Throughout the world, there are many ways to buy electronics. However, if you’re a wholesaler, you probably don’t want to buy small quantities of items. To start buying large quantities of wholesale electronics, it’s important to learn about finding pallets.
Buyers who know how to find and purchase electronics pallets often end up enjoying a massive return on investment (ROI) from these purchases. Before you get started, there are steps you’ll want to follow. But, don’t worry, we’re going to take you through each step of this process.
In this article, you’re going to learn more about:
What pallets of electronics are
A few reasons to consider buying electronics pallets
The six types of electronics pallets
How to get ready to find these pallets
Where to find pallets of electronics
Three ways to buy electronics pallets
Buying pallets of electronics
Receiving pallets safely
Organizing the electronics that come off of your pallets
How to flip pallets for the most profit
Learning how to expand your pallet flipping business
We know, it sounds like a lot. Fortunately, we’ll have everything broken down into sections. Trust us, you’re going to learn quite a bit here. If you’re ready to begin, let’s get started with our complete guide on how to find and buy wholesale electronics pallets.
What Are Wholesale Electronics Pallets?
Electronics pallets contain a wide range of electronic items that are stacked, wrapped, and placed on a flat piece of wood. Pallets are typically made of durable wood. However, it’s not uncommon to find pallets made from thick plastic. The durability of pallets helps ensure electronics remain safe during the storage and transportation processes.
When it comes to what’s inside of pallets containing electronics, you’ll typically find a wide range of items. For instance, you can find pallets that contain only one type of item or a mixture of electronics. You can find lots of valuable items on wholesale electronics pallets including smartphones, tablets, desktop/laptop computers, smartwatches, and much more.
If you want to start your business off with a decent amount of inventory, purchasing pallets of electronics is a great way to do it. However, you might not be sure if this is the right kind of business for you. In the next section, we’ll look at a few reasons why so many people in the electronics industry love buying pallets full of goods.
Why Should I Consider Buying Pallets of Electronics?
Starting a new business can mean making lots of commitments. Considering that, you might need a little more convincing before you decide to start buying and flipping pallets of electronics. It makes sense to want to know for sure if pallet flipping is right for you. With that in mind, here are several beneficial reasons why it pays to buy electronics pallets.
Paying Low Prices for Lots of Electronics
As someone starting a new business, you understandably want to get items at low prices. With that said, you’re not going to do this by buying a few electronics at retail prices. Buying new electronics often means either raising your prices to make a profit or selling items and making little to no profit.
When you buy one pallet or a few pallets of electronics, you can get items for extremely low prices. You get these prices because you’re buying electronics in bulk. It’s also possible to catch a listing that’s priced low because a wholesaler wants to move lots of inventory as quickly as possible.
Getting Your New Business Off the Ground Fast
No one wants to wait years or decades to see their new company become profitable. Unfortunately, this is often the reality for people that start their companies by buying a few items at a time. At this rate, it could take you quite a while to start seeing your company take off.
However, by buying one or several pallets of electronics, you could find yourself with hundreds or thousands of items to start selling. By doing this, you can start competing with companies that might be far larger than yours.
By finding and reselling popular electronics at affordable prices, you could start selling lots of items right away. And, as you know, making lots of sales is typically going to increase profits faster than selling one or two items per week.
If you can offer great service and high-quality electronics, you might find that your company overtakes its competitors faster than you might think.
A Great Side Hustle or New Business
Another advantage of buying pallets of electronics is having flexibility. You can choose to buy a pallet here and there as a great side hustle (source of additional income, usually done on a part-time basis). This situation can be great for someone who already has a job, but wants a way to earn more money. It’s also a potentially great job for someone who enjoys working from home.
However, if you want to do more in the electronics industry, buying pallets of these items is a great way to launch the new business you’ve always dreamt of having. Many people got their start in the electronics industry by purchasing a pallet. Within a short while, some of them have grown massive electronics companies.
