We certainly put B-Stock Solutions in this category. The ROI our customers are realizing with our solution is off the charts. Whether it is Walmart selling returns in a liquidation tv auction, Whirlpool selling scratch and dent inventory, or Macy’s selling excess handbags and clothing, we continue to help them drive higher pricing and more volume through the secondary channel. These increased recovery rates drop to the bottom line at a rate of better than 90%, so the impact on earnings can be substantial. In addition, it is helping companies empty warehouses of depreciating inventory saving them on warehousing expense, depreciation and the cost of the capital tied up in it. Lastly, we are assuming more and more of the operational management to deliver the service which frees up our clients to focus on higher priorities.

Articles like this one reinforce our belief that it is only a matter of time before other retail and manufacturing leaders recognize that paying just a little closer attention to the technology and services that are available today, even in the less prominent areas of their business (like liquidation) can have a major impact on their efficiency now and into the future. They will also realize that companies like B-Stock that provide solutions to address these less prominent areas recognize that the auctions liquidation solutions have to be turnkey to implement given their lower priority. We’ve mastered this here at B-Stock and our customers love us for it when doing their liquidation sites comparison.

For those who don’t already know, the B-Stock Sourcing network is made up of private liquidations wholesale auction marketplaces that B-Stock Solutions powers and manages for large retailers such as Macy’s, Walmart, and Sam’s Club. The marketplaces allows the retailers to auction off their surplus electronics excess inventory directly to eBay sellers at a fraction of MSRP. eBay sellers can bid with confidence, knowing whom they’re buying from, and what they can expect when doing their wholesale liquidation comparison.

Click here to listen to Howard’s full interview on the eBay Radio Show, or check out the B-Stock Sourcing Network to learn more.

It is important, however, to understand what is meant by the term “wholesale” as you search for the right source of inventory while doing your liquidation comparison . We tend to use the term “liquidation” or “bulk liquidation” rather than “wholesale”. Although people say “wholesale electronics” when they are looking for liquidation lots, to us, “wholesale” means something slightly different. To us, ‘wholesale electronics’ refers to large quantity lots of new consumer electronics goods sold at a wholesale liquidators price. It refers to regular, “A grade”, product sold at normal liquidation wholesale prices.

“Liquidation“, on the other hand, refers to inventory that is distressed and the seller’s priority is to simply convert it into cash. It might be returns, overstock or obsolete inventory. We help our clients sell this inventory in large, bulk lots. Because these are bulk lots, some buyers describe it as ‘wholesale’.

It is important to know what you are getting into when buying liquidation lots. Liquidation electronics lots can be particularly valuable to a buyer who has the ability to ‘add value’ to the product. That is, if you have the ability to refurbish defective electronics, you can extract even more margin when you resell. If your only capability is reselling brand new items, wholesale electronics like liquidation tvs are probably what you should be buying.

Several of our marketplaces sell liquidation electronics lots. The variety of what is available is great. For example, in our Walmart marketplace you will find large lots of returned TV’s as well as mixed lots that include home audio, computers, GPS and other electronics. You will find lots from single pallets up to full truckloads.

Similarly, our Sam’s Club marketplace often sells large wholesale electronics lots that include computers, laptops, cell phones, GPS and other mixed returns like liquidation appliances.

Our Tech for Less marketplace offers smaller lots of a wider variety of products and conditions.

Whatever you are looking for, make sure you understand the product you are buying. If wholesale electronics are your thing, check carefully to ensure you aren’t buying raw returns. Similarly, if you have the ability to refurbish or repair electronics, liquidation sales on lots from returns are exactly what you should be looking at.

Check out the B-Stock Sourcing Network for the complete list of B-Stock powered marketplaces for overstock auctions.

If you are a flea market vendor or are considering becoming one, get registered in the B-Stock Sourcing Network to buy overstock inventory and find some bargains. There is a ton of it out there.

