How Liquidators Can Improve Your Profit Margins - Network Solutions

By Maria Valdez Haubrich

Are you looking for a new source of products for your ecommerce or retail business? Then you might want to consider liquidators. Liquidators are companies that sell all types of products in what are also called closeout, overstock or surplus sales. Liquidated products can range from furniture and appliances to clothing and electronics, and come from a wide range of sources, including companies that are going out of business or customer returns.

What can liquidators mean to your business? Because liquidated products are low-priced, they can be a great way to attract customers to your website or retail store. Sometimes you can get liquidated products so cheaply you can give them away as promotional products. Overall, incorporating liquidated products into your mix enables you to lower costs and increase your profit margins.

Of course, in order to make liquidators work for you, you need to find the right liquidators. There are many sources for liquidators:

• Contact individual retailers near you and see if you can buy their excess inventory. This is a smart way to avoid paying shipping fees since you can just pick up the goods yourself.
• Attend trade shows where liquidators congregate. TSNN.com has lists of trade shows you can search.
• Search the Internet for business-to-business websites that sell liquidated products, such as Liquidation.com.

You?ll want to be careful before doing business with a new liquidator to make sure the company is legitimate. Get references from the company and contact them before paying any money. Ask other business owners in your industry if they have worked with the company and what they are like. Use social media and the Internet to research any complaints against the business.

Some liquidators sell products on an auction basis. Before bidding in an auction, make sure you have figured out how much you can sell the product for and know the top price you can bid.

Whether purchasing at auction or not, it?s also crucial to know all the terms of the sale. Ask about guarantees, customer support (if any), and whether you can return or exchange product. In some cases, you may not get a lot of detail about what you?re buying, so these factors are extra-important.

Image by Flickr user mescon (Creative Commons)

The views expressed here are the author's alone and not those of Network Solutions or its partners.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 21st, 2012 at 6:00 am and is filed under Small Business, small business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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Source: http://www.networksolutions.com/smallbusiness/2012/08/how-liquidators-improve-profit/

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