For many consumers, shopping online is quickly becoming their preferred method. There are many ways to begin selling online, but Amazon return pallets are one that is simple, affordable, and may even turn a profit.
Find out how and where to look for Amazon pallet sales if you’re a business owner actively looking for Amazon returns. Then, determine whether or not this presents a chance to make money on the secondary market.
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What Are Amazon Return Pallets?
Did you know that, in contrast to physical stores, 46.25% of online shoppers return their purchases? Yeah, that accounts for a sizable chunk of online purchases.
And bad news for any owner of a small business who depends on online sales to pay the bills.
Ours is an average figure from the results of 12 major e-commerce hubs across the globe:
As was mentioned earlier, different countries have different percentages of online returns.
Buyers return products (and abandon future online purchases) due to many reasons, including:
- The wrong item was delivered to the customer. Maybe the seller shipped the wrong color or a different item when you asked for a pink purse.
- Product defects or failure to live up to customer expectations
- Buyer’s remorse – perhaps the product didn’t appear as good in person as it did online.
- The package lacked a few accessories. You would anticipate a charger and headphones if you bought a smartphone, wouldn’t you?
- Customers who receive their orders late might be forced to purchase the same item elsewhere.
So, what are Return pallets from Amazon? Let’s say your online store generated $1,000 in sales. Assuming the aforementioned return rate of 46.25 percent, you can expect 460 customers to send back your goods.
If you’re Amazon, which receives millions of orders every day, the number of customer returns can mount up quickly.
Additionally, Amazon’s policy on free returns shipping is very accommodating to customers who want to return items.
You can either decide to keep the returned goods and suffer losses, or you can take action.
That’s where Amazon return pallets come in.
Amazon sells customer returns to online resellers and liquidation firms rather than holding onto the millions of returned items that are sent in.
The process is known as “liquidation.” Amazon can recover its losses in this way and get rid of inventory that is simply too expensive to store.
With that in mind, Amazon return pallets are containers or packages of returned products. There isn’t anything else to say; it’s that easy.
You have the option of purchasing a single box, a pallet, or a truckload of Amazon return pallets. Everything is dependent on your financial situation and operational requirements.
Also, pallets have an “estimated retail value” and are mainly sold via Amazon liquidation auctions
However, you can purchase Amazon return pallets from some liquidation businesses for set prices.
What’s inside return pallets is difficult to know.
I want to emphasize that you never know what you’re getting with Amazon return pallets.
You might even get empty boxes, though this is uncommon.
Although buying pallets is typically a risky business, with some research you can determine whether the pallet is worthwhile spending your time and money on.
However, there are times when you can identify the brands or categories of goods before purchasing Amazon return pallets.
Yes, pallets from Amazon liquidations don’t typically arrive in ominous brown boxes. Additionally, some businesses provide manifests to aid in finding what you require.
One more thing: the goods contained in Amazon return pallets may be in any state.
You might come across brand-new goods, used goods, and salvage goods that are only useful as replacement parts. With consumer electronics, this is especially true.
To illustrate further, have you watched “Storage Wars?” Online shopping for closeout goods follows a similar procedure.
The only difference? You might guess what’s in the return pallets, but you don’t examine the products before buying.
Because of this, we assert that selling Amazon return pallets online is risky.
However, if you do your research, selling liquidated goods is exciting and can bring in good money.
The best course of action is to go to Amazon liquidation auctions and online liquidation marketplaces if you want to purchase return pallets.
Where Do Amazon Returns Go?
Many third-party Amazon sellers assert that dealing with customers who abuse Amazon’s lenient return policy is necessary for their business.
Nearly 9% of items in brick-and-mortar stores are returned, and at least 30% of online orders are. Retailers provide customers with simple, convenient, and quick ways to return orders, which is a major contributing factor.
Amazon has a very lenient return policy for customers who want to send items back, as any seller who sells on Amazon is aware.
In fact, almost half of consumers return their online purchases, according to Statista.
At the Amazon Accelerate 2021 conference, Amazon announced the launch of two liquidation resale services that enable sellers to resell products that customers have returned. One of these services is Grade and Resell, which enables FBA sellers to relist returned or unsold inventory as used.
Additionally, Amazon has specific sections of its platform for used goods, including Warehouse Deals for pre-owned merchandise, Amazon Renewed for articles that have been recently renovated, and Amazon Outlet for overstock.
In addition, there is Woot, a daily deal website owned by Amazon.
What happens to the returned goods that aren’t sold on Amazon? Truckloads or pallet sales are typically how Amazon liquidated goods are sold.
Where to Buy Amazon Return Pallets?
Finding excellent sources is necessary if selling Amazon return pallets sounds like a great idea. Otherwise, you’ll just waste your money.
Pallets are best purchased from a liquidation company or through Amazon liquidation auctions.
Every year, Amazon sells the returned goods at auction to the highest bidder (especially after the holidays when many people return unwelcome gifts in large numbers).
