It happens to every small business owner: You order a product thinking it will be a hot commodity but instead it’s a dud. If it’s a holiday-related item, it can be especially disheartening: If you don’t sell it now, you’ll have to save it for next year. This means it will take up valuable space that could house new inventory instead. Here are some ways you can repurpose this stock to ensure minimum waste and maximum profit.
Overstock happens, but if you’re willing to get creative with your displays, events, and/or marketing, you should be able to recoup your costs (even if it means not making the margins you might have forecasted). “Sometimes an item just does not sell,” says Emily Mayerhoff, owner of Attitude Dance Boutique in College Station, TX. “When that happens, either remarket it, find a new placement in the store, or create an Instagram post that features it. You’d be surprised at what a rebranding can do to help you move it.”
Case in point: Attitude Dance Boutique sets up at a holiday pop-up market every year. Its Nutcracker sweatshirts, with a fresh custom design, are always popular. This year, Mayerhoff ordered extra. She typically sells them for $33 for children and $39 for adults. However, the event day was hot and rainy and customers just weren’t interested.
Mayerhoff crunched the numbers and figured out a way to sell off the majority of her stock while covering her expenses. She sold them for $20 each as a “doorbuster” item from 10 am to noon during Small Business Saturday—the Saturday after Thanksgiving. “I sold almost every single one,” Mayerhoff says. “It ended up being a loss leader because most people bought a lot of other things with them, too.”
Here are some other scenarios for inspiration:
Help out another small business. Solveig Mebust, owner of Grand Jeté in Saint Paul, MN, was surprised when she received a request for pointe shoes from The Winery at Sovereign Estate in Waconia, MN. It turns out that the business had designed a temporary holiday cocktail bar called The Nutcracker Suite, with drinks and appetizers inspired by the ballet. Naturally, they wanted pointe shoes for authentic decor, so Mebust sold them expired shoes for $20, which helped her downsize unwanted stock while providing them a cost-effective solution.
Showcase thoughtful (but repurposed) small gifts. Attitude Dance Boutique presents a “Stocking Stuffer Barre” with items priced $20 or less, such as lip balms, snow globes, fun socks, mini-pointe-shoe keychains, bath bombs, manicure sets, and a plastic ornament filled with hair ties. Mayerhoff says it’s the perfect way to repackage items—from slow-moving to year-round products—to make them look fresh and new.
Calling all crafters! Grand Jeté has, at various times, sold “art kits” featuring a single discontinued or expired pointe shoe along with sequins, beads, jewels, and ribbons. This lets dance enthusiasts of all ages bedazzle their own shoes. Perhaps take the concept one step further: Offer an all-inclusive decorating party with refreshments and discounted shopping for local studios.
Utilize an ambassador program. The Turning Pointe in Columbia and Charleston, SC, launched its ambassador program a year ago. It’s been nothing but a success, according to owner Coleen Strasburger. The shop selected a dozen pre-professional dancers ages 13 to 20 for two-year contracts from online applications. The dancers get a 20 percent discount in exchange for creating social media content. If your store has or starts a similar program, it’s a simple ask to your brand ambassadors to be creative with stock that you need help selling.
Donate overstock to dancers in need. Grand Jeté donated a line of discontinued pointe shoes to Trifecta Arts, a nonprofit organization that provides free ballet classes to children in underserved parts of the world by connecting donors, students, and teachers. “They were open to taking the remainder of our deadstock as a charitable donation, which gave us a fairly large tax write-off,” Mebust says. “Rather than just sitting in the store room, the shoes are going to support dancers who really need and want them.”
Hannah Maria Hayes has an MA in dance education from New York University and has been writing for Dance Media publications since 2008.