You might be unsure of where you want your electronics business to go in the future. If you only want to resell electronics as a side hustle, that’s perfectly fine. Start out by setting a goal to sell a few items or to work a certain amount of hours per week on flipping electronics. After doing this, you’ll have a clearer understanding of whether you want to make this a side hustle or your new, full-time career.
Having a Lot of Items to Choose From
Many wholesalers love buying pallets because it enables them to stock their stores with many items. This is one reason why large retailers like Walmart or Amazon continue to do so well - they have almost everything a customer could want!
As you start a new business, you might think that there’s no way you could compete with such large companies. Fortunately, you can become this exact type of competitor by finding and buying pallets that contain electronics.
Some sellers will only have pallets with electronics from one company. This would be like finding a pallet of only Samsung Galaxy smartphones. You might also find other sellers that specialize in selling items of a certain type, like smartphones or tablets.
Sometimes, the best pallets of electronics contain a wide range of mixed items. Finding these types of pallets can be great for a wholesaler that wants to offer something for everyone. It’s also a great way to find surprises that you’d never thought of selling before.
By finding and buying items on electronics pallets, you can have lots of variety to pass onto your customers. If you’re targeting a wide audience, this kind of variety might lead to lots of sales in the near future.
Fewer Middlemen to Deal With
In the electronics industry, it’s good to have other companies to work with. However, it’s not always great to have too many of them. Ordering your electronics, having these items shipped, and getting them can take a long while. This process might become even longer when you need to work with 5 or 10 companies just to order and receive a pallet of electronics.
More often than not, having lots of companies involved in your company’s supply chain means fewer profits for your business. If you don’t want to see your profits continue going to multiple companies, buying electronics pallets can be a great way to achieve this goal.
By needing help from fewer middlemen, more of your company’s profits can go into your pocket. Having fewer middlemen can also make it less stressful to manage your business. With fewer people involved in acquiring your products, you avoid juggling contacts, making endless calls, or sending tons of emails each day.
Common Types of Electronics Pallets Available for Purchase
There are numerous reasons why a company might want to prepare to sell pallets of electronics. It makes sense to want to learn more about how companies categorize the pallets they’re wanting to sell. Here is more information about four common types of electronics pallets.
Pallets of New Electronics
If you can find them and have a decent budget, buying pallets of new electronics can be extremely profitable. Considering the brand new condition of these electronics, they are likely to be costly.
With that said, the cost of new electronics pallets is worth it when you have people or companies to sell these products to. If you keep a close eye on your profit margins, you can easily make great money ordering pallets that contain only new electronics.
Used Electronics Pallets
You might prefer finding pallets of used electronics. As you can imagine, these types of pallets contain previously used electronic devices. Because you’re working with used electronics, you’ll often get pallets with these types of electronics for a low price.
Keep in mind that buying used electronics will involve testing your devices. Unless stated otherwise, you’ll also need to wipe your electronics. This doesn’t mean physically cleaning the outside of your devices, although that’s a good thing to do. Instead, wiping electronics means removing data from them.
The types of data you’ll need to remove from electronics can include pictures, videos, texts, emails, and other sensitive information. Doing this is essential because selling electronics with other people or a company’s private information could get your new business into trouble.
With that said, manually wiping devices can get time-consuming. If you want to save time and energy cleaning up phones, it might be beneficial to partner with an electronics testing company like PhoneCheck.
Overstock/Liquidation Pallets
Almost every business must predict consumer demand for their products. If not, it’s almost impossible to know how much of a certain product to order for replenishment purposes. Unfortunately, there are times when a company overestimates customer demand for its products. If this happens, these stores get stuck with items that aren’t selling.
To solve this problem, companies typically categorize these goods as liquidated merchandise. These types of goods can be electronics that are soon-to-be-replaced by a newer model or simply items that a particular store isn’t selling a lot of. Companies typically want these pallets out of their stores and warehouses as fast as possible. Considering that, you should expect to find some decent bargains with these types of pallets.