Amazon sells return pallets and overstock merchandise via its various liquidation resale programs:
- Amazon Warehouse for used merchandise online
- Amazon Renewed for refurbished items
- Amazon Outlet for overstock inventory
- Woot offers products at a highly discounted retail price
Furthermore, a wide range of liquidation businesses purchase from Amazon and other significant retailers and resell pallets for a profit.
With some practice, you’re sure to find some great bargains whether you purchase overstock items from a liquidation business or directly from Amazon.
According to our research, since you can purchase customer return pallets from Amazon and other major retailers, liquidation platforms give you more options.
What Can You Expect from An Amazon Pallet Sale?
Customer return pallets are typically sold in bulk and contain a wide range of goods, including apparel, electronics, women’s beauty products, games, watches, headphones, gadgets, video games, accessories, anything for home improvement, and anything else.
Here’s an example of liquidation auctions from Liquidation.com:
Accordingly, in the example given above, you receive 84 items with a suggested retail price of $2,168, and the current high bid is $240.
Most often, there are only a few photos, which are frequently useless, so you can’t see the entire palette. However, some liquidation websites offer buyers a manifest of numerous pages that lists every item in the pallet, allowing buyers to see all the items the pallet contains.
The items could be in poor shape, which is the warning. Some items can be sold for profit right away, while others might need some repairs or can only be used as spare parts.
On the manifest, you may occasionally notice that each pallet contains some random items even though each bundle is categorized.
Tips on How to Choose the Right Amazon Pallet
- Compare various liquidation companies and attempt to purchase returns at lower prices to increase your margins.
- Make a small investment to first evaluate the quality of the pallets.
- The first time, avoid purchasing a pallet of used electronics. The odds of the items not working are very high, and if you don’t know how to fix them, it will be a complete loss.
- You might be charged by some liquidation businesses for the shipping of your return pallets. Before buying an Amazon return pallet, research freight costs. It could be more expensive than the amount you pay for the goods
The Best Liquidation Companies to Buy Amazon Pallets Online
Here are some of the liquidation companies that sell Amazon customer return pallets:
DirectLiquidation.com
Through the online marketplace Direct Liquidation, retailers can buy overstock or liquidated goods. You can search by brand or retailer on the website of this wholesale marketplace, which partners with large retailers like Walmart and Lowes.
An auction is used for every sale. Therefore, if you choose to place a bid for a pallet, pay closer attention because this platform doesn’t have much information about the pallets you are placing a bid for.
Liquidation.com
One of the biggest liquidation websites is liquidation.com. Customers who buy Amazon returns for their reselling business are fond of it and it works with many retailers.
Liquidation.com sells Amazon return pallets via auctions, just like Direct Liquidation. Additionally, Liquidation.com does not disclose the kind of goods that each pallet contains.
Bstocksupply.com
B-Stock Supply is another online auction marketplace, similar to Direct Liquidation and Liquidation.com. Here, resale shops can get their hands on returned goods from other stores.
Pallets can be purchased at BStock Supply, which is like an eBay for pallets. Prices range from $300 to more than $5,000. However, they only offer Amazon products to customers in North America and Europe.
Craigslist.com
In terms of finding pallets of goods, Craigslist is a hidden gem. There’s a good chance you’ll find a great deal here, but depending on the area where you search, you might not find many results.
This is a general merchandise and pallet liquidation store. Freight may be an issue if you live on the west coast because it is located in New Jersey.
Additionally, they need a legitimate business registration for non-US clients and a legitimate resale certificate for clients with US addresses.
888Lots.com
The nice thing about 888Lots.com is that you can purchase individual items at fantastic discounts, but you can choose whether or not to take this risk given that the majority of the goods may be damaged.
They also give resellers access to an Amazon profit calculator tool so they can determine whether it is profitable to sell these goods. Additionally, they include all the information and descriptions of what is contained in each pallet.
How Much Can You Make Buying and Selling Amazon Return Pallets?
You should start conducting your own research to determine how much money you can make if, when buying Amazon pallets, you have a list of the items mentioned above.
In a manifest like the above, you’re given a list of Amazon ASINs. Every product in Amazon’s catalog is assigned an ASIN, which is a special code, and each product is limited to having a single page on the online retailer.
Visit www.amazon.com/dp/[ASIN] and enter this ASIN. Thus, the Amazon product page for the Fast Lane Sand Shark item mentioned above is located at www.amazon.com/dp/B01K26TIDQ because it has the ASIN number B01K26TIDQ.
Now you want to use a tool like Helium 10 to display the precise number of units per month that the product sells on Amazon. Seeing how many units a product sells each month can give you a good idea of how simple it will be to resell that item, regardless of whether you intend to sell your items on Amazon, eBay, or at a garage sale.
In this instance, we can see that the product sells one or two units per day on average. It isn’t huge, but if you’re able to win the buy box you can expect that it would take you about 15 to 30 days to sell out of this product – not bad.
