidation means to get rid of Amazon’s inventory that is not selling. As a seller, you find ways to sell the products that are left in the inventory, and nobody is purchasing. By doing this, you liquidate Amazon inventory stuck in the warehouses.

Now, a thought might pop into your mind. That is why there is a need to liquidate the products. Why can’t sellers wait until someone purchases items? Well, let’s look into the matter and tell you. Simply because the products left are taking up the warehouse space or inculcating storage costs.

So, let's clarify again in which cases you need to get rid of inventory:

1. The product is not simply selling. It happens, and you need to be ready for this. Yes, you've done a lot of doing product research, getting it into production, and shipping it to the warehouse. But there is no demand for it in the marketplace. Maybe you have made a mistake at some point. Perhaps the product would have been trending for a while, and while you went through from idea to its launch, it became uninteresting to buyers.
2. The product is seasonal. If this is your case, you should think about the problem of storing leftovers in advance. If you don't want to pay Amazon's commissions for storing inventory, you will have to think about what to do with it after the demand for it will fall.
3. The product belongs to the category of slow-moving items. In this case, you may simply have no time to sell it until the moment when Amazon starts to charge fees for long-term storage goods. And the problem of liquidation will still be yours. This is another reason why sellers liquidate Amazon inventory.
4. Sellers need to make room for new products, which are trending, or hot selling. If you want to stay on top, you are probably thinking about selling trending products. However, they also need space to store them. And if your old inventory just stocks in the warehouse and doesn't move anywhere, you just can’t ship new goods there due to Amazon FBA inventory storage limits. So, you may want to liquidate the good to keep selling profitably.

Therefore, it is better to sell it using various techniques and strategies. In this way, sellers can easily derive value out of their inventory left.

Effective Amazon FBA Inventory Liquidations Options to Get a Profit

Now, generally, there are 13 ways to Liquidate Amazon FBA Inventory.  The company provides sellers with the ability to dispose of slow-moving goods through the Amazon FBA Liquidation program. However, you need to understand that this should be the last option you’ll choose. Try other ways that we describe in this article first. And make your own decision about what to use for your business to get the most profit.

Below there're some great ways to liquidate slow-movie items on Amazon.

1. Decrease the price

The easiest and fastest way to liquidate inventory is to drop the prices. A good way is to check on the lowest prices offered by your competitors for a particular product. Of course, this path is the most obvious. And if your product is not outright, this method will give the results.

Don’t rush to reduce the price to a historical minimum immediately! You can do this gradually and observe how your sales grow. It is important to understand that there are hundreds of competitors in the marketplace. If you cut the price by 10 cents, don't expect hundreds of buyers. People need to see that you are offering a really cheap product compared to your competitors. In this case, they will buy your product more likely.

2. Start Using PPC

This is another way to get rid of Amazon inventory. If you haven't already done it, now is the time to start using ads. Without this feature, it is difficult to draw attention to a product, especially if it has been launched on Amazon recently. If you've got ad-free sales in the past, but things aren't going well right now, consider launching one. Amazon offers a variety of options, each of which has its own benefits. Test it to find the most effective way to sell a slow-moving product with profit.

3. Increase the PPC budget

This helps in driving and retaining consistent traffic to the listed products. This will ultimately boost sales.

The higher you raise your bids, the easier it is for you to win an auction against competitors and be shown to a potential client. Raise your bids so your ad will be shown to those who are really ready to buy the goods right now. The more people you will drive to your product listing, the higher the likelihood of selling it.

But remember that the listing must be optimized. Otherwise, you will waste money and will not get results.

4. Use alternative promotional methods

In this digital world, there are countless options for promotion. You can execute social media channels to market your discounted prices. If you approached the brand positioning correctly at the start of its development, you may have your own Facebook group, through which you communicate with your customers. Use it to invite loyal customers to purchase a product with a significant discount.

You can also use any available social media channel for these purposes: Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter. In short, think about where your audience is and use that channel to attract customers.

You can hire influencers to promote your products. It can also benefit your business. Influencers have a very loyal audience that trusts them. Their recommendations can provide a good boost for stockpiling product sales.

5. Use Google Ads, Facebook Ads

You can use Google Ads, Facebook Ads. This is one of the best Amazon FBA inventory liquidation options.

Using other advertising sources can help you to reach more potential buyers. The difficulty is that setting up ads on Google and Facebook will most likely require hiring a specialist. But in return, you get more potential customers. If your offer is really worthwhile, sales will be growing.

6. Use deal websites

Your customers may not want to purchase a product, no matter what you do. But there are other potential buyers who may want to buy it at a discount. There are many deal sites where you can upload a product for sale at a discount. The audience of such sites is focused on buying, so it will be easier for you to reach the goal.

Think about the amount of the discount you want to offer. You can try to sell the product in such a way to get the minimum profit. If it doesn't work out, you can always make a total sale later.

