EXCESS INVENTORY. Got loads of EXCESS INVENTORY. lounging around?

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2 Eliminating Excess Inventory Got loads of EXCESS INVENTORY lounging around? EXCESS INVENTORY Depending on the nature of your business and your customer base, you may have products gathering dust for a variety of reasons throughout the year. It happens. They could be specific products left over from the Christmas crunch. Or maybe they re from a spring sale. Perhaps you re just looking to get rid of some products in the fall that didn t sell as well as you thought they would during the summer months. Whatever the reason, you re in luck: There are lots of online outlets to help you move that excess inventory out the door. Whether it s bundling products together, using a comparison shopping engine or upping your paid search strategy, there are plenty of ways to make sure you re not weighed down by extra stock, no matter the time of year.

3 Eliminating Excess Inventory Flash Sales Flash sale sites are an increasingly effective way to offload some inventory. Gilt Groupe, HauteLook and Rue La La initially led the charge in the apparel industry, but now there is ideeli (mid-range apparel), One Kings Lane (luxury home furnishings), MyHabit (owned by Amazon), zulily (apparel, gifts and decor) and many more. Large marketplaces like Newegg and Sears even offer flash sites for specific product groups. Newegg, traditionally specific to electronics and IT, now offers NeweggFlash.com, a site with a rapidly expanding variety of discounted general merchandise and home goods. Similarly, Sears Deal Heist provides a market for everything from tools to appliances, apparel and more consumer electronics than ever before. A benefit of flash sales is that they have a huge following of customers who have signed up to receive marketing messages every day, so you know that your product is likely going to be seen by a large number of potential customers. Also, the sense of urgency created by flash sale sites often encourages shoppers to make impulse purchases, allowing you to more quickly reach your goal of less inventory.

4 Eliminating Excess Inventory Step Up Your Paid Search Getting aggressive with your season-specific paid search campaigns is a great way to clean up your inventory. Experiment with your keyword terms to find the right mix of traffic for these items. Maybe it s accessories for that big gadget someone got for Christmas. Or maybe it s a bathing suit for someone daydreaming about Spring Break. Depending on the time of year, you can bid on terms like After Holiday Sale, Summer Sale or Back to School, as well as long tail search terms that are specific to each product you have deep stock in. Bonus: These long tail keywords cost less and convert more, as shoppers tend to be further along in the buying cycle when they re searching for a specific product.

5 Eliminating Excess Inventory Consider Comparison Shopping Engines Comparison shopping engines (CSEs) like Google Shopping, Shopping.com, Nextag, PriceGrabber and more are great outlets for advertising goods. They re also ideal venues for showing off a competitive price or free shipping. But don t let a lack of either of these deter you from listing on comparison shopping engines. Some customers have been known to choose a product from a brand they trust or directly from a manufacturer instead of going with the same product from another retailer at a lower price. Shoppers of all product verticals are out looking for deals. Sending a feed of these products to multiple CSEs will ensure that your products receive the most visibility, especially from those bargain-hungry customers.

6 Eliminating Excess Inventory Don t Forgo Free Shipping Because of Amazon Prime and, consequently, the retailers trying to keep up with Amazon Prime, many customers have grown accustomed to free shipping throughout the year. Offering free shipping on your excess products is a great way to differentiate them from those of retailers that have not yet caught on to this trend. Dangling the free shipping carrot can often make the difference between a shopper and a buyer. In fact, according to comscore, half of US online shoppers say they have abandoned an online order if it didn t qualify for free shipping

7 Eliminating Excess Inventory Encourage Buying in Bulk If certain items aren t selling well, try using ChannelAdvisor Bundles to group them with complementary products that are selling well. For example, if cell phones are selling well, bundle a cell phone cover and car charger together and market them at a discount to those customers buying phones online. Or bundle clothing and décor accessories for popular sellers like American Girl or Barbie dolls. This works particularly well as a natural purchase progression after customers have bought a doll. By marketing this way, you get rid of multiple items at once and consumers are pleased to have several items they need at a good price.

8 Eliminating Excess Inventory Market on Marketplaces Amazon, ebay, Newegg, Sears, Best Buy, Rakuten.com Shopping and other marketplaces are great resources for listing your excess goods, especially because these marketplaces come with a built-in audience. If you re worried about competing with Amazon, try Amazon Product Ads. These allow you to list your products on Amazon but send shoppers to your website to purchase the product.

9 Eliminating Excess Inventory Amazon Repricer If you re really looking to get rid of some surplus stock on Amazon, the ChannelAdvisor Repricer is the way to go. You can set your margin goals and the Repricer will adjust your prices automatically (on weekends, nights, holidays) to keep you in line with your competitors. The Repricer constantly listens to Amazon to detect any price changes in products you carry. When it senses a change, it looks at the business rules you ve created and strategically adjusts your price. It s the perfect tool to help you lower your margins just enough to beat the competition, without completely cannibalizing your profit. Just set it up and watch those products get snapped up!

10 Eliminating Excess Inventory Solicit via Social Everyone knows how powerful social media is. Currently, 74% of online adults are using some form of it. 2 And for retailers, social media channels are no longer just the places where digital conversations begin. Sites like Pinterest, Wanelo, Polyvore and Houzz have become trusted (and fun) tools for customers to find inspiration, share products and even make purchases. Bonus: All these sites are extremely visual in nature, perfect for showcasing your products. And with the ChannelAdvisor Social Commerce Suite, you ll be able to share, promote and test your products on these sites, using just a single feed. 2

11 Eliminating Excess Inventory Daily Deals If you have deep quantity in a product and are prepared to offer a good price and free shipping, daily deals are the way to go. Originally made popular by Woot, daily deals are now available on ebay, Amazon, Groupon Goods and a host of other retailers sites like Sears Deal Heist and other niche deal sites. At ChannelAdvisor, we ve seen customers sell over 20,000 items in a day with ebay s Daily Deal program. Of course, you have to make sure that your system can handle that level of transaction. Otherwise, you risk irritating customers by delaying service, or worse, canceling an order.

12 Eliminating Excess Inventory Next Steps No matter the time of year, kick-start your sales by kicking out that extra inventory that s been going nowhere. Maybe every tip above doesn t apply specifically to you, but several are bound to. If it seems like too much to manage, give us a call and we ll be happy to lend you our expertise, share advice from our industry contacts, and figure out the best way for you to make sure you re maximizing your sales all year long. Trust us. Be Seen. To learn more: Call Visit info@channeladvisor.com The global standard for e-commerce leaders. Copyright 2014 ChannelAdvisor Corporation. All rights reserved.