You know that box in the storeroom? The one that has been moved three times because nobody quite knows what to do with it. Maybe it's Christmas stock, maybe it's already been on the shelf, moved your display, put in an email, gone into a promotion, landed in the sales section, and somehow it is still there. Maybe it's one of those things that you were so excited about when you bought it, and now every time you walk past that box, you think, what on earth was I thinking? And eventually you get to the point where you just want it gone.

You put it on sale, you mark it down, you move it to clearance, you stick it in a box, and you bring it out next Christmas. Whatever. Just get it out of my face. I completely understand that feeling. But before you get rid of it, there is something I want from that stock. I want you to know what it is trying to tell you. Because you have already paid for that buying decision. The money has already left your bank account. The stock has sat there taking up space and tying up your money.

Maybe you've already spent money marketing it and discounting it. So before this product leaves your business, I want you to get the value out of it while it's still there. The products that you regret buying may teach you more than the products that have sold. Hey there, I'm Selena Knight, and welcome to the Bringing Business to Retail podcast, where we talk all about the strategies to make more money and grow your retail or e-commerce business. Now, I said that line in a masterclass just recently, and I keep coming back to it.

The products that you regret buying may teach you more than the products that sold. Because when we are trying to become better buyers, we tend to spend a lot of time looking at the things that did well. What sold the most, what was the best seller, what sold out, which suppliers or brands performed really well. Now, of course we need to know these things. But there is another set of buying data that is sitting inside of your business. And I think quite often it is the data that we least want to look at.

It is your sale rack, your clearance section, the products in your warehouse that haven't moved for months, the stockroom shelves where you push everything that you are going to deal with later. That stock is a record of the buying decisions that you've already made. And some of those decisions were really expensive, even if they're uncomfortable. When I get someone to physically walk through their store or their warehouse and pull together the inventory that has been sitting there for months.

There is a moment where you can almost see the weight of it. Because one product sitting on a shelf doesn't feel like very much. But when you put it all together, now that you can see it, 20 of those, 14 of those, two of those, a whole size run of that thing that just didn't sell, suddenly you are looking at a very, very big pile of cash. Cash that went out of the bank and has not come back to you the way that you expected. And that can feel

Awful. And I think our natural reaction is to move away from that feeling as much as possible and just think how can we sell it? How can we clear it? What kind of promotion can we run? Can we just discount it? All of those questions are useful. But there is one question I want answered first, which is why is that product still there?

Because saying it didn't sell, that's not helpful. It doesn't tell us what went wrong with the buying decision. And unless you know what went wrong, you can clear every last unit this weekend and still end up making the exact same buying decision again next season. And this is where it gets expensive. Getting one product wrong costs you once. Repeating the decision behind it can cost you year after year after year. You go to the next trade show, different product, different supplier, same.

Decision pattern. You buy too much again. Or you buy all the colours again. Or you convince yourself that something was a great seller because eventually it did all sell. And six months later, you're looking at another pile and thinking, what do I do with this stuff? So yes, 100% I want you to move that old stock. I want you to get the cash back. But before you clear it out, find out what you actually paid to learn.

Because sometimes what you think was a terrible product was actually a decent product with actually maybe just a little bit of a poor buying decision attached to it. Let me explain. Let's say you buy in 50 scarves. Now 30 sell in the first week. And you remember those scarves? Absolute hit. They did so well. Customer love them. We need to buy more next year. Then you go back and have a look properly. Well, actually.

30 did sell in the first week, but the other 20 didn't sell until March four months later. And then you had to clear them out. Now we have a very different story. The sales gave you very strong evidence for 30. The other 20, well, they're a completely different decision. But if you go into next season remembering those scarves were great, they sold out in the first week. Let's order 80 this year. You've taken the wrong lesson from those sales.

And this is one of the reasons I think old stock is so useful. It forces you to get specific.

Was the product wrong? Or did you buy too many? Those are two very different lessons. Because if the demand was strong for 30, deciding never to stock scarves again would be just as unhelpful as deciding to buy 80 next year. Maybe the thing you got wrong wasn't the depth. And when you know that, now the mistake has actually taught us something. It's the same thing with markdowns. If you sold 20 units of a product at full price, that tells me something.

If you sold 20 units after taking 40% off, that tells me a very different story. Your sales report might say that you sold 20, but actually your customer's behavior was very, very different. In one case, customers were prepared to buy the product at the price that you wanted to sell it for. Kachin, kachin, kachin, we'll take that one home all the way to the bank. But in the other, the demand showed up only once you put the price down. And that is a very important buying information.

Because I have seen owners look back on something that eventually cleared and went, well, they did pretty well. We sold out of those. But I'm asking you to think, did they? At what price? And how long did it take? And how much of your original order moved before you put it on discount? Because if you forgot the six weeks of nothing and only remember the rush of the 40% off email that went out, you're going to carry the wrong information as you go into your next buying season.

