Hello!

My name is Colette Marshall. I am the Business Development Manager of eBay Certified Solution Provider Worldwide Brands, Inc. We are a fully-staffed Product Sourcing Research company that has dedicated the past seven years to finding and qualifying genuine wholesale suppliers who are willing to work with home-based Internet Business Owners.

Our job is to do the very time-consuming research it takes to find genuine wholesalers who are willing to work with eBay Sellers, so that you can spend your valuable time where it’s needed most; running your eBay business instead of searching for suppliers.

Today I’m going to talk about understanding liquidation and how to use liquidated products to your advantage when selling online. I’ve also invited a guest from one of the leading experts in the industry, Liquidation.com, to answer any questions that you may have regarding liquidation, surplus, and closeouts.

Julie Davis is the Communications Director for Liquidation.com. Liquidation.com is a Liquidity Services, Inc. marketplace where professional buyers can source commercial surplus inventory and government surplus assets in an online environment. Bulk lots are sold by the truckload, pallet, or small package, and conditions range from new in a box to customer returns and used. Their wide variety of product categories includes apparel, computers, electronics, housewares, industrial equipment, vehicles, and much more.

Please ask as many questions as you like!

What is Liquidation or Secondary market merchandise and where is it mainly sourced from?
The supply chain generally consists of Manufacturer, Distributor, Retailer and the end user. The factors that drive products to the secondary market are return policies, product innovation, regulatory policies, and standard surplus. From all of these, secondary merchandise products can be the result of:

Overstock: Manufacturer, Distributor, or retailer has excess inventory. The product is in new condition but due to quantity, they still have an abundance of product on the shelves.

Discontinued / End of Life /Shelf pull: All products have a life cycle. Manufacturers are always producing the latest version of the product and the distributor is always stocking the latest version of the product. The excess inventory on the warehouse shelves needs to be liquidated to make room for the new version of the products.

Recycled / Refurbished / Warranty Replacement: Customers return products for many reasons. Sometimes a product is returned due to minor malfunctions. The Manufacturer can easily repair these with new parts and the product is very close to brand new again, but they can not resell it as brand new so they become secondary market merchandise.

Customer Returns: Customer Returns will vary in condition. After the Holiday season customers bring unwanted merchandise back to the stores and those stores can’t resell those products as new so they will hand the excess inventory over to liquidators. These products are still in very good condition and sellable, but for the brick and mortar stores this is overhead that they need to liquidate as fast as possible so they can concentrate on the new products on the shelves.

Scrap: For all segments of the supply chain, there are products that would be considered not sellable to the primary end user because of a scratches or dents. These products, however at a much lower price, can be resold as a quality product.

Big Box retailers, leading e-retailers, Department store chains, service companies, manufacturers, distributors, and Federal, state and local governments at some point will liquidate inventory and the conditions will vary from excellent to very poor. Overstock, discontinued and shelf pulls will be the best condition. Refurbished, Scrap, and recycled products is where you find the most damaged goods. Keep in mind that all bulk lots are subject to having some damaged goods but the majority of products are in brand new condition.

How are liquidated products normally purchased?

Liquidators typically don’t drop ship, but there are a few who will. The majority of liquidators will sell their products in bulk lot auctions. Bulk lots are sold by the truckload, pallet, or small package and normally as is. Within a bulk order, there will be some product that will not meet your standards. As a best practice, the bulk orders that you purchase need to have quality checks because conditions range from new in a box to customer returns and used.

What are some key tips that will help you buy and sell secondary market merchandise?

• Source quality merchandise that is attractive to your customer and target market


• Avoid impulse purchases


• Avoid buying too deep in any given SKU


• Develop targeted merchandising strategies


• Since you’re buying in bulk, make sure to know the impact of shipping on total costs


• Make sure when purchasing bulk liquidated items to check the condition codes of the merchandise (New vs. Used vs. Returns)


• Check the rate of innovation in certain product categories. For example: you may have a difficult time selling certain electronics when the there is no longer support from the manufacturer of that product because they no longer produce the model.


• As with any product sourcing method, start slow, buy conservatively in the beginning, test the marketplace, and grow as fast as desired

Welcome and thanks for joining us today!

We love workshops to be interactive, so please feel free to ask your questions that directly relate to this topic.

Added note: If you click on the "Watch this discussion" link, you will receive an email each time someone posts to the workshop.

Stop Watching: If at any time you no longer want to receive updates on a thread you are watching, just click on the link titled "Stop Watching Thread" found in the specific thread being watched. Also you can remove any watched thread by clicking on the "Watched Discussions" link located in the log in bar and deleting the watched thread.

If you're new to the discussion boards, please be sure to check out the board tutorial:

Link

A from our Legal Department: The statements and opinions made in this discussion board are those of the workshop host only and do not reflect eBay policy or eBay's opinion with respect to such statements.


Cheers,

Deirdre
eBay Community Development

Liquidation.com has an unsatisfactory rating with the BBB, with many Ebay and online complaints.

I have had three very bad transactions with them including merchandise described completely opposite,
overcharged shipping after a much much lower quote,
and false advertising. I,and many others,would not do business with them again.

Then, problems with getting money back where a chargeback had to be filed.

Their "customer service" would not respond, nor would
their owners. Why are they here for a workshop?

I would also know are there similar online sites like liquidation.com.

Hi ok_u_win
Sorry to hear that you didn't have a good experience with Liquidation.com. Please contact me offline and I can help resolve any problems. julie.davis@liquidation.com.

Thanks,
Julie