Interestingly, Accenture notes that just 5% of returns are related to actual product defects. They determined that 27% of returns reflect “buyer’s remorse” and 68% of returns are characterized as “No Trouble Found.” Accenture calculates that just a 1% reduction in the number of “No Trouble Found” cases could save a typical large manufacturer about $21 million in return and repair costs or $16 million for an average consumer electronics retailer.

While Accenture makes some recommendations about how retailers and manufacturers can work to lower this return rate through consumer education and assistance programs, I think they miss the lowest hanging fruit. Utilizing a Liquidation Sales Management solution like B-Stock’s could net substantially higher resale values on those returns, swamping the other costs mentioned above. To do this requires little to no additional overhead, simply a shift in how liquidation electronics sales are managed. Any company wanting to implement wholesale lots electronics solution could have it up and running in a matter of a few weeks.

Companies should look at their secondary market volume and ask themselves if a 30%-50% increase in that revenue (with virtually no incremental expenses) is worth spending a few hours on.

Here is a link to Edward C. Baig’s USA Today article on the Accenture study.

We often are asked by new buyers about the quality grading system and how they will know what to expect in any lot they purchase. Every graded TV is inspected by a third party and graded according to a quality checklist. This results in each unit receiving a grade of A, B, C or D. While there are detailed requirements to receive each grade, generally the grades imply the following:

A: TV’s have no defects on viewing screen. No blemishes on bezel or case – Like New
B: TV’s have no defects on viewing screen. Minor blemishes on bezel or case
C: TV’s have minor viewing screen defects that aren’t visible when the TV is on. Major blemishes on bezel and case such as scratches, scuffs, and gouges, but with no major cracks
D: TV’s have major viewing screen defects that are visible when the TV is on. Major blemishes on bezel and case such as scratches, scuffs and gouges

Every lot is accompanied by a full manifest that itemizes every TV included. This includes the brand, size, original retail price, model number, serial number, and a brief description of what was found in the inspection. Examples of the description include:

“Scuffs on frame surrounding screen”
“No remote”
“Won’t turn off”
“No faults found”

Buyers will find all the information they need to accurately value each load to arrive at the right price for their business based on their known costs to refurbish and remarket the units at an adequate margin, which is great for liquidation tv buyers.

Finally, our buyers love that they are buying these units directly from Walmart. Although B-Stock helps administer the site, we do not touch the inventory or in any way take title to it. The transaction is between Walmart and excess inventory buyers.

If buying Walmart’s returned TV’s is something you believe is right for your business, check out Walmart Liquidations for TV’s and other Walmart returns inventory. Best of luck in the bidding!

Beyond the obvious benefits of maintaining a lean inventory (not tying up as much working capital, not incurring as much inventory depreciation, not requiring as much space to store it, etc.), knowing that Wall Street is looking at this metric as a leading indicator of performance, a company might be able to use tighter inventory control to lower its cost of capital for the business as a whole.

This illustrates the substantial opportunity to create value indirectly by implementing a more efficient solution for managing liquidation of overstock inventory or excess inventory. If a company can achieve the same or better recovery rates while improving velocity, they can more aggressively manage inventory levels at all times and increase excess inventory sales.

I am looking forward to working with and learning from Heywood as we continue to broaden our presence among the top retail brands in the world.

A company with overstock and other excess inventory has to get rid of it. However, liquidating good products at a big discount (almost always below original cost) should be viewed as an opportunity to delight the subset of customers who get great pleasure in finding a great deal. Most companies understand that publicizing a big sale in their retail store is a great tactic to get people in the door who might not yet be customers. Or to get existing customers to buy other non-sale items along with the sale items. A giant midnight sale has an element of fun and adventure to it for many people. To make that happen, companies spend lots of money on advertising that maximize their chances for success. At B-Stock Solutions we enable you to turn the loss you are inevitably going to take on your liquidation inventory excess into a marketing budget to create the same impact online with a wholesale liquidators sale.