7. Sell your products on other e-commerce platforms

Don’t limit yourself to Amazon marketplace. Because other e-commerce platforms have their own dedicated customers who might be interested in your products. Moreover, with this, you can reach local and regional potential customers.

You may need to study the specifics of selling on such marketplaces. However, if it will bring sales, why don’t you give it a chance?

8. Use the Amazon Outlet

Not everyone likes to shop online. For such consumers, you can opt for an effective method. Amazon commands a chain of retail outlets throughout the country. Simply, you can sell the products there to liquidate inventory that is not selling.

If you have slow-moving inventory, you can take the chance to sell through Amazon Outlet. Deals with a significant discount are published in this section. To do this, you must create a Create Outlet deal on the Manage Inventory Health page.

Not all products can take part in such deals due to a low product rating or low seller rating. There are some other points you should know to get a chance to be listed on Amazon Outlet. However, it is still worth to consider such an opportunity, because this is a good chance to sell the product quickly. Buyers often visit this section on Amazon. And if your product is visible here, you will get additional listing traffic and increase sales.

9. Sell Bundles

You can sell products using the bundle's option on Amazon. This is a great opportunity to increase sales of slow-moving inventory by combining it with the top-rated goods in your product line. However, to create bundles, you need to understand the Amazon requirements. In short, the products in a bundle should complement each other and provide value and value for the customer. In addition, bundles must be packed and labeled according to Amazon Recommendations. Don’t neglect the rules, study everything before creating a bundle. Otherwise, you harm your business.

10. Enroll in FBA Donations Program

By choosing this option, you liquidate your inventory for a noble cause. Amazon helps you to donate your inventory to benefit selected charities and NGOs in the US.

Of course, this will not bring you a profit in the form of money. But you will get a different kind of profit - the satisfaction of being able to help someone who needs your goods. In any case, this option is better than simply destroying the product that is not selling well.

11. Sell to your competitors

Why don’t you sell your inventory to competitors? Perhaps this is still unusual for you. But don’t miss out on this option to liquidate inventory which is slow-moving. If your competitors are doing better than you, you can offer them to buy your goods at a bargain price.  You eliminate the slow-moving product and get a small profit. Competitors receive goods at a discount, save on delivery, and don’t out of stock. It’s profitable, isn't it?

Perhaps not everyone will agree to do this. However, you should definitely try this method so as not to incur losses.

12. Return the inventory to the supplier

The success of this option depends on how you associate with the manufacturer. If you have strong communication skills and are ready to negotiate with the supplier, try to connect with him to resolve this problem. Sometimes they are willing to accept the item back or exchange it for another that you can sell. This can be beneficial because every supplier wants to retain their customer. If you don’t sell, not only you are losing money, but your supplier does it too. After all, you can order a new batch of goods only when you sell the inventory that you already have.

However, do not expect every supplier to agree to this. Moreover, if you have just started working with him, he will not risk and will refuse you. But you can still try!

13. Sell to a liquidator

Probably the easiest way to sell off your stocks is to cooperate with a liquidator. He is a reseller who buys your items and then resells them through his own retail network or looks for other ways to sell your products.

This option is good for you for several reasons:

• the number of liquidators is large enough, so you can easily find someone who will buy your product;
• you practically do not perform any additional work; you save your time;
• you can negotiate to find a compromise price that suits you and the liquidator.

But there are disadvantages:

• the cost of the goods is very low, so your profit, in this case, may be negligible or not be at all;
• you have no control over what happens to your inventory after the liquidator will buy it; this may negatively affect your brand if you plan to launch other products using it in the future;
• you may have to take care of transporting the goods to the liquidator.

Therefore, when choosing this option, rely primarily on the price that you are offered. If it suits you, you can use this option to liquidate Amazon inventory.

14. Destroy inventory

Now, Amazon is taking care of the most important functions for you through FBA. The company provides liquidation services for sellers.  So, if the methods described above do not give you the result you want, destroy the inventory using Amazon FBA inventory liquidation options.

Create an Amazon Removal Order and specify the Method of removal as Dispose of. You will pay Disposal Order Fee for this. Such a case is more profitable for you because this commission is slightly lower than Amazon Removal Fee. If the goods from the warehouse you have nowhere to sell after removing them, then it’s better to dispose of them so as not to lose more.

You have no control over how Amazon will fulfill your removal order, and you cannot know what exactly happens to your inventory. If you don't plan to sell goods using this brand then don't worry about it and liquidate Amazon FBA inventory by using such an option.

But in general, this strategy is worth as a last resort, because you will not make a profit and will pay a fee.

Final Words

All the ways to liquidate the Amazon FBA Inventory are proven to be effective.  But you must understand that each product will be effective in different ways. And if one of the strategies does not bring the expected result, try another one. This is important if you are aiming to make a profit, even if the product isn’t very popular at this moment. So, keep selling it, cause it’s profitable!