Return Pallets
Sometimes, businesses order an optimal amount of merchandise and everything seems fine. Unfortunately, there’s never a guarantee that customers are going to enjoy a product after they take it home. If customers aren’t satisfied with a product, they’re likely to return it. In fact, one study found that consumers return $642 billion worth of items annually.
As returns keep piling up for a business, this company understandably might not want to sell these returned products anymore. When this happens, companies will place these goods on pallets containing returned items.
The ROI you’ll get from electronics return pallets depends on why customers are returning these products. If they’re defective, it might be wise to avoid purchasing these types of electronics returns pallets. On the other hand, you could find a goldmine of products here that a store simply isn’t able to sell effectively.
Discontinued Merchandise Pallets
As anyone in the wholesale electronics industry can tell you, technology advances at a rapid pace. If a product is simply outdated or is getting replaced by a revamped item, it’s likely to become discontinued. Since discontinued items will no longer be in production, most retailers won’t want them in their respective stores.
To get rid of them, stores place these items on discontinued merchandise pallets. Considering that not everyone wants to spend hundreds of dollars on brand new electronic products, there can be a large market for certain types of discontinued electronics.
Tested vs Non-Tested Pallets
Another important consideration to make is whether you want to purchase tested or non-tested pallets. Tested pallets contain items that have been tested by either the seller or another party. If you are finding and purchasing wholesale electronics pallets that contain tested items, you’ll know everything you’re buying works properly.
That’s not to say that you should necessarily avoid wholesale electronics pallets with non-tested items. After all, non-tested items aren't always non-functional. These items are also extremely cost-effective purchases for wholesalers who can refurbish electronics themselves or know others that can. For instance, people who purchase used or damaged smartphones, fix them up, and sell them are doing what’s known as phone flipping.
Getting Ready to Purchase Electronics Pallets
Now that you have a bit of background on electronics pallets, it’s time to start learning about preparing to buy them. Here are a few tips to get your business ready to start buying electronics pallets.
Register Your Business and Get an EIN
Considering the value of electronics pallets, most vendors want to know they’re working with a legitimate buyer. So, it's a good idea to have one or several forms of business identification ready to present before you can start making purchases.
Fortunately, you can get started by registering your business. You’ll also need to have your EIN (Employee Identification Number) for tax purposes. Essentially, having this number verifies that your business exists. Without your EIN, you’ll be unable to file business taxes.
In most cases, getting your business registered is only a matter of listing information about your company and filing a few papers. Once you have it and your EIN, you should be ready to start buying electronics.
Obtain Your Resale Certificate
Another incredibly important thing to have before your business gets officially started is a resale certificate. This piece of paper allows you to buy electronics at wholesale prices. Plus, it also allows you to make tax-exempt purchases. If you were unaware, not having to pay certain taxes on what you purchase can help your business save a lot of money.
Establish a Budget
You’ll also want to make sure you have a predetermined budget. Having a budget helps ensure that you’re not going overboard when it comes to spending. Within your budget, make sure to set aside costs for inventory, shipping costs, fees, and other overhead costs.
With a budget to follow, you shouldn’t have to worry about running out of money right after your business begins. As you work to grow your business, you can expand this budget to pay for other costs that come with an expanding company.
Watch Out for Scams
As it is in any industry, it’s important to watch out for scammers. Unfortunately, these scammers will try almost anything to get your money and not send your electronics. You can avoid this problem by researching any platform you’re on or any buyer you want to work with.
Fortunately, you can avoid dealing with scammers in the electronics industry by joining Trade-In Tech. Trade-In Tech ensures that each member has professional references to prevent scammers from entering our platform. Not all wholesale buying and selling platforms provide this layer of security.
Plus, Trade-In Tech makes it easy for our close-knit group of buyers and sellers to report any suspicious activity.
Buy a Pallet Jack
Since you’re going to be buying and receiving pallets of electronics, you’ll need a way to move them. Fortunately, having a pallet jack can make all of this work much easier than normal. A pallet jack is a device that allows you to easily move pallets full of electronics.
