How you can shift slow-moving stock

No matter how well you select it, within your inventory of products there will inevitably be strong sellers and slow-moving stock.

These slow to shift products will eventually start eating into your bottom line, they are taking up room in your warehouse and losing you money.

So what do you do about your slow moving stock?

Before you drop the price

Dropping the price is an obvious way for you to encourage sales. We can discuss this further down but there are actions you can take to increase sales before you lower your selling price.

Reassess your SEO on the product

Delve into your analytics and work out if people are finding the product and not liking it or simply not finding it at all. If the page impressions are very low then the chances are your customers just aren’t finding the product.

See if you can improve SEO by looking at your keywords and adding some more internal links to the page.

Change how the product is presented

Have a good look at how the product is presented on the screen. Take note of the images, the description and the additional information supplied.

Compare this with your best selling product – are there any differences which you could rectify by tweaking. If the product is sold by other competitors have a look at how they are presenting it to customers and see if you could learn anything.

You could re-write the description using more dynamic and persuasive language. Add extra images of the product or take better quality ones.

Add reviews to the product page

If you don’t already sue reviews, these are a good way to boost sales. People like to get secondary recommendations from unbiased sources. If you can add some good reviews to the product page people will be more likely to buy.

Promote the product heavily

Maybe you simply need to get more eyes on the product. You could promote the product as item of the week on your homepage and push this through social media and your email marketing efforts. If you have a blog, why not write a blog around the product or a related issue which you can feed back to the product page.

After you drop the price

If you have gone through making changes and promoting the product it is wise to leave it for a few weeks and see if the changes have made any difference. If there has been a great boost in sales then fantastic – you’ve won! If not, then perhaps it’s time to look at the price.

Look at your competitors pricing

It’s a good idea to understand what others are selling a product for – you might well have been selling for much more than other stores. Have a shop around before you drop the price and work out how low you think you need to go.

If you get to this point you and see that your competitors are selling for cheaper you might simply wish to match them and see how the product sells. If it still doesn’t shift, you need to drop more fro the price and create a sale item.

Promote the drop in price

Once you have dropped the price significantly you need to promote this price drop. Create a deal of the day and push it on the homepage, your emails and in social media.

“Social media plays a huge part in sharing product information and shouting about offers you may wish to run on slower selling items,” says Pins and Ribbons owner Kerrie Murray.

“In today’s climate the consumer is cost conscious and always on the lookout for a good offer. At Pins and Ribbons, we find our customers love to share their buying experiences and products with their friends via Facebook and twitter, especially when they know they have received a real bargain.”

Think about creating a bundle

If you offer the product as part of a deal with another better selling product the slow mover might just get the boost it needs. People will appreciate getting a deal even if it isn’t something they necessarily need.

“We have found adding the item as a bundle package with another more popular and complementary product will increase sales,” says Murray.

“For example our door-stops and draught excluders complement each other but both are seasonal items. So sales of doorstops tend to be higher in the summer whereas draught excluders are a winter purchase, but when offered as a bundle purchase increase sales on both products.”

Look to third party sellers to help

There are many companies now dedicated to offering deals to the public. By using these third parties you will need to be prepared to give up a portion of your sales but it could be worth it if your stock doesn’t get enough traction on your own site.

You can also clear dead stock via Groupon and KGB deals, speak to them and they will help you sell it,” says Ravi Karia, owner of Universal Textiles.

“They will want a lot back for the privilege. Be prepared to make a loss on the products, but don’t forget cash tied up in stock is an opportunity wasted on other faster moving lines and also space is scarce for every online retailer and warehouse space is not free, although we don’t like to think of storage costs.”