Top 10 Reasons to Start Selling Your Surplus Equipment Now

Start the new year strong by managing your surplus assets today

1. Boost Your Cash Flow

Selling surplus resources brings an immediate influx of capital. Whether you’re expanding operations, funding R&D, or tackling unexpected expenses, the proceeds from selling surplus assets can be reinvested into your business for maximum impact. In today’s unpredictable market, extra cash can be a game-changer.

2. Cut Storage Costs

Idle equipment sitting in storage is a financial drain. Beyond taking up valuable space, it incurs ongoing storage, insurance, and maintenance expenses. By selling surplus items, you can eliminate these costs and repurpose the freed-up space for more immediate needs.

3. Optimize Warehouse Space

Unused and unnecessary assets clutter your warehouse, occupying space that could be put to better use. Selling surplus equipment allows your organization to better organize its storage, potentially avoiding the need for costly warehouse expansions or even allowing for a downsize in space.

4. Take Advantage of Tax Benefits

Selling surplus assets before year-end can offer tax advantages. By recognizing the loss or gain in the current tax year, you might offset profits and reduce your tax liability. Consult with a tax professional to understand how this strategy could benefit your situation, but know that the end of the fiscal year is often the perfect time to secure these advantages.

5. Support Sustainability Initiatives

Embracing a circular economy ethos ensures that your organization’s equipment is used to its fullest potential. Selling surplus rather than disposing of it reduces waste and aligns with sustainability initiatives, offering both financial gain and a positive environmental impact.

6. Preserve Asset Value

The longer an asset sits idle, the more its value depreciates due to technological obsolescence and market fluctuations. By selling before year-end, your business could secure a better price and protect the asset’s residual value.

7. Maximize Opportunity Costs

Every surplus item represents an opportunity cost—the difference between the value of the existing asset and the return that could have been earned from an alternative investment. Holding onto surplus assets might mean missing out on opportunities that offer higher returns.

8. Reduce Maintenance Costs

Surplus resources require periodic maintenance, even when not in active use. This can lead to unnecessary expenses in parts, labor, and time. Selling surplus items eliminates these costs, freeing up capital and resources for more critical needs.

9. Streamline Operations

Surplus equipment can be a distraction, cluttering facilities and diverting attention from core operations. By periodically selling surplus, companies can maintain a lean operational profile, ensuring smoother day-to-day operations and improved worker productivity.

10. Mitigate Risks

Surplus assets, especially aging ones, can become liabilities. If they degrade, they may lose value, become obsolete, or even pose safety risks. Selling these items before they become a problem can help mitigate these risks.

Managing surplus assets is more than just decluttering—it’s a strategic imperative with tangible financial and operational benefits. By efficiently managing and proactively selling surplus equipment now, you will begin the new year with a stronger, more agile business.

If you would like to explore these strategies, let’s talk. Contact us today!

For those in the retail industry, the overwhelming increase of online sales is no surprise. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the migration to ecommerce, jumping several years forward in digitization of customer interactions. APN News reports a 49% spike in US online sales when comparing the 2020 holiday shopping season to the previous year. This sudden advancement has retail professionals looking for help to handle the increase in returns that comes with the increased online sales. NPR reports that online sales are generally 4-5 times more likely to be returned than in-store purchases.

If you feel like you’re drowning in returns, you’re not alone. There are more options than ever to help manage returns – talk with one of our team members to make sure that your returns management approach is current and geared to handle the future.

How To Manage Surplus and Save on Returns Cost

Liquidity Services offers a wide variety of solutions that are tailored to specific business needs. With experience in maximizing total supply chain value for over 15,000 clients worldwide, we can provide a full spectrum of capabilities and options to maximize economics and reduce risk.

List ‘n’ Sell

List ‘n’ Sell is the solution that delivers complete control to you or your team. This option allows you to easily promote listings to hundreds of thousands of buyers in virtually any quantity. We support you with marketing, sales strategies, dispute resolution and settlement to help optimize accelerate sales through B2B or B2C channels with the least amount of hassle.

Load ‘n’ Sell

If you need to get your goods out of your building fast, consider our Load ‘n’ Sell solution. Just load a trailer with your surplus goods and our transportation team will pick it up and move it to a local trailer yard. We take the lead on listing the goods from there. A fast, quick, and simple solution that produces excellent economic results and frees space on demand.

Warehouse ‘n’ Sell

When you want to stay focused on your core competencies, create space in your facility and/or maximize every dollar of recovery, consider engaging our Warehouse ‘n’ Sell solution. We operate warehouses across North America specifically designed to optimize returns programs for some of the largest and best-known retailers in the world. And we’re ready to do the same for you.

