Finding Your B-Stock Supply Solution

Finding the right supply for the merchandise you sell through your online resale business is crucial to the success of said business. There are plenty of ways to source the merchandise you sell on online marketplaces such as Amazon, but some have more benefits than others. So let’s look at a couple of solutions that stand out.

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The Traditional Solution to B-Stock Supply

Traditionally, you would be looking to source B-Stock through wholesalers. These are companies that purchase merchandise directly from retailers but the truckload. The merchandise then gets picked apart and sorted by type, condition or whichever way the wholesaler find it fitting and then offered for sale with a wholesaler’s markup.

As a buyer, this is a good option for several reasons. Buying directly from a retailer or manufacturer when you are operating on a tight budget is almost impossible since the majority have a very high minimum bid requirement. This means you are buying at wholesale prices, which provides you with some headroom for profit.

But there is one more supply solution that will give you even more room for profit: liquidation companies.

Buying B-Stock Through Liquidation Companies

Liquidation companies have previously been tied to trash, used items and usually bad quality merchandise that no one wanted to buy, often from closed down companies that couldn’t manage to sell their own stock.

Nowadays, however, things have changed and liquidation companies have harnessed the power of the internet to work in their favor. First, a number of reputable liquidation companies have joined forces with leading retailers and manufacturers to offer higher quality merchandise. Additionally, some, like Direct Liquidation, have set up online platforms that enable retailers and manufacturers to directly advertise and sell their B-Stock.

The benefit that comes out of this is that retailers such as Walmart and Target are now able to sell their B-Stock directly to small buyers, avoiding wholesalers and keeping the price even below wholesale.

So let’s further explore the benefits of buying from one source or the other.

Wholesalers vs. Liquidators: The Best B-Stock Supply Option

As noted above, the price is the main differentiator in this head to head comparison. Wholesalers usually add a markup to the merchandise they buy from retailers and then resell to other buyers. By using liquidation companies as their platform, retailers avoid the wholesalers and with it the buyer avoids the wholesaler’s markup. This means the purchase price is below wholesale and the profit margin is even higher.

The retailer’s confidence in the quality of the merchandise is reflected in the 3-year warranty added to the B-Stock items as well as a new 30-day money-back guarantee.

But again, there are some differences. Wholesalers will usually go through the merchandise, cherry picking the best items to sell them on their own or in ‘top quality’ lots to maximize their profit. This means that when buying lots from wholesalers, you are often missing out on really good items.

Compared to that, B-Stock sold through liquidation platforms is advertised ‘as is’. This means that the merchandise is packed by the retailer and ships out of the retailer’s warehouse. This also means that no cherry picking was done before the merchandise has been offered to you.

Both quality wholesalers and reputable liquidators will offer a manifest showing what is inside a pallet or a lot as well as the type and the quantity of the merchandise with short descriptions. Keep in mind that if a wholesaler or a liquidator provides minimum info or no information at all, it is best to stay away from that source.

Merchandise availability is often an issue for some sellers, especially if they are dealing with seasonal merchandise. That is why it is usually advised to build a network of wholesale suppliers to work with in order to have more supply sources and minimize the chance of running low on running out of stock. Although beneficial, it is a lot more work to find and maintain relationships with a number of wholesalers and stay on top of their inventory and merchandise availability.

When buying through liquidation companies, you are buying directly from the retailer. With the merchandise throughput the likes of Walmart and Target have at any given time of the year, it is easy to secure ample supply for any season.

Why is B-Stock Interesting?

When offering merchandise to your customers, you are looking to provide items of high quality followed up by quality service as you want the customer to be satisfied and return again sometime in the future.

As noted above, the quality of this merchandise is not the issue. But for further clarification, let us look at what B-Stock actually is and why it is raising so much interest.

When retailers sell the merchandise online or in their brick and mortar stores, they offer a customer-favoring return policy under which they return your money back if you return the products within the first 30-days. However, to be classified as B-Stock, the returned items need to be in brand new or near new condition. These items are then repackaged and sold as B-Stock. It is this quality and the added warranty as well as a new 30-day money-back guarantee that makes these products interesting for the buyers.

What you are left to do is purchase a pallet of B-Stock, go through the merchandise once it arrives and take your time to write detailed descriptions, take appealing photos from many angles and list all the products one by one on your ecommerce platform.

If you buy through the liquidation company, the room for profit is certainly higher as the merchandise is sold at prices below wholesale, allowing you to stay competitive in any market. And nowadays, every market is tight and prices are nearing wholesale. This means that buying through wholesalers makes you question whether continuing with the business is worth your time and effort. Buying through liquidation companies certainly erases this question out of your mind.

Direct Liquidation is a goTRG company.

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