Forum

Liquidating a weak SKU
 

Got a bit ahead of myself and ordered a large quantity of an item that apparently is a weak seller. Without divulging the exact item, let's just say its a generic version of an otherwise hot selling branded product.

To be fair, it's not the worst selling product in the world, but its tough to eek any sales out given the competition. The branded variant totally dwarfs it, and I'm lucky if I get 1 sale/week with my current setup.

How do you guys deals with ****ty SKUs? I'm trying to avoid taking a loss and find ways to break even, and get "creative" with ways of seeking out some extra sales. Even promoted listings have not worked with it, yet.


2 examples I've been thinking of
- the bait and switch. Build up solid sales history with the branded item (which I do stock as well), and then swap out the listing photo / description for the generic variant... then piggyback of the placement of that good listing. I've seen some sellers employ this method with success when launching a new product to market. Obv, customers who bought v1 of the product will get the branded product, and customers who order after the listing switch will get v2.

- creating a new listing with variations, with the first variant being the branded item, and the second being the generic item. This is currently the method I'm leaning towards. This would help my weak SKU get in front of more eyes and gradually get more sales. Once it sells out, I can simply remove it as a variation, and either make it a single item listing, or replace the variation with something else.

Any input?

Re: Liquidating a weak SKU
 

This. As long as the picture and description get changed to reflect exactly what you're selling, I see no problems with it. It's what I would do if I were in your shoes. I wouldn't even refer to it is bait and switch... because to the consumer, it isn't.

Re: Liquidating a weak SKU
 

I don't think that would work very well. Your listing will build up momentum while it's selling the branded version but as soon as you edit your listing you will lose any momentum you had. You'd still have whatever watchers you had before but they're going to notice the item has changed, most likely.

What I do is list a bunch of different quantity variations. Put up a 1x, 5x, 10x, 25x, 100x listing all as separate listings. Other sellers will make different quantities different variations of the same listing but I've always had better luck making them as new listings.

Maybe even bundle it with another item if you have something you could bundle with it.

Re: Liquidating a weak SKU
 

To put your predicament into some kind of context, what was the cost price of the stock you have left?

Re: Liquidating a weak SKU
 

You can try selling them as wholesale lot either on Ebay ,AMZN or elsewhere.-classified ad,Craigslist,break them up into smaller quantity,most indvidual sellers would only take 5-10 and call it wholesale