Just as is the case with every High Street retailer in business, those with e-commerce stores occasionally need to do a little inventory spring cleaning.  As the seasons change and customer spending habits shift, you often find yourself with an inventory that isn’t exactly comprised exclusively of top-selling items.  Quite to the contrary in fact – you find yourself with a mixed bag of all sorts.

So when the time comes to give your own e-commerce inventory a little TLC, what’s the best way of getting the job done effectively and efficiently?

Sale Vs Clearance

Well, first of all it is important to acknowledge the fact that there is a difference between a sale and a clearance. The difference being that while a sale is designed to increase unit sales and drive customer interest, the purpose of a clearance is to reduce inventory – often to zero. Clearance items tend to be those that retailers cannot get rid of and may to a certain extent already have made a loss on. As such, it’s worth considering which items in your existing inventory fit into which bracket.

Stagnant Stock Is Costing You Money

With the exception of high quality wine, products that sit around doing nothing for extended periods of time do nothing other than cost you money. The longer stagnant stock sticks around, the higher the likelihood that the packaging will be damaged, the manufacturer will change the packaging, a newer replacement product will be introduced or that shifts in consumer buying habits mean you’ll never get rid of it. One of the keys to success when it comes to e-commerce is that of being as ruthless as necessary to ensure that you do not allow stagnant stock to stick around and cost you money.

Target Your Best Customers

If you have made the decision to go about a stock clearance, you might want to think about bringing it to the attention of your best customers first. The reason being that not only are your best customers more likely to take advantage of your clearance offer, but by giving them the exclusive opportunity to take advantage of a special deal can work wonders for customer retention and driving sales in general.  And of course, you can then always send the announcement out to the other 90% of your customers, if your best buyers don’t snap up what you’re getting rid of.

Position Prominently

Rather than simply dedicating a page of your e-commerce website to clearance items, consider instead positioning them prominently across the rest of your pages. Just as you would highlight your newest, best and proudest products, it can also be extremely effective to bring the products you are desperately trying to get rid of right to the forefront of your website. Quite simply, it’s a case of making it fundamentally impossible for any of your customers not to see your clearance items.

Sell Elsewhere

Last but not least, it’s always worth remembering that if you have merchandise you simply cannot seem to get rid of, there are always alternative selling avenues to explore. One of the simplest and most effective of all being to use online auction sites and marketplaces, where you are largely guaranteed to find someone willing to buy absolutely anything you are looking to sell. You might not necessarily get a fantastic price, but you’ll certainly get more than you would if you were to just sit by and watch your products gather dust for the next 20 years!