At times, you will find that there are products in your company that are not moving. These items can be referred to as dead stock.
Low demand are the leading cause of dead stock in many companies. This occurs due to wrong business forecasting.
Short term solutions
- One of the short-term solution is giving discounts. People love discounts and they would automatically come flocking through your front doors.
- Bundle up your moving products with your dead stock and be sure to include a discount so that it is cheaper than buying these products separately. For example, if you own a retail store you can offer the bread with jam, peanut butter, margarine etc.
- When you have more than you can sell, you can go to B2B online platforms and sell the products to other businesses at a cheaper price. An example of such a platform is B2B Africa.
- Depending on the return policy of your supplier, you can actually take the products back to the supplier. The supplier might have an idea of who needs the products.
- You could consider donating your dead stock to charity. This helps you to get rid of slow moving stock while at the same time give you some could PR.
Long term solutions for dead stock
- Analyze current demand and be able to forecast future demand. You can use a business software to achieve this. Read our previous post on strategies to keep track of your inventory to learn more.
- You can choose to change you marketing strategies and campaigns so that consumers are more aware of your products.
- Lastly you can invest in more market research so that you stock products that are in high demand from your consumers.
Applying some of the afore-mentioned policies will save you and your business a great deal.