Operating a pallet jack is simple. First, you ensure that this item’s bars go through a pallet’s openings. After that, you carefully pull back on your pallet jack’s handle, and it begins lifting your pallet off the ground. At this point, you can use a pallet jack’s wheels to safely guide your pallet anywhere it needs to go.
Without having a pallet jack, you’ll have to take items off of a pallet one by one. You’ll also have no way to move or store your pallets if you plan on unpacking them later.
Where Can I Buy Pallets of Electronics?
Now that you know what types of pallets are available to purchase, it’s time to learn where to buy pallets of electronics. There are several great ways to buy wholesale electronics for resale from pallets. With that said, some methods for finding and purchasing wholesale electronics pallets are better than others. Here are the best places to find and buy pallets of electronics online.
Trade-In Tech
An important key to success in the wholesale electronics industry is making connections. If you want to start finding wholesale suppliers in the electronics industry, become a member of Trade-In Tech.
We use an exclusive verification process to help ensure that our network of buyers and sellers never has to worry about finding the right connections. Plus, our membership network features top electronics buyers and sellers from all over the world.
Another reason we remain one of the best wholesale platforms is due to our unmatched pricing system. We don’t set the prices for goods that our network of members sell. This places you, the buyer, in complete control of what you’re purchasing and how much you’re willing to spend.
We also make it easy for you to contact our many members directly, ensuring you receive the best possible wholesale pricing. A few of our notable clients include Atlas Mobile, PhoneCheck, and ItsWorthMore.
Also, unlike many of our competitors, we’re proud to offer no fees to our fast-growing list of buyers and sellers. We don’t believe that either sellers or buyers should be at the mercy of having to pay fees everywhere they turn. If you don’t want fees eating into your company’s profits, start finding all of your electronics pallets on Trade-In Tech.
If you decide that you want to start selling electronics instead of buying them, Trade-In Tech will remain a valuable business ally. Our platform has an ever-growing list of buyers, which means a constant stream of leads to help grow your wholesale electronics business. We also have a 24/7 support team available to help you out at any time, whether you’re a buyer, seller, or both.
Wholesale Directories
To find pallets of electronics for sale, you might also consider visiting wholesale directories online. There are certainly many types of wholesale directories online that allow you to get in touch with suppliers. However, you want to be extremely careful while visiting these websites.
Unfortunately, a major disadvantage of finding electronics pallets through these directories is the issue of trust. Certain companies are quite good at making websites that look like they’re legitimate businesses. But it’s sometimes difficult to spot the differences between a scam and a legitimate wholesale directory.
eBay
Another popular way to find pallets of electronics is by visiting eBay. For nearly 25 years, this website has been one of the best places to sell items you no longer want. eBay is primarily an auction website, meaning that you’ll likely be placing bids on any pallets you want to buy. With that said, eBay does allow sellers to choose whether they want to list pallets for auction, direct purchase, or both.
Again, as it is with Amazon, these large retailers will be receiving a cut or percentage of every item that sells on their respective platforms. When you purchase a pallet on eBay, expect to be paying a sizable amount of fees each time.
Facebook Marketplace
You can also potentially find the electronics you need by checking out Facebook Marketplace. While you’re likely familiar with the popularity of Facebook, you might not be aware that it’s possible to buy and sell items on this social media platform.
Getting started on Facebook Marketplace is simple enough, you’ll only need to have a Facebook account. On this platform, it’s easy to buy and sell all types of electronic devices.
The main drawback of Facebook Marketplace is that most sellers aren’t selling pallets of electronics. Your success depends on where you live and how many wholesalers are around you.
Partnering Up With Local Companies
Finally, we also wanted to mention finding the electronics you need by partnering with local companies. Depending on your location, you might leave near businesses that sell pallets full of electronics. It’s not always guaranteed that any of these companies will be near you. However, it’s worth a few local searches to see if any of these companies are nearby.
