After placing the order it finally ships. You get excited knowing somewhere in the US your inventory, the inventory that YOU only hold claim to is moving through a logistical maze with the elegance of a royal family member on parade.

 

You decide to double check on things while your order is getting prepped at your warehouse in a completely different state. While checking, you realize the price went down. Like, WAY down (probably because you didn’t research the product we teach).

 

So what now?

 

Well, at some point you have to take the L and find a way to make it work. That’s where some more advanced ideas come into place. Can you make unprofitable inventory profitable? Yes, but not in the way you’re thinking.

 

Cash Back Cards

 

If you’ve placed your first order by now you’ve probably realized that 98% of suppliers require a credit card as payment. This works to our benefit in multiple ways. Regardless of the basic benefits of spending on a credit card (while using good financial practices of course!), credit cards allow you to make an immediate profit, even if inventory breaks even.

 

Let’s say you have a card that offers 5% cash back (look around, they exist!) and your order total is $1,000 (which is quite low for our industry). If the inventory goes bad and you end up breaking even you would at least make $50. I know, not much but better than spending $1,000 and getting nothing out of it. Luckily, this scales with your spending and ensuring you get 5% cash back on all spending could add a great deal of revenue to your business.  

 

Even getting cash back on at least $10,000 of spending every single month would be an extra (tax-free) payday.

 

Using even better cards to get something more valuable…….

 

I’m talking cold hard travel points. The great benefit of getting travel points instead of cash back is the scale of it all. With the right cards and the right sign up bonuses, you could be sitting on a cool 1MM travel points across multiple programs with incredible ease.

 

Trust me, I’ve done it a few times 😉

 

You also (again, with proper financial practices) can consistently increase your spending levels of each month. Remember, the only way to grow a wholesale Amazon business is to either put more money into it or take much less out.

 

So what could 1MM travel points get you? Multiple round-the-world trips, taking your entire family on vacation for pennies on the dollar, I’m talking only paying the taxes on the flights and even covering a rental car with points and monthly trips abroad at a whim.

 

Hopefully, this post has broadened your perspective on how creative you need to be to turn bad inventory around and understand how to “stack” benefits within your Amazon business. If these simple strategies work with break-even inventory, they work even better on profitable inventory.