How to Deal with Post-holiday Discrepancies of Excessive Inventory?

Posted by esellerhub on January 5th, 2021

Once after the holiday season, almost everyone goes into a tailspin. From dealing with burnt pockets to hangovers, and not to mention the post-holiday excessive stock is sitting in your warehouse! Maybe the demand forecast was quite fuzzy this time, or some situation beyond your control has led to this. Whatever be the reason, we have the solution(s).

The post-holiday load is inevitable. But here are some surefire ways that are realistic and actionable to stave off your excess inventory.

1. Selling Stock

Selling the leftover stock needs a strategic plan. Formulizing a sound strategy depending upon the products at hand can help you clean off the mess. Post-holiday shopping has seen a gradual increase since 2012, and by 2019 it has risen by 33%.

i. Organize sale themes – It’s the time for a popup or a clearance sale to resell the goods after the holiday season is over. It’s not too late to sell them again to your customers at a discounted price or even the actual amount. You can also offer the customers who had purchased during the holiday sale an extra discount coupon to initiate the sale. They will be of the mindset of not wasting the discount coupon and making it useful by making a purchase either for themselves or for their loved ones.

ii. Do a new product launch – You can even do an attention-grabbing new product launch. Let these products meet the needs of the potential customer. Choose useful products that can uplift their health and hygiene, fitness gadgets for a new year proposition, offer freebies, or even bulk-buy benefits. You can provide early-bird discounts for them too. A book now and pay some percentage less than the actual value option is also good. Pay a lesser value now to book and make the remaining payment during delivery at a markdown price also has an excellent practical reach. Even as small as free shipping can help alleviate the movement of the stock before it becomes obsolete inventory.

Iii. Bundle up stock – It is a great option to sell multiple products together. Bundle related products or group different product combinations to give interesting combos for your customers. You can get creative with your product bundling and campaigns. You can bundle up towels of the same or different sizes together. For different products, say you have woolen mittens, scarves, and socks, they can be combined into a winter special combo offer. Combine newer with the older, slow-moving with the fast-moving to create leverage for the products. Customers have a chance to access new products. It will also make the impression that they are getting more than what they pay for and tend to make one last purchase. Bonus!

2. Dealing with Returns

Flexible returns policy is essential for the majority of your customers. It is like a safety net for the purchases they make. But eventually, it is a potential loss, packing, and shipping cost for the retailers if the product gets returned. The quantity of returns in an online store is almost one-third, and for brick and mortar stores accounts to 9%. Throwing an end of the year clearance sale campaign can mean significant savings for the customers. Also, even if the returns are not in good condition, offer discounts for those. 70% of instore returners are in the mindset of buying something else after returning their purchase. So if you can provide them that, then Boom! It’s a sale!. You can give your customers similar suggestions to encourage them to click the ‘buy’ button.

3. Retargeting Existing Customer

Running smart and customer-centric marketing campaigns and intelligent targeting can fetch in more customers. Once the holiday season comes to hold, particularly after the New year, the customer mentality becomes more liable. They are likely to spend on more life-changing or self-improving goals. They prefer choosing a healthy diet, downloading health apps, buying organizers to organize their schedule, or perhaps a diary/journal to start their writing venture. So, targeting such segments can fetch you sales. Retargeting increases up to 26% of the shoppers to bounce back to their cart and complete their purchases. The average CTR (Click Through Rate) is found to be ten times as that of the display ads.

4. Personalize Ads

The more creative the message, like giving a ‘you care for them,’ kind of message to increase the chance of customer cart completion. Set themes according to the season and focus on products that can improve themselves according to their goals. Personalization works the best as it establishes a better connection with the customers. You can also offer suggestions in relevance to the product category or the price range. It can be done as a suggestive prompt to give them more options that might provoke their interest to buy more than what is in their cart. Invest in a capable inventory management software to get clarity on your stock movement at different periods. Better to develop a custom inventory management system from a top software development company. Check with the sale analytics to get a clear-cut picture of past sales. Gain insights into your target audience’s persona, demographics, consumption patterns, and mobile footprint. Furnish content accordingly, but make sure it is not a content overload, only give them what is necessary.

5. Create ‘abandoned carts’ alert message

This is also an effective personalization ad technique that targets the customers in specific and delivers personalized content. Suppose the customer had not proceeded to the payment due to some external disturbance or something extraordinary shows up. Now is the chance to get this customer on his heels and continue the process of payment.

6. Stock scarcity

When the stock is scarce, it is beneficial to let your customers know that. Usually, we see – while stocks last; only a few left in stock; limited products available and such. Here, psychology works up by creating a sense of urgency amongst the customers. It also gives a feeling that the product is in high demand. There will be a hurry to move the product to the cart and proceed to the payment gateway right away. Notify the customers with compelling and attractive content, and they make the sales easier and imminent.

7. Targeting Mobile Audience

Most of the customers nowadays use their smartphones to purchase items on the go. Since this segment consists of potential customers, targeting mobile users is highly advisable. You can even use social media platforms to run your ads. It reaches the customers way too fast and increases the chances of conversions. Offering them a limited-time promotion on downloading the mobile application to make purchases is also useful. You can also choose a multichannel marketing approach. By this, not only can you retarget through social media platforms, but also through emails, text messages, push notifications, and many more.

Usually, the mindset of the customer after holidays tends to be a bit on the downhill. Some might have saved up to spend on the holiday purchase, and their next purchase might be possible during the upcoming holiday. But now that the trend is changing, anytime is the right time for you to market to potential customers. So, it is best not to vanish after the season of sale but to come back with something more exciting and surprising to the customers. Thus, with these tips, you can boost your sales post-holiday season. Whatever you do, go big and make your presence.