Walmart is the biggest retailer in the world, bringing in close to $500 billion in sales this past year. This means they have a lot of inventory which they’re constantly moving in and out of their stores, based on what’s selling at that time. They also have merchandise returned to their stores, sometimes long after they stop selling it.
When this happens, it leads to excess inventory which has to be liquidated in some way — often referred to as “pallets” of merchandise. So, do they sell that inventory to the general public? Let’s take a look.
Why do people buy Walmart pallets?
Because wholesalers can’t offer the same rock-bottom prices they used to, sellers hoping to make money with new merchandise had to find creative ways to source their products. They may shop in the discount sections of local department stores or buy items for new prices if they think they can still make a profit. But one of the most popular ways to get discounted merchandise is to buy returned or overstocked items from larger retailers like Walmart.
To make money on this merchandise, resellers often flip the items for higher prices, either online or in their own stores. You might see overstock stores, flea market shops, or marketplace vendors who offer these types of items. But the vast majority of these sales are done online through platforms like Amazon and eBay. Resellers will buy the discounted Walmart merchandise and mark it up to new prices comparable to other sellers on the site.
Where can I buy pallets of discounted Walmart merchandise?
Some people get confused about how or where they can buy pallets of discounted merchandise from chain stores like Walmart or Target. Perhaps the confusion comes from the fact that Walmart sells the literal wooden pallets which companies use for shipping, or that they’ve seen advertisements for buying Walmart pallets online.
But Walmart, in fact, does not sell pallets of merchandise directly to customers. Instead, they contract with liquidation companies who agree to buy their overstocked or returned merchandise at a fraction of the cost it would sell for in their stores. These liquidation companies then sell pallets of these products to customers at either fixed prices or auction them off to the highest bidders.
Is it worth it to buy Walmart pallets?
It is completely possible to make great money flipping items for profit. In fact, some resellers make millions of dollars per year doing just that. But how do you know that you’ll get a good return on your investment if you decide to buy Walmart pallets?
The first thing to do is find out what items are included in a pallet that you’re interested in, and (importantly) how many are included. Then you need to do some thorough pricing research. You can start out by simply searching for the items on the platform you intend to sell on to see how other sellers price them. If you’re researching the item on eBay, you can check the box marked “completed” or “sold” listings to see how often it is selling and for how much. On Amazon, however, you need to be more careful. Occasionally, you might see an item marked extremely high because of a pricing program error or some other listing mistake. This, of course, is not a good price to base yours on. So you need to look at the average price that other sellers offer it for, along with the sales rank. The lower the number on the sales rank, the more often it sells.
Once you have a good idea of what you can sell your item for, you can determine what you can pay for a pallet while still turning a profit. You also need to decide how much profit you need to make for the purchase to be worth it. Be sure to keep in mind any selling fees you might incur on any of these platforms, as well as costs of product shipping and delivery.
