Should I Buy B-stock For My Business?

If you run a retail business, you’ll no doubt get the merchandise your business requires from a traditional wholesale source. This used to be all well and good in the past, as even with the premium a wholesaler added to each pallet of goods it sold, there was still enough margin between wholesale and retail prices that your business could make a healthy profit.

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Sadly, things have begun to change in such a way that buying merchandise in this way is becoming less and less profitable. The reason? Wholesalers simply aren’t able to sell businesses wholesale merchandise at a reasonable price anymore, instead offering prices that are closer to retail than they are wholesale.

This could well spell disaster for small retail businesses in particular, where any change in wholesale pricing may lead to a drop in customers and thus a drop in revenue. Is there a solution to this dilemma? Thankfully, the answer is yes. By buying pallets of B-stock merchandise for your business, you can ensure you still have a steady flow of cheap, affordable merchandise that will guarantee your business stays profitable.

What Is B-Stock?

When stores sell new merchandise to customers, it is classified as ‘A-stock’. Most of this stock is covered by a store’s returns policy, meaning the customer has a time-specific period in which they can change their mind and return the goods they have purchased back to the retailer for a refund.

Once the retailer accepts this stock back, it is no longer legally allowed to be classified as ‘A-stock’, despite the fact that it is still brand new. Instead, the merchandise is downgraded to ‘B-stock’ and is classified as second hand or ‘used’.

As you can imagine, this type of stock causes retailers – the larger ones in particular – a considerable logistical headache. No longer able to sell B-stock as brand-new merchandise, they must somehow store it away in warehouses designed for new stock. And as you can imagine, when you’re talking about retailers the size of Amazon, Walmart and Lowe’s Hardware, that’s a lot of B-stock they’re taking back each month, and therefore a lot of space to find that could be housing brand new merchandise.

So, what do the retailers do with all this surplus B-stock? Companies such as Target and Walmart are not discounters or resellers, so the stock can’t simply be put back on shelves and resold at a lower price; so what do they do? The answer is they work with wholesalers and liquidators who provide them with platforms through which they can sell their B-stock at a considerably lower price to businesses.

And because most of this technically brand-new stock usually comes with attached warranties, it’s cheap, top-quality stock that’s very attractive to customers because it comes with certain assurances and protections.

Should Your Business Buy B-Stock From A Traditional Wholesaler?

Buying merchandise wholesale is a great way of providing your business with great-quality merchandise at a vastly reduced price. But who is it best to buy from? Many people think the best thing to do is go to a traditional wholesale source and ask for B-stock.

While this may be an attractive idea because wholesalers can offer bulk purchases in the form of pallets and even truckloads, there are problems associated with buying from this type of supplier.

Firstly, there’s the aforementioned premium that wholesalers apply to their sales. As well as paying for a pallet of goods from a wholesaler, you’ll also be paying a premium so the wholesaler can make a profit. Secondly, it’s not unusual for wholesalers to sift through pallets of merchandise, cherry-pick the best stuff and bundle this merchandise up into new pallets they can sell for considerably more money while palming off pallets of lesser priced, less desirable merchandise to unsuspecting customers. Add to that the fact some unscrupulous wholesalers alter manifests to make pallets of junk sound more attractive and you have a recipe for disaster.

You may, of course, avoid all of these pitfalls and find a wholesaler (or several) through which you can buy B-stock at a good price with plenty of margin left over even after paying the wholesaler’s premium. But there is a way of cutting out the wholesaler middleman altogether, thus guaranteeing your business avoids all of the above, and that’s to buy wholesale B-stock directly from a liquidator instead.

The Advantages Of Buying B-Stock From A Liquidator

Unlike wholesalers (who often buy from liquidators as well and then charge a premium), liquidators deal directly with big-name retailers, offering them platforms on their liquidation sales websites through which they can sell their unwanted B-stock direct to businesses in pallets or truckloads, usually via live auctions.

The retailers prefer to deal directly with liquidators as they have the capacity and logistical know-how to deal with large quantities of B-stock, thus aiding retailers in freeing up their warehouse spaces quickly and efficiently, while still seeing a return on goods they have no choice but to treat as used.

Top-tier liquidation specialists sell B-stock on their retail partners’ via live liquidation auctions which take place on their online liquidation marketplaces every day. Unlike wholesalers, liquidators do not cherry pick pallets of B-stock and they do not manipulate manifests. They simply list what the retailer has to offer on a ‘what you see is what you get’ basis, and auction it off on the retailers’ behalf.

This means you’ll find pallets of top-quality B-stock from some of the giants of the retail industry such as Target, Lowe’s, Amazon and Walmart being auctioned off at prices that won’t break the bank, and are way lower than the merchandise’s total MSRP value. This will leave plenty of room to make your business a healthy profit when the time comes to sell on to your customers.

If you’re on the lookout for top-quality B-stock that could transform your business’ finances and future prospects in a stroke, we recommend you check out what a top-tier liquidation specialist such as Direct Liquidation has to offer your business today. B-stock is a great way to stock your business with ‘as new’ wholesale merchandise bought in bulk for a lot less than it’s worth that can then be sold to customers at a very low price, thus keeping the competition at bay and the profits rolling on in. Looking for B-stock? Look no further than an online liquidation marketplace.

Direct Liquidation is a goTRG company.

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Henley Johnson

Henley currently works as a sales representative for Direct Liquidation, assisting businesses with product sourcing of liquidated merchandise from the largest retailers in the world. Whether you are looking for a pallet or a truckload Henley is here to help you grow your business.

View Henley’s Bio on YouTube.