3 Methods of Buying Pallets of Electronics
After learning about where to find electronics pallets online, you’ll need to know how to purchase them. Fortunately, there are only three main ways to buy pallets of electronics. Let’s take a closer look at each of these methods.
Buying Directly
The most straightforward way to get pallets of electronics is to purchase them. To do this, you’ll need to find the purchase price for the pallet you’re interested in buying. Buying a pallet of electronics outright can get a little expensive. But, it’s a good feeling to know that you won’t lose your pallet after getting outbid.
With that said, it’s a good idea to check if there are any shipping, processing, or other types of fees. Staying aware of these fees helps you know how much money to have on hand. It can also mean the difference between getting the pallet you want or watching it go to a competitor.
Bidding
Not every seller will put their electronics pallets up for a specific price. Instead, these sellers will utilize a bidding system where anyone interested in buying a pallet places a bid for it. Sellers often set a minimum bid price to help them avoid losing lots of money on their pallets.
Bidding on pallets has advantages and disadvantages. Fortunately, you can find lots of bargains by bidding on pallets. With that said, auctions also carry the risk of a bidder spending too much or not enough and missing out on something great. If you don’t enjoy the auction process, it might be better for you to find pallets that you can directly purchase.
Getting Items on Credit
Another option to consider when buying electronics is getting items on credit. Essentially, this means buying items for a low cost (or none at all) and paying the creditor back later.
Let’s say that you wanted to purchase $25,000 worth of electronics. However, you only had $10,000 to spend. If you were to get items on credit, you might only need to make a down payment for $10,000 and then make monthly payments to purchase the full lot.
Getting a line of credit from suppliers can be a great way for new electronics wholesalers to get great deals on pallets. Just watch out for high interest rates, which can vary from provider to provider. You don’t want to see all of your profits go towards paying expensive interest fees.
How to Buy Wholesale Electronics Pallets Online
Now, we’re going to show you how you can start buying electronic pallets online. There are several steps you’ll want to follow to get the best possible prices. Following these tips will also help you find electronics that will sell quickly, leaving you with a lot of profit.
Utilize Multiple Sources
With the internet being so popular, there will never be a shortage of places to find electronics online. Because of that, it’s a good idea to give yourself time to utilize multiple sources. Take note of the prices you come across, and you’ll ensure you’re buying electronics at fair prices.
The important thing to remember while utilizing multiple sources is that you’ll be managing various accounts and passwords. So, make sure you have all of your information for these platforms stored in safe places.
Or, if you want to avoid juggling accounts on many websites, consider signing up for Trade-In Tech. Our platform has a network of thousands of buyers and sellers. Best of all, these people and companies are buying and selling electronics from some of the most popular companies. By using a platform like Trade-In Tech, you’ll have everything you need while only having to visit one website.
Take Time to Compare Prices
Once you have your accounts in place, you can begin to purchase electronics. However, this isn’t something you want to rush into. Buying electronics from a single source might seem convenient. However, unless it’s a platform with a lot of sellers, it’s not going to give you the best price range to work with.
As you get started looking at listings for electronics pallets, make sure to remember to compare prices. First, take note of pallet prices you come across. Next, calculate your per-unit price. Calculating your per-unit price is important because not all pallets are the same. Some pallets might have 500 electronics while others might contain 5,000 units.
This step might seem tedious, but it’s beneficial for your business in both the short and long term. As you continue comparing prices, you’ll be amazed at how much this activity strengthens your pricing skills. Within a matter of weeks or months, you’ll be an expert at knowing the market value of whichever electronics you’re researching.
Don’t Be Afraid to Ask Questions
In life, it’s understandable to have questions from time to time. When it comes to electronics, it’s a good idea to ask questions if you’re unsure about what you’re buying. For most people, purchasing pallets of electronics is similar to making a big investment.
If you have questions about what you’re buying, but don’t ask them, you could end up getting pallets that you don’t want or need. Most electronics sellers should respond to any questions you have. If your questions go unanswered or you don’t like the response you received, it might be time to buy products from another seller.