And this is where I think our memory gets us into trouble. We remember the moments, the highlights, the launch weekend. We remember when customers suddenly start buying something, or even worse, when they stop buying something. We are much worse at remembering the boring bit in between where those products sat for three months. But the stock remembers it because it is your cash. It is still sitting there. And that's why your sales section is so useful.

It is a record of all of those previous buying decisions. Anything that needed a heavy discount to move is giving you information. Maybe the quantity was wrong. Maybe the colorway was wrong. Maybe the price you needed to sell it at didn't line up with what your customers were willing to pay. Maybe demand just simply wasn't as strong as you expected. When there is meaningful money tied up in something, I would be very reluctant to get rid of that stock without understanding the decision that put it there.

Because otherwise you are only fixing the visible problem. You've got old stock, you clear it out, it disappears, great. Let's not have that same problem six months from now. At some point you have to ask whether you have a stock problem that needs clearing, or whether you need to keep making different decisions.

Look at the pattern. If every season you end up with secondary colours left over, that is buying information. If every new range has a first couple of weeks and then drops off, that is a buying information. If you repeatedly buy the whole collection but three SKUs generate most of the sales, that is buying information. If your sales section keeps filling up with products from the same type of buying decision, this is what we need to pay attention to.

Because the individual products can change if the but the decision can stay the same. And that's the part that can cost you a fortune. You could clear out your warehouse completely. Empty shelves, fresh start. But then if you go to the next buying fair and buy exactly the same way that you always have, slowly, box by box, the stock room will fill up again. And that is why I don't think getting rid of old stock is enough. I want the buying decisions to improve. I want the information that you're using.

To choose the products to improve. And some of the strongest evidence for how to improve it is sitting there in that stock that you wish you had never bought. But we've already spent the money. Let's take the lesson. Because that stock will show us where our judgment was a little bit off. But I think there is an emotional piece to this as well, especially when you've been in retail for a long time. Because you pride yourself on knowing your product, knowing your customer.

You've bought thousands of different SKUs over the years. I know you have a good eye. So admitting that you've got something wrong, it can sting a little bit. I know it does because I have been there. I bought products because I thought that they were going to be fantastic sellers. But sometimes I come back and look at them and think, what were you thinking, Sal? Seriously. But I am much more interested in what made me say yes than beating myself up for having said yes. Because if I know what drove the decision, I just catch it next time.

Was I just excited? Was I relying on my memory instead of what actually sold? Did I go too deep because I was worried about running out? Or did I buy wide because the supplier told me I had to take the whole range? All of that is useful information.

Those questions will make you a better buyer. And I think that's why the products that you regret buying can sometimes teach you more than the products that sold. They expose those assumptions. They expose the bit of decisions that didn't you didn't question yourself at at the time. And once you see that, then it's okay. It's a lesson. No such thing as failure, right? It's always just a lesson. So here's what I would love for you to do. I want you to go into your store, your stockroom, your warehouse.

And find one product that you hate looking at. Now you probably know what it is because when I started right at the beginning, I talked about that box. You already thought of it 10 minutes ago. The thing where every time you see it, you're reminded that you spent money on it and it hasn't sold. I want you to pick that product and ask, why is it still here? And don't stop at, well, customers just didn't buy it. I want you to think a little bit deeper. What did I get wrong when I made this buying decision?

And then finish this sentence. Knowing what I know now, what would I change about that decision? Maybe you will still buy the product, but you're just going to buy less. Maybe you would only take two of the colors. Maybe you would have sold it on pre-order first. Maybe you just would have left it entirely. Whatever the answer is, that is useful. Because now, when the supplier catalog lands, or you are standing at your next trade show, you've got something more than a vague memory and

The product that just didn't work out. You've got a decision that you can change. And that is what stops the same mistake showing up in a different box. Because the thing that bothers me isn't that you have stock that you regret buying. I just want you to get that gone. But I want you to see why that stock is still there. don't let the product cost you money and then throw away the lesson as well. You've already paid for it. So

Before you put that Christmas stock back in the box, before you mark the range down again, before you finally clear out those shelves and celebrate never having to look at products again, find why it's still there.

Before we finish up, just a quick reminder that I'll be hosting a free masterclass on September 17 showing you how to get your customers buying before Black Friday. This is the last one in my Q3 series designed to help you make more money this peak season. Hundreds of retailers have already registered and

benefited from knowing how to buy the right products and how to make sure that you don't drain your cash at this busiest time of the year. This final masterclass wraps up everything.

and get your customers spending earlier. You can register for free over at Selena Knight.com forward slash Q3 to save you your spot. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'll see you on the next episode.