For Independent Retailers
What Is Excess Inventory? And What to Do About It.
Excess inventory is any product that’s no longer producing the return your store needs, no matter how good it looked when you bought it. The sooner you spot it, the more cash you get back.
What It Really Is
Excess inventory isn’t what most retailers think
Most retailers think excess inventory is inventory they simply bought too much of. It isn’t.
Excess inventory is any inventory that is no longer producing the return your business needs.
That could mean:
- An entire size run that never sold.
- The last extra-small and extra-large sitting on the rack for months.
- Spring merchandise still hanging when fall orders are arriving.
- Beautiful products that simply didn’t connect with your customer.
Nothing has to be wrong with the merchandise for it to become excess inventory. The moment inventory stops generating meaningful cash flow, it has become excess inventory.
As Featured In
“How Max Retail Is Helping Retailers and Brands Manage Excess Inventory”
When It Becomes A Problem
When Does Inventory Become Excess Inventory?
Technically, the day it hits your sales floor. Professional buyers track sell-through against a benchmark like this:
%
sold by day 30
%
sold by day 60
%
cleared by day 90
Independent retailers rarely operate this way, they’re busy running their stores. By the time they notice inventory has become a problem, they’re already months behind.
It’s Not Your Fault
Why Didn’t My Inventory Sell?
There are dozens of reasons: weather, timing, the wrong customer, the wrong color, the wrong fit, the wrong price. Sometimes it simply didn’t land.
That doesn’t mean you made a bad buying decision. It means demand in your local market wasn’t strong enough, and local demand is only a fraction of the demand that exists for your products.
Your Options
What Are My Options for Excess Inventory?
Retailers generally have six ways to handle excess inventory. Five come with real tradeoffs.
Keep It
Hope it sells. But hope isn’t an inventory strategy, and every day it sits ties up cash you could reinvest in fresh product.
Mark It Down
20%, 30%, 50%, 75%. The most common fix, but it trains your customers to wait for the markdown instead of paying full price.
Donate It
Wonderful for charities. Terrible for cash flow. A tax write-off is not a revenue strategy.
Liquidate It
Fast, but often pennies on the dollar, with little control over where your product ends up.
Consign It
Better payouts than liquidation, but slow, inconsistent, and visible to your local customers.
Sell It Online
The preferred option, it puts your inventory in front of millions of shoppers, not just local foot traffic. The catch is the work. That’s where Max Retail comes in.
Where To Sell
Where Can I Sell Excess Inventory Online?
Selling online gives your inventory more exposure. You can build your own website on Shopify, BigCommerce, or have a website made easily available to you through your point of sale, such as Lightspeed. When it comes to excess inventory, having a sales section can help you drive traffic to the products you need help moving. Of course, even the largest online retailers still have excess inventory, and online shoppers get fatigued after seeing the same products on the sale section for too long.
You need more distribution options.
Resale marketplaces like Poshmark, eBay, Mercari, and Depop get your unsold inventory in front of millions of additional shoppers. Here’s why this is effective: your inventory may be aged, but it is new with tags. Merchandise customarily on these sites has been worn, making your products premium. Unfortunately, the effort associated with selling on resale marketplaces is significant, the limited time of an independent retailer is better spent marketing new products at higher margins. Marketplaces like The RealReal and ThredUp can be resources if you want to mail the inventory off-premise; however, you lose control of the pricing with their aggressive markdown strategies.
Max Retail is a turn-key solution for independent retailers to easily sell on resale marketplaces and off-price e-commerce sites while maintaining control of their pricing and remaining anonymous. The retail tech platform integrates with major point-of-sale systems, so you can use Max Retail effortlessly alongside your in-store processes. We sell your aged and excess inventory online while you sell your new inventory in store to your local customers.
How Max Retail Works
You list it. We sell it. You ship it.
That’s the whole job. No nights spent building listings, here’s the full process.
01
Connect your POS
Or upload a CSV. Setup takes about 10 minutes.
02
We list & sell it
We build and enhance your listings, distribute them across the network, and manage the shoppers.
03
You ship
We send a prepaid label. Pack it up and drop it off within two days.
04
You get paid
Stripe pays you the moment your label scans. Sales are final, no returns.
Who It’s For
Who Max Retail Is For
Max Retail is built for retailers selling brand-name merchandise at contemporary, designer, and mid-tier price points, and we help them clear excess inventory without discounting to the bone.
Contemporary
Contemporary boutiques carrying recognizable, on-trend brands at accessible price points.
Designer
Designer and luxury retailers moving premium, brand-name labels your shoppers already know.
Mid-Tier
Mid-tier retailers whose brand-name merchandise sits between mass market and luxury.
Is It For You
Is Max Retail Right for Me?
Categories we sell
- Apparel
- Footwear
- Handbags
- Jewelry
- Eyewear
- Beauty
Products should be
- Brand-name merchandise
- New with original vendor tags
- Greater than $30 wholesale
If that’s your business, Max Retail was built specifically for you.
There was never anything wrong with your inventory.
It simply needed more shoppers. That’s why Max Retail exists.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
What is excess inventory in retail?
Excess inventory is any inventory that is no longer producing the return your business needs. It isn’t only product you over-bought, it’s any merchandise that has stopped generating meaningful cash flow, including aged, out-of-season, or slow-moving stock.
When does inventory become excess inventory?
Inventory begins aging the day it hits your sales floor. A common benchmark is 50% sell-through within 30 days, 75–80% within 60 days, and the remainder cleared by 90 days. Product that falls behind that pace is trending toward excess inventory.
What can I do with excess inventory?
Retailers generally have six options: keep it, mark it down, donate it, liquidate it, consign it, or sell it online. Selling online reaches the most shoppers, and services like Max Retail handle the listing, selling, and customer management for you.
Where can I sell excess inventory online?
Options include Poshmark, eBay, Mercari, Facebook Marketplace, consignment marketplaces, off-price buyers, and Max Retail. Max Retail lets independent retailers list once and sell across many channels, including Poshmark, eBay, ShopSimon, BeyondStyle, Steals, Snagged & Bagged, and ThredUp, without building listings themselves.
Does Max Retail charge upfront fees?
No. Max Retail charges a single transaction fee only on completed sales, no onboarding, membership, or listing fees. You connect your POS, ship sold items with a prepaid label, and get paid.
