If you want to be your own boss, starting your own liquidation business is a great, doable option. Plus with the rising rate of inventory available, the ability to get your hands on quality, brand-name merchandise at bargain-basement prices, has never been easier. While companies liquidate their merchandise when they’re about to shut down, liquidation is also a smart part of any retailer’s or manufacturer’s reverse logistics business plan. And this is great news for anyone wanting to start a liquidation business.
There are a couple of key highlights in starting your own liquidation business. First, you don’t need a huge chunk of money to get started. In fact, you can begin with a fairly small amount of capital. Second, you can find brand-name liquidation inventory at a low price. With the availability of different lot sizes and product conditions, you can find pallets of goods to fit your budget. Finally, with the right resources in place, it’s easy to turn a profit. In this article, we’ll break down what you need to know along with the right steps to start a liquidation business.
Why Liquidation vs. Wholesale
In your search to find inventory to start a liquidation business, you’ve likely come across the term ‘wholesale.’ While liquidation and wholesale are similar, there are definitely key differences. For example, wholesale is the sale of goods and merchandise to resellers and businesses. The wholesale price is usually fixed and the amount of product can vary substantially. On the other hand, liquidation typically means an organization is trying to turn excess, overstock, or obsolete goods into cash, quickly.
When it comes to buying liquidation merchandise to resell, the opportunity has never been better. Many retailers are bypassing traditional liquidation methods and launching customized B2B online auction marketplaces that connect returned and excess merchandise directly to YOU. This creates a level playing field for all buyers, big and small, to compete for the inventory. What’s more, the inventory is generally listed at a fraction of MSRP.
Steps to Starting a Liquidation Business
Retail arbitrage…have you heard of it? Simply put, it’s the process of buying goods at a discounted price and selling them higher, for a profit. While many people do this as an independent practice, entire businesses such as flea markets or off-price stores, like TJ Maxx and Ross, are built on this business model. So whether you want to resell online, open a discount store, or become a flea market vendor, this list will help you to start acquiring inventory and begin your liquidation reselling business.
Find Reputable Liquidation Sites
To be successful in reselling you must do research every step of the way. Do your homework on the different companies offering liquidation inventory. Decide whom you’d rather source liquidation pallets from. Additionally, decide what type of merchandise you want to source. Is there a particular category (home & garden, apparel, consumer electronics, etc.) of goods you’d like to sell? Is there a specific condition (ie. brand new/overstock vs. refurbished vs. salvage for parts) you want to specialize in? When you’re just starting out, we recommend sticking to brand new inventory as it’s usually easier to resell.
Buy Liquidation Pallets
A great way to begin buying liquidation pallets from retailers is to shop around and determine the quality of the pallets that are turning you a profit, what do the other offer to help you succeed. Most big-box stores like Target, Walmart, The Home Depot, Amazon, send us their returns and overstock shelf pulls. This provides you with a very unique buying power that allows you to get their inventory new at the fraction of the price that your customers would pay at those retail stores.
Resell Items
So you’ve got your goods and you’re ready to resell! Hopefully, you’ve already researched and scoped out potential sites to sell your goods. If not, sites like Amazon, eBay, and Facebook are great places to begin reselling. If you want to take your business offline to eliminate shipping costs, you can always sell at flea markets, thrift stores, or in a brick-and-mortar shop.
Here at Pallet Liquidation, we provide unique software tools to assist you in this new advantage. Not only are you getting a customer portal to help you organize your inventory and but also you will have the advantage over everyday customers. your membership gives you lots of tools and advantages depending on your membership level. https://palletliquidation.io/memberships/Click Here to learn more about MEMBERSHIP LEVELS