Shipping: Buying on B-Stock? 3 Ways to Save Money on Shipping

As any experienced buyer will tell you, when purchasing liquidation merchandise to resell you must consider shipping costs. For financial reselling success, you must factor it into your budget. You don’t want shipping to unexpectedly eat up potential profits before you’ve even received your goods! So, whether you’re just beginning your reselling business or looking for opportunities to tighten your budget belt, here are four ways to save money on shipping costs when buying on B-Stock.

How to Save Money on Shipping

Find free shipping on Supply

Our very own B-Stock Supply is an online auction marketplace where small businesses/resellers can source returned and overstock merchandise from other businesses. On the Supply marketplace, you can shop across thousands of categories from hundreds of sellers, all in one place (it’s like eBay, but for business-to-business transactions). And many of the Supply sellers offer free shipping! This is the perfect way to get smaller lots and cheaper shipping on much of the same merchandise offered by our private retailer marketplaces. What’s more, you can shop by shipping types on Supply and only view auctions offering free shipping. 

Consider consolidated shipping

What is it? Well, consolidated shipping combines multiple LTL shipments into one full truckload shipment. By doing this, you can save time on shipments and reduce your costs. Several of our private retail marketplaces like Target Auction Liquidations and Signature Hardware Liquidation Auctions offer this truckload discount savings option. Additionally, most marketplaces using C.H. Robinson or J.B. Hunt also offers this opportunity to save on shipping. 

There are a few caveats that need to occur in order to consolidate your shipment. For one, your won lots must be coming from a single warehouse location. Two, not every warehouse location offers consolidated shipping (you’ll have to do your homework). Three, you must win the minimum amount of pallet spaces necessary within a certain number of business days to take advantage of a single truckload delivery. Read: they won’t hold your shipment indefinitely until you meet the full truckload pallet requirement (usually around 12). And finally, you’re still required to pay your shipping costs upfront, but will be reimbursed the difference in B-Stock credit to apply to future bidding!

Look for nearby warehouses

Location, location, location. While some marketplaces only have a handful of distribution centers, others have multiple warehouses scattered across the country. And, obviously, the closer you get to you, the cheaper it ships! For the current live auctions, you can find the warehouse locations listed on the left side of the marketplace auction page. Additionally, the specific ‘shipping from’ location is mentioned at the bottom of each auction listing description.

Bottom line: If you find liquidation marketplaces with warehouses closer to you, you’ll cut your costs and save money on shipping.  

There are certainly a few perks that B-Stock buyers can take advantage of to save money on shipping. And once you start buying up larger loads of liquidation, these discounts can really add up! To learn more about how shipping works on B-Stock, be sure to read our article Buying Basics: Auction Lot Shipping Methods.