3 Ways to Build Maximum Recovery for Your Surplus White Paper

LiquidityServices.com

Three Ways to Build Maximum Recovery for Your Surplus

Table of Contents

Contents

Introduction 3

Construct a Strong Online Presence 4

Demolish Pricing Objections Through Excellent Buyer Experiences 6

Reinforce Buyer Relationships by Providing Comprehensive Information 8

Conclusion 9

Every organization has surplus: idle or end-of-life equipment, returned goods, and excess inventory no longer required. Traditionally, the management of this surplus – known as the reverse supply chain – has been a burden for organizations. Today, however, your organization can turn your reverse supply chain into a high-impact function that maximizes value and helps you achieve strategic goals.

Liquidity Services regularly conducts comprehensive surveys to better understand our customers and to help organizations improve their own reverse supply chains. Our most recent outreach surveyed over 3,500 registered bidders on our various online marketplaces for surplus assets. Buyers of virtually every asset category were represented, from biopharmaceuticals equipment to transportation assets to retail goods.

Analyzing these survey results, we discovered three key strategies that encourage prospective bidders to bid on your surplus and keep current bidders bidding. (More bids, of course, equals higher recovery). Your organization must reach buyers through their preferred channels; deliver superior customer experiences; and provide comprehensive, accurate information about surplus you sell.

Since the reverse supply chain is by definition a non-core business function, however, your organization may lack the time and resources required to deliver in these crucial areas. The ideal solution is often to select a trusted partner to manage and optimize your reverse supply chain. The right partner will maximize total value across your reverse supply chain while requiring little time and effort from your organization, freeing up resources to focus on your forward-flow business.

Introduction


Top Three Ways Buyers Find Surplus

Internet search results

Online advertising

Email marketing

1. Construct a Strong Online Presence The more potential buyers that view your surplus, the more bids you’ll get and the higher recovery you’ll achieve. Effective marketing drives views for your online auctions. But how should you focus your marketing strategy to optimize exposure?

In our survey, buyers said that internet search results, online advertising, and email marketing methods were most effective in getting them to bid on online auctions. Online methods get results because they drive prospective buyers to auction listings in just one click. And with the average American adult spending over two hours per day on the internet according to a recent Nielsen survey1, online is where your prospective buyers are likely to be.

1 http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/reports/2014/the-us-digital-consumer-report.html

The more potential buyers that view your surplus, the more bids you’ll get and the higher recovery you’ll achieve


SEOA robust search engine optimization (SEO) strategy helps ensure that your auction appears in online search results when buyers scour the internet for the kind of surplus you’re selling. Look for a provider that leverages SEO best practices – such as including “metadata” on pages to help search engines index them – to maximize targeted search traffic for your auctions.

Online Advertising

Pay-per-click and display advertising methods are cost-efficient ways to attract buyers searching online for surplus like yours. Ads promoting your auctions on industry-specific inventory listing websites target browsing surplus buyers. Look for a partner that leverages both methods to generate awareness for your auctions. Email MarketingPromotional emails, targeted by industry and asset category, grab buyers’ interest and convince them to place bids. Your partner should make email part of its core marketing strategy and continually optimize its approach through marketing and design best practices as well as frequent A/B testing.

By leveraging a multichannel online marketing approach, your partner will expose your surplus to the maximum amount of targeted buyers, driving bids and recovery.

To maximize exposure and bids for your surplus, select a surplus asset management partner that promotes your auctions through a vast arsenal of online marketing strategies, especially the three key channels below.


2. Demolish Pricing Objections Through Excellent Buyer ExperiencesMaking buyers aware of your surplus is only half the battle. Many prospective buyers view auctions but never place bids. The main reason this happens, according to our survey, is because the asset or shipping cost is too high.

Fortunately, your organization can eliminate these price objections and achieve the recovery you deserve. As our previous research noted, buyers of surplus – like buyers of virtually anything – consider “price” and “quality” directly proportional. The higher the perceived quality of an item or experience, the more buyers are willing to pay.

