Obtaining Exclusive Customer Return Contracts with Retail Stores

Wholesale ebusinesses are deceiving-- one little web site can move mass amounts of sales volume, and only have one or two employees. To a retail giant, you are small potatoes. But wouldn't it be great if you could get just one of your local mega-stores to sell their customer returns to you? It's not as hard as you think.  

Here are some of the basics to getting on board with a retail giant that can provide mass amounts of stock from customer returns.  

First, make sure you don't represent your wholesale eBusiness as small potatoes. Use the right terminology of liquidator or wholesale liquidator when introducing your wholesale e-business. Speak their language: money. Highlight ways you can save the company by buying the customer returns for a larger percentage of the original retail price than the current buyer.

Make sure you negotiate with the right representative for the local chain store. Corporate offices rarely have anything to do with the day-to-day operations of individual stores. You want to speak with either the General Manager or the Receiving/Return to Vendor Manager. Walking up to the Customer Service desk isn't going to cut it. You will likely need to do some research with a phone call and follow up with a formal business letter with the offer.

Keep in mind that while these managers have control over the local store operations, they do not have the same incentives as another business owner. There are company policies and guidelines these managers must follow, and that includes how the customer returns are inventoried and processed out of the system. Be prepared to meet their every need, including early morning pick up times and short inspection times of the goods. Be alert for large ticket items on the manifest you can't locate in the shipment. Anything larger than $500 is often returned directly to the manufacturer, but may have lingered in the inventory computer system.  

Not every major retailer will allow individual local stores to handle their store returns. Some of the larger retailers have in-house systems to take the large amount of customer returns that are not returned to the sales floor right away. As a wholesaler all you can do is ask. It may take some major pavement pounding to find a few lucrative contracts.  

There is a great deal of money to made in “retail salvage.” Many customer returns are virgin returns, still in the original packaging! Electronics and media items can become tough because a return is usually due to a product failure. It might take some practice to determine what overall percentage you can buy bulk customer returns and still cover the loss of any damaged or broken products. Bottom line is when working with a large super store for customer returns, any inconvenience will be on your part and not theirs, so plan accordingly!  

There are great resources online for your wholesale business.  If you've been looking for new ways to bring in revenue from your wholesale e-business or drop shipping operation, there are resources for you. All aspects of online business are covered, from customer service to business operations.