Sarah Haines

Should you be trading in surplus stock?

How does a surplus store work? Could you do it yourself and should you even be thinking about a shop when you could sell online?

There are a growing number of stores that deal in selling on surplus stock. They work by buying up stock that other companies are unable to sell. Making space for new stock is important to retailers so they are willing to sell this surplus stock cheaply. 

Clearance shops that specialize in clothes are probably the most common. This is because changing trends means clothing has a relatively short shelf-life before the retailer wants to bring in a new line. The first stage is of course the retailer offers discounts in house before selling on.

The quality of products in a surplus store are entirely dependent on where they buy from. You can get some really good products when they have bought from a quality high street shop. Quite often these stores fail by selling obvious cast offs. These surplus shops dont just make savings by buying unwanted stock, they tend to have low overheads as they are located in cheaper rent areas of town.

So how do you go about getting a good deal on surplus stock? First you must decide what it is you would like to purchase and eventually sell. You will find areas like fashion and home furnishings are very susceptible to trends and therefore have high turnovers of surplus stock.

Consider selling stuff online before you go out and take on a shop. A lot of surplus stock gets sold on ebay or through free classified ads. This means that all you will need is somewhere suitable to store your stock. Much cheaper than retail premises.

If you are only interested in buying surplus stock for your own needs there are still great savings to be made. There are high street stores such as TK Maxx that specialize in selling surplus as well as several websites. You can even try contacting the manufacturer yourself. Manufacturers are normally more willing to negotiate over price. You may be expected to be buying more than one of the product unless it is a high value item. It all depends on the popularity of the item and how desperate they are to get rid of it, as is often the case with surplus stock.

When you are staring out in business you should make as many connections as you can. Start by making contact with manufactures, you can find them on trade websites. You must then negotiate the kind of deal you wish to make. Most of the time manufacturers sell in bulk and may not have much interest in small quantity deals. The more you are looking to take the more interested they are going to be in dealing with you. Taking a larger volume will often net surprisingly low costs. Be wary of manufacturers rules though, they will often set a minimum amount their stock can be sold for. This will be lower than retail price but dont expect to get things for free.? You will almost certainly be required to pay up front for your stock.

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