How to leverage online destocking?

Unsold goods account for an average of 3% of company sales¹. If you sell €10,000 worth of products every month, you’re potentially missing out on €3,000 in sales per month. Beyond this loss of revenue, unsold stock also has a significant environmental impact. Fortunately, there’s an excellent solution for reducing this impact and preserving your margins: online destocking.

What is online destocking?

Online destocking involves selling excess inventory via digital channels. The process can be applied to new items (unsold) or second-hand items (product returns, for example). Opting for digital destocking has several advantages:

  • Make your items visible on multiple platforms (marketplaces, e-commerce sites, etc.) and reach millions of customers;
  • Easily target price-sensitive consumers via digital campaigns: online advertising via Google Ads or Facebook Ads, newsletters, posts on social networks, etc ;
  • Easily manage your destocking with the many online tools available: workflow integrators, inventory management solutions, etc.

By opting for a complete solution like Rakuten Fulfillment Network, you can manage all your inventory from a centralized dashboard. Inventory and order management, real-time monitoring of stock levels… all the elements of your logistics can be controlled with just a few clicks

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The advantages of online destocking

Optimize your inventory

Online destocking is a key factor in optimizing your inventory. In fact, by selling off your unsold :

  • You reduce your warehousing and handling costs, as well as your fixed storage costs: no need to heat and light huge warehouses to let products gather dust;
  • Free up space for new collections or fast-moving products. This flexibility enables you to take advantage of peak periods and ride the wave of trendy products before your competitors do;
  • You limit stock obsolescence. The depreciation of a new iPhone 16 is estimated at 40% in 1 year, and that of an iPhone 15 is already close to 50%². Destocking allows you to sell your products before they lose too much value.

Reduce your environmental impact

On average, 1/3 of unsold non-food products are destroyed or recycled. Getting rid of your unsold products represents a complete loss for your company, as well as a significant environmental footprint. Keeping your unsold products is not a solution either, as you generate heating and electricity costs, in addition to the reasons mentioned so far. By destocking your products, you reduce your environmental impact and promote a more sustainable approach.

Online destocking is all the more relevant for second-hand or reconditioned products, which you may have in stock following product returns from your customers, for example. By giving these products a second life, you’re part of a circular economy dynamic.

Attract new customers

Online destocking can be a powerful lever for expanding your customer base and growing your business. Here’s how:

  • Attract price-sensitive consumers: destocking enables you to offer significant promotions and discounts, making your products more accessible and boosting consumers’ purchasing power. Some customers who wouldn’t normally buy your products may be tempted to place an order.
  • Turn “bargain shoppers” into loyal customers: by offering regular clearance sales, you can attract new customers. If the buying experience is positive, these new customers are likely to become loyal customers, generating long-term revenue.
  • Increase your visibility: selling your items at bargain prices allows you to make them more visible online. In fact, you’ll have a better chance of winning Buy Boxes on marketplaces, and of being featured in “good deals” or “promotions” pages.

Good to know: at Rakuten, our customers’ purchasing power is a priority. By offering advantageous and fair prices, you optimize your chances of moving up the search bars, top offers and product pages

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Increase your sales by taking advantage of exclusivity

To encourage your customers to take action quickly, play on the sense of urgency or exclusivity by proposing exclusive offers for a limited time. You have several options:

  • Flash offers: set up flash offers, valid only for a few hours or days.

  • Exclusive promotions: by offering exclusive promotions to customers who have subscribed to your newsletter or loyalty program, you strengthen your bond with them and encourage them to buy.

  • Cross-selling: take advantage of these limited-time offers to cross-sell complementary products. For example, if a customer buys an item of clothing on special offer, offer them matching accessories. By combining clearance products with products on which you make a full margin, you gain on both fronts.

By creating a sense of urgency and limiting your offers to certain customers, you can significantly increase your sales.

How to set up an online destocking strategy?

To launch a destocking operation, you need to take the following points into account:

Careful presentation of your products

The key to a successful online destocking operation is to make your products attractive and stand out from the competition. Enhancing the value of an item is above all a matter of careful, engaging presentation:

  • More attractive visuals: use high-quality photos that highlight your products’ assets, vary the angles of view and take care with the staging to create an attractive visual universe and arouse desire.
  • More engaging product descriptions: write concise, punchy descriptions, using vocabulary adapted to your target audience. Don’t hesitate to add technical details, user tips or customer testimonials to reassure and convince potential buyers.

By taking care of the presentation of your product sheets, you’ll increase their attractiveness, generate more clicks and maximize your chances of turning visitors into customers.

red cta benefit from qualified traffic

Setting up promotions

Promotions are an essential tool for selling off stock quickly and attracting bargain-sensitive customers. Offer discount coupons or vouchers to encourage your customers to take advantage of your stock clearance offers. You can also take advantage of cashback by giving the customer part of the purchase price in the form of points that can be used towards a future purchase. Cashback is an excellent way of building customer loyalty.

It’s a good idea to integrate your promotional campaigns with e-commerce high points: sales, the holiday season, back-to-school or Black Friday are all opportunities to take advantage of the general craze for discounts. Indeed, these events attract a massive audience: 92% of French people aged 16 to 34 said they would buy online during Black Friday 2024³.

Choosing the right platform

For efficient and simplified destocking, partnering with an online platform such as a marketplace offers a number of advantages:

  • Increased visibility with a wide audience: Access a vast portfolio of potential customers, considerably increasing the visibility of your products. For example, 13 million unique visitors visit Rakuten every month.
  • Simplified management and advanced functionalities: Benefit from intuitive tools and advanced features to easily manage your inventory, promotions and sales. Set-up is quick and easy: on most platforms, creating an account takes just a few clicks, and all sales are managed from a centralized space.
  • High-performance promotional operations: Take advantage of numerous opportunities to showcase your products at discounted prices and attract new customers. Some platforms offer regular events, such as Rakuten’s Mega Peak days, which build customer loyalty by offering up to 20% cashback financed by the platform.
  • Personalized support: Benefit from personalized support to help you optimize your destocking strategy and achieve your goals. As a Rakuten professional seller, you benefit from a dedicated E-Commerce Consultant who puts his expertise at the service of your sales.

By choosing the right platform, you’ll maximize your chances of successful online destocking.

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Sources :

¹Ademe

²PhoneArena

³Ipsos for Rakuten France

FAQ

You must comply with legal obligations regarding customer information (display of prices, discounts, guarantees, delivery and return conditions, etc.). You must also comply with the General Terms and Conditions of Use of the platform on which you are destocking. Beware of the term “sale”: it is strictly regulated and must not be used outside the official dates

All products can be destocked, but seasonal items or items that quickly become obsolete (fashion, gardening, high-tech…) lend themselves best to this. Conversely, items that lose little or no value over time (books, collectors’ items) may be worth keeping longer.

There are a number of KPIs to apply when analyzing an online destocking campaign, such as :
– number of views per product ;
– sales achieved ;
– customer satisfaction;
– product return rate