The Analogy
Think back to your high school physics class and the concept of potential energy and kinetic energy. As a reminder, a ball at the top of a ramp is full of potential energy. As it begins rolling downhill, it is converting potential energy into kinetic energy (motion). When it hits ground level and is rolling fast, its potential energy is back to 0 and its kinetic energy is at its maximum. Over time, its kinetic energy dissipates and its speed slows and it comes to rest with all energy exhausted.

A product you decide to liquidate is like the ball. Deciding to liquidate it is like placing the ball at the top of the ramp and charging it up with marketing energy. Think of the ball’s movement from left to right as it rolls as a representation of value (ignore the height of the ramp and the distance the ball moves down to keep it simple). The distance to the bottom of the ramp (again, just from left to right) is the retail price a consumer would pay for the product and the distance the ball rolls beyond the bottom of the ramp as the other, non-sale price, value created by ‘marketing energy’. Companies often overlook the other forms of value as they contemplate liquidation online sites of overstock and excess inventory. Every ball will roll a certain distance depending on its characteristics just like every overstock product will create certain residual values depending on its characteristics.

So, with this construct in mind, consider some options you have now that you have decided to liquidate your overstock excess inventory (that is, you have placed the ball at the top of the ramp). First, you could choose to move the ball a fraction of the way down the ramp, capture the associated energy released, and let someone else take it from there (this is selling it for a small fraction of its retail value to a liquidator, a private sale company or a deal site). Or, you can post the item on a third party marketplace, like eBay. In both cases, “the roll”, or the ancillary non-cash value is captured either by the other company, not yours. Buyers think “wow, what a great deal I got on eBay”. In plain english, your product is helping build someone else’s brand, reputation and buyer base. This is how eBay built its brand among buyers…I know this because I worked there for 6 years. We leveraged the sellers’ willingness to sell for less to build the eBay brand as the place to get great deals on virtually anything.

The alternative is to use that product to build your own brand and buyer base. YOU can roll the ball down the hill yourself and capture 100% of the value it releases, including the distance of the roll beyond the end of the ramp (the value beyond the sale price). You can capture the full price a consumer is willing to pay, AND increase the conversion of visitors to your website into buyers by a factor of 5 – 10; and increase the number of visits per visitor to your site by 50%; and cross sell and up sell that buyer other, full-margin items. And there is much more.

How is this Achieved?
Any company with sufficient web traffic and the right products can leverage B-Stock’s platform to create this value. Sam’s Club has been doing this for 10 years on their website.

To do this requires thinking differently and across functions. If the liquidation team only thinks about the cash they generate, they will not strive to maximize the TOTAL value. The marketing and e-commerce teams think about new buyer acquisition every minute of every day. Companies spend millions of dollars on marketing programs to drive certain results. Why not view the loss you are inevitably going to take on your liquidation inventory as a marketing expense that carries buyer acquisition targets just like any other marketing budget. What good comes from a straight inventory write down?

If you are an online retailer with a ‘clearance’ or ‘outlet’ section on your website, give us a call and we will explain how we can help you achieve this as an inventory liquidator, for example, via our electronic liquidation sale. And we’ll explain it in plain English, not silly physics analogies.

Today we launched 4 lots of inspected, graded, unsorted LCD TV liquidation. These lots total approximately $35,000 in current retail value and each of them opened at $100 with no reserve. In addition, another excess inventory liquidation with 5 lots of furniture, consumer electronics, bikes and domestics launched with opening bids of $1. These 5 lots of excess inventory liquidation consist of approximately $40,000 worth of consumer returned goods at retail value.

eBay sellers, Amazon merchants and other resellers in search of product on liquidation auctions from liquidators wholesale to grow your business will love this fantastic opportunity to inventory liquidation sales, like liquidation appliance inventory, so get signed up and approved for a free buyer account right now. Register now!