As I review August 2017 sales numbers, I can’t help but think where did all the sales go?!  Earlier in the summer I was selling anywhere between 5 to 10 items a night.  Now I’m selling between 1 and 3 items a night on average.  Now my dilemma is how do I handle this turn in sales?

Now here is a little history on my journey into liquidation in liquidation.  I learned about liquidation through a newspaper at about someone who bought liquidated cell phone cases.  The kicker was that he eventually went full time in it.  Now how could he do this?!  This intrigued me as I have been into part time reselling on eBay since 2003, but I only sold items around the house and the occasional flip from goodwill.  The idea of getting store return merchandise to sell in bulk was very interesting! And now here I am only 1.5 years into it, so I’m still learning.  I will save the full story for another post!

My dwindling sales have led me to a couple of issues both good and bad!  Let’s begin with the good.

Good Issues:
Listing Inventory and Creating Sales:

The downturn in sales have given me more time to list instead of ship.  I have been going through all my merchandise and making sure it’s listed to sell.  I also am able to run more sales so to entice more buyers.  Creating these sales has enabled me to blowout some old inventory to create room for new inventory but I haven’t been buying as much as I used to at the moment.

I’m able to put more of my focus on the smaller value items and get them listed.  Usually I concentrate only on the high value items in the lot, sell them, profit, and move on to the next lot leaving the small items sitting on the shelf.  This is a lesson learned as these items have been the ones selling consistently.  If I can learn to thoroughly go through the lot and list everything before going to the next I will step up my sales to the next level.

They say the more you list then the more you’ll sell.  I agree with this as I keep listing more and more, the likelihood of a sale increases.  Who knows if I didn’t have as many listing as I do now, then I probably wouldn’t have ANY sales.

Bad Issues:
Less Inventory Coming In:

Sales have slowed going out which also has slowed inventory coming in.  Since I’m not selling as much I have been hesitant to bring more stuff in.  Not only would i be tying up capital, but i would my shelves would be overflowing.  I would rather grow inventory slowly, even though I love the thrill of buying new boxes of product!  If I had the help to bring more product and list more then I would continue to buy even though I would be selling less.

This downturn in sales has allowed me to learn how to not only grow my business but enhance my overall profitability per lot.  If I slow down buying inventory and consistently list each and all items in the lot then I will be able to move more inventory.  Developing processes and creating consistency is key to efficiently moving product!

-Chris
LiquidationOH@gmail.com

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