All traders are looking for that elusive product source that’s going to give them the ability to make the biggest margins, situations where £1,000 of investment in stock from a wholesaler can bring thousands back in profits. This really is the Holy Grail in wholesale trading, and business in general, so it’s no surprise that we get many requests from our users on which product areas are the most profitable. Unfortunately, as with most sought after opportunities, there is no hard and fast answer and in the wholesale industry the answer changes with the times often tracing retail trends. With this in mind we set the Wholesale Scout research team the challenge of finding the best possible return on investment for wholesale buyers this month.
What we discovered early on is backing for the eternal business mantra – the higher the risk, the higher the potential gain. Looking into low value popular products like MP3 Player headphones will get you some sales of course but it won’t get you the big profits. These are low value items where you need to sell hundreds of units to make large returns. This caused our wholesale research team to look into the ex-catalogue and ex-high street retail sector, in particular the trade suppliers that offer buyers the chance to procure whole pallets or containers of ex-high street store branded stock at a fraction of the recommended retail price.
On further investigation it was clear that this is an area where a wholesale trader could achieve a very large return on investment with most pallet lots going for around 80%-95% below the RRP buying the right job-lot could mean a very healthy profit margin indeed! Despite the huge discounts this is very high quality stock that you will readily see on the shelves at stores like Argos, John Lewis, BHS and IKEA so you can be sure of a demand for it from consumers when it comes to re-selling. Each pallet lot is graded to indicate the condition of the items within the job-lot. Pallets given a grading of ‘A’ are brand new boxed items which are unsold or end of the line stock for the big retailers such as John Lewis, BHS, Argos and Debenhams – when these retailers update a product line they need to quickly off-load ‘last season’s’ stock hence the chance to buy this stock by the pallet as Grade A lots.
In addition to the as new Grade A stocks there are also opportunities to purchase even cheaper Grade B and untested customer returns by the pallet. Grade B are generally fully working items that have signs of cosmetic wear and or may have things like instruction manuals missing whereas untested returns are an unknown quantity in that they have not been checked by the retailer at all before trade sale. This could result in you buying a lot of bargain items perfect for quick re-sale or buying a wholesale-lot with a high percentage of un-sellable goods.
To achieve these kind of huge wholesale discounts there’s obviously some points to remember;
- You are dealing with ex-catalogue stock from big name retailers with large amounts of products to unload in most cases a lorry will be required for collection.
- Large amounts of stock need large storage areas – you’ll need somewhere to store your products whilst you get to work at selling them.
- Remember to check the stock grading clearly of each wholesale job-lot and be aware of the condition of the stock you’re buying.
Armed with this advice all you need to do now is start looking into which pallet loads are right for you and subsequently get working at releasing some of that huge potential profit! Here’s an example of some of the recent pallet loads that have been going under the hammer at ex-catalogue clearance auctions;
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|
Description |
RRP |
Supplier Price |
Potential Profit |
 |
2 x Pallets of Mamas & Papas Push Chairs (30 Units) Grade A |
£1,400 |
£3,899 |
£1,250+ |
 |
12 x Pallets of Ex-High Street Retailer Furniture including Beech Desks, Headboards, Book Cases & CD Towers Grade A |
£11,800 |
£1,700 |
£4,000+ |
 |
3 x Pallets of Ex-Catalogue Vax Power 2 Vacuum Cleaners (50 Units) Grade B+ |
£5,999 |
£999 |
£1,600+ |
 |
12 x Pallets of Nassau Charcoal Barbecues (144 Units) Grade A |
£14,000 |
£2,800 |
£3,500+ |
All prices correct at the time of publishing.
 As you can see from the deals our research team found there are great returns to be had when buying ex-catalogue pallets. If you’re interested in this sector don’t delay and get in touch with this recommended supplier.
