Maximizing the Benefits of Customer Returns

As a liquidation wholesale reseller, you will be depending a lot on customer returns. Now even though there are a variety of different reasons why a large percentage of customers return the products that they have bought, the question is how can the retailer minimize the loss on their investment and instead use it to increase their overall profit. As a liquidation wholesale seller, you must be aware of everything connected to customer returns.

Choosing the Best Customer Returns

If you want to maximize the benefits of customer returns, you should make sure you buy the right kind of products that your customers will like and purchase. Here is a couple of things that you must consider.

Select Several Categories

While running a liquidation business, you must first ensure that you are opting for at least a couple of categories of customer returns. Because these products will make most of your business’ inventory, it is important that you don’t just depend on one type of item because you would run the risk of having to stop your business if the product is no longer available. On the other hand, several categories will not only keep your customers interested but also provide you with a steady stream of returns that you can showcase.

Know Your Target Market

Another important factor you should consider is your target audience and their preferences. As you must already know, the liquidation business requires a lot of patience and effort where research is concerned; so you must know the preferences of the target audience you will be serving. Do not just spend a day or two finding out about the likes and dislikes of your potential customers through the internet; really put in an effort to get the best idea about the products they like.

Look for Sources

If you want to find the best customer returns, you should look for the right sources and providers. Even though there will be a lot of retailers who may approach you for their customer returns, not everyone will have the best products to offer you, which is why you must only strike a deal with providers who you find reliable and trustworthy.

If you are unable to find a quality and professional source, you can always ask someone you know in the liquidation industry who has the experience to help you. Remember: without the right sources, you will never be able to find the best products and sell them to your customers.

Know the Reason Why the Product Was Returned

Customers do not always return products because there is something wrong with them. In fact, most of the items and merchandise returned after the holiday season are returned because the customers picked up products on a whim and did not really like or need them.

In such a case, there is a high chance that the customer returns you are investing in are not damaged or used in any way. Therefore, before you purchase any of these customer returns, ask the retailer or vendor to tell you about the reason why the product was returned to the store.

Decide on a Budget

There are a lot of other things that you must consider when choosing the customer returns. However, the first thing that needs your attention is the budget you need to set for buying products of this particular category.

Not having a plan or coming up with at least a rough estimate of your budget will cause your liquidation business to fail because you will not know how many products you can buy and how much you can spend. Knowing and considering all of these four factors will help you develop a better customer returns liquidation business.

The Qualities of Good Customer Returns

Now that you know about the best ways in which you can choose good customer return products, here are a couple of top qualities that you should keep in mind while buying them.

Properly Reconditioned

Return products that you buy from retailers will almost always be slightly damaged, discolored or scratched. However, even though most of these returns will not be in the best of conditions, they should at least have been reconditioned properly.

On the other hand, if you are planning to carry out the testing phase on your own, look for products which can bring you profit after they have been fixed and sold. So even if you are buying customer returns, make sure that they are in a good condition or will provide you with profit once you have fixed and sold them.

Affordable

Customer return products should never cost the same as the original merchandise no matter how good their condition and quality is. Regardless of why they were returned, you must keep in mind that their status will cause the overall value to lower even if they came back to the store after an hour or so.

You can make this disadvantage work for you because you can bargain with the retailer or provider of customer returns, asking them to lower the price. However, if you are unable to convince the provider of the price you are offering them, you can always ask other vendors if they have similar items for the price you had set.

Check for Documents and Additional Items

Even though most customer returns will not have documents, you must at least try to look for ones that are properly packaged and have all the necessary papers. That aside, you need to check if the merchandise originally came with accessories and if these have been added to the lot that you are thinking about buying. If the product does not have the additional items you and your end clients expect to see with the merchandise, you can demand a lower price.

Buying Customer Returns

Now that you are aware of what you should be looking for in customer return products and how to choose them wisely, you must move on to the next step and buy the items that will bring you the most profit. If you have had difficulty with this aspect in the past or want to avoid hassle in the future, here are some tips to follow.

Bargain with the Vendor

If you have several vendors who can provide you with customer return products, you have the opportunity to start bargaining. This is not only important because you are buying customer return products, but also because you will be buying merchandise in bulk. So think about all the benefits that you are providing the vendor with and tell them why they should sell you their products for a lower price. With solid logic and great communication skills, you will be able to win the vendor over.

Consider Your Competitive Market

In the liquidation business, thoroughly analyzing and learning from your competitors is extremely important. However, when buying customer returned products, you need to use this competition a little differently.

Instead of providing your customers with the exact same merchandise that your competition is selling, you can increase sales by offering the accessories and additional items that are missing from their merchandise. So if your competition is selling iPhones and iPods, you can always just buy chargers and headphones, which are very much in demand despite being part of some stores’ electronic customer returns.

Think About the Testing Phase

If you are buying customer returns and want to sell them to customers who are interested in liquidation products, you should consider the testing phase of the item and the time that it will take. As with any other liquidation merchandise that you buy, you must also know whether the product is worth the time and effort you are planning to spend on it. Remember: no matter how perfect the condition of your merchandise, you must always analyze and test it thoroughly.

Time it Perfectly

Customer returns are at their highest after the holiday season. This means that if you want to buy these products for a cheaper than usual price, you must look for them during the months of January and February.

Another benefit of buying these products during these months is that you will find a lot more quality items since previous buyers may have bought them on a whim and suffered buyer’s regret before shipping them back to the original seller. Buying customer returns for liquidation and selling purposes will not be as hard as you think if you consider all the things discussed in this section.

Selling Customer Returns

The final process in making the most of customer returns is selling them to your customers intelligently. While there are several things that you must think about, not all of them hold the same importance. If you had faced difficulties while selling customer returns, here are some of the most crucial points you need to keep in mind while selling the customer returned products that you have bought.

Include all Necessary Information

When selling customer returns to your targeted market, including all the necessary information and documents along with the main product is crucial because it will make you seem a lot more authentic and legitimate to your customers. This practice will also make your customer loyal because they will realize that you do not want to only sell the product to them, but also help them in any way that you can. So even if you do not offer any warranties, you must provide guidelines and tips on how to properly use and care for the product sold.

Package Properly

Another important factor to consider while selling any kind of merchandise is to package it properly. No customer will want to buy your customer return merchandise if you provide it in paper or plastic bags because that will look unprofessional.

In addition, poor packaging will be unsafe and damaging to your merchandise, especially if you are offering delicate items. So invest a little in boxes and other important packaging material to make sure that the merchandise is shipped properly to customers. If you are unsure about the packaging material that should be used for your merchandise, you can always look at how your competitors are sending them out.

Market Your Product

Marketing your product is essential no matter what kind of liquidation merchandise you are selling. If you thought that spending time on the marketing of customer returns is of no real use, your sales and profits may be lower than you expect. After all, your customers probably do not know that you are there to sell them good quality return products for a handsomely low price.

Marketing these products will not only be good for your products but for your business as well because the world will know what you do and what you sell.

Use Different Channels

Finally, when selling customer returns, ensure that you are doing it through different channels. For instance, even if you are able to attract a decent amount of customers into your physical store, you must make sure that you do not miss out on the hundreds and thousands of potential customers waiting for you to become visible. Once you have a properly designed and managed website, shift your efforts to your company’s social media pages as these have been known to increase brand awareness.

Amongst all the other options, buying and selling customer returns is one of the best choices that you can opt for. So follow all the tips and ideas mentioned in this post and start implementing them in your liquidation business immediately to reap their benefits soon.

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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.

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