Look Closely at Listing Descriptions and Pictures
One of the most important things to consider before buying electronics pallets is what’s in their listings. If you were unaware, listings are where sellers can place descriptions and pictures of what they’re selling.
While it’s not always a sign of quality, the best listings usually have detailed information about products and the condition they’re in. This information can include the products a seller is selling, dimensions of the products, and what condition these items are in.
Another part of any listing that deserves extra attention is your pictures section. Like descriptions, pictures (or a lack thereof) can vary depending on what platform you use and if the seller wants to include them. It might be best to avoid listings without pictures unless you have lots of confidence or trust in the seller you’re buying from.
Stay Up-to-Date With Industry News
Considering the popularity of electronics, there’s no shortage of news about electronic devices. You can use all of this news to your advantage by checking out industry websites and news sources. For instance, you can learn about Apple’s new products by visiting this company’s website.
Keeping up with what’s going on in the electronics industry is a great way to find out about popular products, new releases, and other important information. A few popular websites to keep up with electronics-related news are CNET, ZDNet, Gizmodo, and TechCrunch.
Another great way to learn about what’s popular in the electronics industry is by using Google Trends. All you need to do is type in a topic or keyword and you’ll find out how popular this term is based on a scale of 1-100. Generally, Google Trends is best for finding out more about newer electronics or how popular a certain electronic device remains over time.
Keep Additional Costs in Mind
When purchasing or bidding on electronics pallets, make sure you factor in any extra fees. If you forget about transportation, storage, or other types of fees, you might find yourself overpaying for your pallets of electronics.
You can avoid these costs taking a toll on your company by noting the fees you have to pay. By adding small percentages of these fees into your prices, it can help you keep your estimated revenues accurate.
Fortunately, you can avoid a lot of these bothersome fees by purchasing wholesale electronics on Trade-In Tech. When you sign up at Trade-In Tech, you’ll see that we offer zero fees for both buyers and sellers. By joining Trade-In Tech, your company’s profits go to you and won’t get devoured by fees.
Receiving Electronics From Pallets
The next section we’ll go over is how to receive electronics pallets. You might think that getting your pallets of electronics is self-explanatory. However, learning a few bonus tips about receiving electronics pallets can help you greatly in the future.
Remember Delivery Dates and Times
As you can imagine, pallets aren’t things that mail carriers deliver all of the time. Instead, these shipments are often handled by commercial mail providers. With that in mind, pallets also aren’t typically items that can be left on your doorstep. Some shipping providers might require you or someone else to be on-site to sign for your pallets.
To make sure you don’t miss this moment, always track each pallet that’s coming your way. Almost every shipping provider should provide you with some type of tracking information, usually a series of numbers you can use to find out the location of your package. The last thing you want is for your pallet to not get delivered because no one was there to accept it.
Have Someone On-Site to Receive Your Shipment
More often than not, someone will need to be at the pallet delivery site to sign for it. This provides proof that you received the pallet you’ve recently purchased. If no one is available to sign for this shipment, the shipping company might have to put it back in their vehicle.
When you miss the pallet delivery, you might have to wait for another date to receive it. Or, you might have to pick this item yourself.
Take Note of a Pallet’s Dimensions
Pallets are available in a wide range of sizes. With that in mind, it’s a good idea to find out the dimensions of any pallets you’re purchasing. While it might seem like an unnecessary step, measuring a pallet’s dimensions before purchasing it can save you a lot of headaches in the future.
By doing this, you won’t be caught off-guard by receiving a pallet that’s too wide to fit inside of your building. You’ll also avoid having to take items off of a pallet one by one to bring them in.
As you can imagine, pallets of electronics are going to be large shipments. With that in mind, make sure you have plenty of space. Fortunately, most people that sell electronics either use pallets that are 42” x 42” or 48” by 48”.