How to See How Much Money a Product is Making on Amazon
When pallets of returns are purchased, many people actually want to resell these items back on Amazon. You can easily go on to Amazon and see how much money an item is selling for but the big question is – do these items actually sell on Amazon?
Fortunately, there is software that can tell you precisely how many a product are being sold each month and how much money they are bringing in.
You can use tools like Helium 10 to see exactly how much money each product is making (as well as sales data from months and years prior). A tool like Helium 10 is absolutely necessary if you want to purchase Amazon pallets and resell them on the marketplace.
You can use the coupon code ECOMCREW50 to get 50% off Helium 10 (affiliate link)
Get 50% off Helium 10
What is the Price Per Amazon Pallet?
Prices for Amazon liquidation pallets will vary depending on the liquidation website (some prices are fixed, while others run via liquidation auctions) and the size of the pallet.
Generally speaking, the cost per pallet can vary from $100 to $5,000 depending on the value and quality of the goods. Additionally, some can cost up to $10,000.
Each liquidation company will have different shipping options and costs. The cost of shipping the pallet to your address will be at your expense and will be determined by its weight, size, and travel time from the warehouse. Others, however, will provide you with a flat rate or free shipping.
The total cost of shipping might exceed the sum of the prices for the items on the pallet.
How to Make Money Using Amazon Return Pallets
This practice of purchasing goods at a discount with the intention of reselling them for a profit is known as retail arbitrage. One of the most straightforward and affordable business models for someone just getting started in eCommerce is retail arbitrage. Many business owners have made a full-time living off of this gig.
In order to find good deals and sell them on any platform like Amazon or eBay, retail arbitrage requires you to constantly be scouring the clearance aisles of places like Walmart, Home Depot, or liquidation websites. It also has fairly good margins and is relatively simple to get started.
Purchasing pallets of goods reduces a lot of this work because you are now purchasing dozens or hundreds of items at once rather than just a few.
In comparison to private labeling and wholesale, selling Amazon return pallets can be started with less money. In order to see how the system works, some sellers spend $200 on Amazon return pallets as a trial run.
Additionally, since the brands are handling their own marketing, there is little need for your efforts.
But despite how easy it may seem, selling a house is still a business venture that necessitates the seller’s effort and careful consideration.
You typically pay much less per item when choosing Amazon return pallets than you would when purchasing from retail stores and occasionally even wholesale. And even if some of the pallet’s contents are unable to be sold, you can still keep them for personal use!
This has the drawback that the majority of liquidation websites only ship to the US. In this situation, you may also have access to alternatives like Craigslist or less well-known liquidation marketplaces.
The Benefits and Drawbacks of Buying Amazon Return Pallets
Here’s a recap of the pros and cons of buying Amazon pallets for sale:
Benefits of Buying Amazon Pallets for Sale
- To determine whether selling particular products is worthwhile, you can use any Amazon Profit Calculator.
- You don’t need a lot of storage.
- It does not call for a sizable investment.
- It is a good way to launch an e-commerce business because you don’t need technical expertise.
- To increase your profits, eliminate the middleman.
Drawbacks of Buying Amazon Pallets for Sale
- Some online liquidation businesses won’t provide you with any information about the products contained in the Amazon return pallets.
- With this business model, you cannot expand or scale.
- Often, you’ll collect used items that you aren’t able to resell
Why Invest in Amazon Return Pallets?
Here are a couple of reasons in case you’re still on the fence as far as Amazon returns go:
You Have An Endless Supply of Products
Among the many sources of inventory at your disposal are overstock, Amazon returns, lost cargo, neighborhood auctions, storage facilities, and many others. Choose a dependable seller, but only if you can. Only use reputable sources after reading reviews.
Low Startup Costs
The price of Amazon return pallets is considerably less than what you would pay if you dealt with retailers and wholesalers directly. You only need a few hundred dollars to get started right away.
You Can Resell Products Easily
With the extra inventory, you can increase the size of your brick-and-mortar stores. Flea markets, garage sales, social media, WordPress e-commerce sites, Shopify, Amazon, eBay, and resale marketplaces like Thredup and OfferUp are just a few places where you can sell your goods. There are countless opportunities available.
Huge Profits Margins
Pallets for Amazon returns are incredibly affordable. You can easily turn a $500 pallet into a sweet $2500 profit if you do it the right way. And repeat.
Fine-tune Your Target Audience
Alternatively, you can use filters to find what your approved buyer wants by selecting random goods. Custom lots are another option.
Final Thoughts
You can earn a lot of money by selling Amazon return pallets for cash. Increasing its profitability, though, will depend on how much time and effort you put into it. As an illustration, you might refurbish used goods meticulously to make them appear as new as possible.
It is true that you won’t scale to the next level if you choose this business model, online arbitrage, and selling Amazon return pallets, even though there aren’t many risks involved. However, it may be a successful way to launch an online store.