Customize

More than twenty years of serving the needs of retail professionals has taught us that flexibility is critical. You may have unique requirements that can only be addressed by a custom designed solution. All of our solutions are configurable, tell us your goals and we’ll offer our suggestions for the right compliment of capabilities and services.

Why Customers Love Working with Us –

Reliability. Innovation. Breadth of Capabilities.

As one of the largest providers in the reverse supply chain we offer the scale, financial stability, and capacity that deliver peace of mind to retail professionals who have to be prepared for everything, even pandemics. We’re much more than a traditional “liquidator” – we listen to our customers, talk about real-world problems that they face every day, and we innovate new solutions to meet their needs. Whether you need another option for selling direct to the market yourself, a “turn-key” returns program, or something in between, we can help.

Curious about what we might be able to do for you? Book some time with one of our team members and tell us what challenges you’re trying to solve.

Find Your Fit

Sources:

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/15/coronavirus-pandemic-has-pushed-shoppers-to-e-commerce-sites.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michelleevans1/2021/01/19/five-e-commerce-trends-that-will-change-retail-in-2021/?sh=587ed75c1435

https://www.npr.org/2020/12/30/951363677/2020-sets-record-for-returns-of-online-purchases

https://hbr.org/2011/12/the-future-of-shopping

You’ve probably seen the studies that show 60% of online shoppers will make at least one return a year – and that bad return policies scare off 80% of would-be shoppers. That’s why a retailer’s return policy is a fundamental part of brand awareness and customer acquisition process.

So, what makes a good return policy? And, how can that policy either hurt or help the retailer’s reputation with potentially unhappy customers?

Cash Refunds in a Return Policy: Happy Customer, Lost Opportunity – and Possible Fraud

“Cash is king” – and it’s one of the simplest ways in which retailers can stand behind their products in a return policy. A customer returns the item, the retailer returns their money, and both part amicably.

There’s a lot to be said for keeping customers happy at all costs, but defaulting to cash refunds as part of return policy can hurt more than just the bottom line.

For example, if a former customer returned the product due to a defective part, then they leave with the wrong impression of the product line. At best, they have an ambivalent opinion of the brand.

Solely using cash refunds also may encourage return fraud. According to the National Retail Federation, $22.8 billion of returns are fraudulent or otherwise abuse return policies. Therefore, offering straight refunds first may increase those chances for fraud.

Store Credit Return Policies: Keep It in the Family

Store credit – or offering a spendable balance at a retailer’s store to spend on a new product – is a popular option of many major retailers’ return policies.

Credit keeps the customer’s former cash in a retailer’s ecosystem without the headache of fund reversals. Retailers get the mythical second chance of a good first impression when customers purchase products a second time.

Plus, there’s always a chance to upsell, increasing the value of the interaction. 59% of Millennial shoppers report buying another product when they’re in store to pick up an item – it makes sense that they’d do the same when returning to spend store credit.

However, depending on the return rationale, store credit may harm a retailer’s reputation. If customers feel “forced” to continue shopping at a retailer, they may feel worse instead of better. That’s why store credit return policies work well for retailers with wide selections – and white-glove customer service initiatives.

Direct Exchange Return Policies: Support Power Shoppers

Finally, direct exchange is a straightforward return policy: The customer returns the item, and the retailer offers a similar item in exchange. This policy works best when the return is due to a defective part, an incorrect size, or a similar error.

Having direct exchange policies can encourage “power shoppers.” These customers purchase many goods online, try them at home, and return at higher-than-average rates when they find their perfect product. (Apparel retailers understand this pain quite well.)

While power shoppers impact the reverse supply chain expenses with an increased number of returns, they also represent a loyal shopping base that can serve as brand advocates. Think of supporting power shoppers as the costs of generating word-of-mouth advertising, as they tell others of their shopping experiences.

Plus, studies show that 95% of customers will make another purchase if their return experience is positive. Retailers who keep those power shoppers happy can expect to see increased revenue.

How a Smart Reverse Supply Strategy Empowers Your Return Policy

Any of these return policies leave retailers with the same problem: Too many returned goods taking up space in stores, warehouses, or that odd alley between the employee bathroom and the shop floor.

No matter how retailers decide to implement their return policies, they must ensure the reverse supply chain is optimized they can afford the policies that keep customers coming back. By minimizing costs of returns, retailers can pass those savings along to customers in generous policies.

For retailers examining their return policies, consider what you’ll do with a possible increase in returns. Make sure you have a dedicated location to store returns and an efficient way to recover return costs. Otherwise, you’ll wish you could return those returns to sender.