If you’re thinking about the possibility to start your own eCommerce or brick-and-mortar retail business, sourcing the products for your store will be of the most critical pieces of the puzzle. With so many options for product sourcing out there, it’s easy to overlook perhaps the best one of them all—buying bulk pallets of new or returned merchandise.
Many famous retail places and manufacturers frequently have goods that get closed out, returned from customers, or simply overstocked. Since these renowned retail giants and producers don’t want to throw them away, they work with some of the most famous wholesale pallet companies to get rid of what they can’t sell at their premises. The wholesalers pick up the merchandise from the stores, pack it up onto large pallets, and sell it to clients in bulk at very cheap rates.
So, if you’re interested in getting the best return pallets for sale, where can you source these pallets of merchandise? Or, if you want to buy brand-new merchandise only, how can you secure the lowest-priced goods and ensure the best profit margins for your business?
Below, we’ll present you the places from where you can source pallets of ready-to-sell merchandise to put your business in the best position possible to become and remain profitable.
How Can You Source Pallets Of New Merchandise?
The most obvious way to stock your stores’ shelves or your warehouse is through purchasing pallets of brand new goods. Here are the several options you have if you want to buy brand-new items in bulk:
Directly From Factories
Many retail store owners opt to buy their merchandise directly from manufacturers as this possibility has only recently become an option for small businesses. Back in the day, small companies required a middle man to buy directly from producers unless they could quickly move vast quantities of products.
Nowadays, it’s possible to buy pallets of brand-new factory merchandise, all through the Internet. However, the most considerable drawback to purchasing new merchandise directly from manufacturers is that you’ll probably need to buy a larger quantity in order to get a suitable discount and have the space within your facility to store it. Or, in other words, if you’re only willing to purchase a pallet or two, you may not get enough discount from the manufacturer to make respectable profit margins with your business.
Buying Through A Distributor
If buying directly from a factory isn’t a good option for your newly established business, you can always purchase brand-new merchandise in bulk from modern-day middle man or distributors. You can think of distributors practically as go-betweens who buy vast amounts of inventory directly from manufacturers and then sell it at a mark-up to small retail businesses.
While you won’t get as good a deal as the factory-direct discounts, you won’t have to place such a big order through distributors. Distributors represent one of the most frequent product sourcing options for small retail businesses because they tend to carry various products from a single product niche. In addition, they often sell it in reasonable quantities to smaller companies with only a small warehouse or a single store.
Lastly, you can also source pallets of overstock merchandise from other retailers. Again, this may be the best solution if you’re looking to get a large quantity of brand new items at a steep discount. When giant retailers like Walmart, for example, purchase too much of a particular product, they often sell off their overstock through liquidation auctions where you can buy pallets full of brand-new merchandise for a fraction of their wholesale price.
How Can You Source Pallets Of Returned Merchandise?
Even though many retailers and eCommerce entrepreneurs never look beyond getting new merchandise for their stores, you should know that another option offers some pretty good opportunities—buying pallets of returned goods. When big brands and retail giants have their products returned, they often don’t want the cost of reprocessing these goods, inspecting them for any damages, and losing the time to make sure that they are still in new condition. Instead, they sell these products to professional liquidation companies that further sell the merchandise to businesses interested in working with this type of goods.
However, purchasing returned pallets of merchandise is not without risk because some items may not be in perfect condition. To avoid this scenario, you must buy from a reputable return pallets company that permits resellers to buy directly from the largest retailers and brands.
Final Words
Regardless of how you choose to stock your shelves, it’s essential to do your research first, ensuring you’re exclusively dealing with renowned suppliers. Then, after you find a suitable partner to buy pallets of merchandise from, stock up on inventory and start getting your first customers.