“Quality” for surplus buyers extends beyond the assets being sold. It entails the entire buying experience on your online auction site. Buyers desire a positive experience every time they visit your site, from browsing to placing a bid to payment. Our previous survey found that buyers most highly value the following features. Make sure your partner’s site experience includes them all.

“Watch list” for assets buyers may want later

User dashboard for comprehensive view of account information

“My Activity” portal to track bidding and buying activities

The higher the perceived quality of an item or experience, the more buyers are willing

to pay


Your partner’s online marketplace should provide an easy way to search for assets and multiple purchase options including open auction, sealed bid auction, private treaty, and “buy it now”.

Surplus buyers also value superior customer service before, during, and after their purchase. Our previous survey discovered that buyers’ top customer service expectations when purchasing surplus are:

• Availability to answer questions or resolve problems in a timely manner

• Accurate, detailed product listings

• Knowledgeable representatives

• Human response [as opposed to automated]

Through creating excellent buyer experiences, your patner will eliminate pricing objections and get buyers to bid more frequently

Look for a partner with a dedicated buyer customer support staff to provide these and other features on a global scale. Your partner’s support personnel should be able to answer any question or solve any challenge that buyers have. And be sure your provider has a proven dispute-resolution process to smoothly resolve all conflicts between buyers and sellers.

Through creating excellent buyer experiences, your partner will eliminate pricing objections and get buyers to bid more frequently, maximizing recovery for your surplus.


3. Reinforce Buyer Relationships by Providing Comprehensive InformationIt’s much easier and cheaper to keep a current customer than to get a new one. You can keep bidders and buyers of your surplus coming back by removing common obstacles to bidding. The top reason why buyers who have previously bid don’t bid again, according to our survey, is lack of detailed asset information.

What information about your surplus do buyers need before placing bids? Our research found that buyers most highly value the following details:

Asset condition

Detailed description

Photos and videos

Asset age

Original price

Original manufacturer brand

How many others are bidding for the asset

Make sure your provider always collects as much of the information above as possible and appropriate, and communicates it to buyers via detailed listings.

Another factor that influences buyers’ bid decisions is your organization’s “rating” as a surplus seller. Are buyers’ reviews of your goods and the experience generally positive or negative? How long does it take you to arrange shipping or pickup? How often do you cancel an order after selling? This information, often available online, is highly important to buyers making bidding decisions. An expert partner will ensure a positive seller rating for your organization by providing the superb customer experiences detailed above.


ConclusionThe reverse supply chain offers your organization opportunities to generate ongoing value that fuels your core business. Yet organizations are understandably challenged to achieve appropriate levels of recovery for surplus they sell.

Your organization can maximize recovery for your surplus by simply driving as many bids as possible. This white paper has provided proven strategies, based on our extensive research of surplus buyers, which your organization can leverage to increase bids and generate the recovery you deserve.

Given the time and resources required to provide all of these features, you may consider outsourcing your reverse supply chain to a trusted, expert partner. The right provider will go beyond simply selling your assets and deliver the superior marketing, site experience, customer service, and merchandising solutions your organization needs to maximize recovery while freeing up resources so you can focus on your core business.

About Liquidity ServicesEvery organization has surplus – assets or inventory no longer required. Liquidity Services (NASDAQ: LQDT) works with clients to ensure surplus is intelligently transformed from a burden into a liquid opportunity that fuels the achievement of strategic goals. Our superior service, unmatched scale, and ability to deliver results enable us to forge trusted, long-term relationships with over 8,000 clients, including Fortune 1000 and Global 500 organizations as well as government agencies. With over $1 billion in annual sales proceeds and nearly 3 million buyers in almost 200 countries and territories, we are the proven market leader in delivering smart surplus solutions. Let us build a better future for your surplus. Visit us at LiquidityServices.com.

1 http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/reports/2014/the-us-digital-consumer-report.html

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3 Ways to Build Maximum Recovery for Your Surplus White Paper

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