Invest in a Designated Storage Area (Shelving and Racks)
As any wholesaler who works with electronics can attest to, buying electronics pallets can take up space quickly. To avoid watching your space fill up with electronics, it might be a good idea to buy some shelving or racks. These items let you make use of vertical space in your home or business.
You don’t have to start by buying wall-to-wall shelving. Instead of that, start with a few small shelves. As your business continues growing and profits keep coming, you can use this money towards the purchase of much larger shelves.
Also, as a general rule of thumb, try to store your heavier electronics on your lower shelves and the lightest electronics on the higher shelves. By doing this, you can prevent heavier electronics from falling down and damaging any lighter items you own.
Catalog Your Items Immediately
The next step you’ll need to take is to start getting your items cataloged. It’s imperative to do this when you’re unloading your pallets. If not, you run the risk of putting this activity off for a day, week, or month.
By having a plan to sort in your electronics right away, you’ll avoid the stress that comes with putting this task off. When you catalog your items right away, you’ll also avoid having to jump back into doing partial inventory, which can get quite confusing. If you’re not careful, it could result in inventory errors that take lots of time to correct.
Keeping Your Electronics Pallets Organized
As time goes on, you’re likely to find yourself buying lots of pallets. Over time, this can lead to a house or commercial building that’s full of electronics. It can also lead to a lot of headaches and stress if they’re unorganized. Follow these tips to keep your pallets of electronics kept in an organized manner.
Don’t Wait Too Long to Unpack Your Pallets
Pallets are convenient ways for companies to ship lots of goods at once. As a wholesaler, you’ll enjoy pallets because they allow you to stock up on inventory to sell. However, it’s generally best to avoid waiting too long to get your products off of their pallets. If possible, try to unpack your items as soon as they arrive.
Take Inventory of What’s on Your Pallets
The next step is to catalog everything you received. When it comes to cataloging, you can do this manually or with the help of software and tools. Either option can work well, depending on your preferences.
To get started, you’ll need to have your manifest handy. A manifest is a document that details everything that’s on a pallet. As you look through your manifest, start taking inventory of what arrived to ensure everything matches up.
If Necessary, Separate Your Inventory
After everything is off of your pallet, it’s time to start categorizing them. Understandably, this step won’t apply if you only order one make and model of something. However, most wholesale electronics dealers will eventually run into a situation where they need to separate what they have. Doing this also helps ensure that you’re not sorting through endless piles of electronics every time you make a sale!
You can separate or categorize your electronics in many different ways. One way to do this is by having storage bins or something similar. These items are great for both storage and categorization purposes. For instance, you could have bins labeled for smartphones, tablets, and similar items. You could also choose to separate what you have by the manufacturer that makes them - the options are endless.
Do Inventory Checks Regularly
After reading through most of our tips, you might think that you only need to worry about inventory when new electronics arrive. However, we also urge you to spend time reviewing your company’s inventory.
It might seem easy to keep track of 10 or 20 smartphones. However, as your business continues growing, you might find the need to start ordering items by the truckload. As you can imagine, this inventory can quickly get disorganized. Trust us, this isn’t something you want to deal with.
Keeping all of your items organized also prevents any stock-related issues from happening. Trying to sell items that you don’t have can lead to lots of business-related problems, including having unhappy customers!
Use Software To Help Keep Things Organized
You might think that organizing your electronics involves writing everything down and having stacks of paper or notebooks everywhere. Fortunately, you won’t have to worry about things getting that complicated. Before you start taking inventory of your electronics, consider having one of these business tools on your side.
Microsoft Excel
Chances are, you have heard of Microsoft Excel in the past. Excel is one of the most popular types of spreadsheet software in existence. If you already have Excel, use it to manage your inventory. The only drawback of Excel is that it’s not free. You can choose to either pay about $8 per month to use Excel on a subscription basis. It’s also possible to buy Excel for about $140 as a one-time cost.
Airtable
If you’re looking for a way to organize all of your company’s inventory, Airtable is a great program to think about using. Unlike Microsoft Excel, you can use Airtable for free. If you want to enjoy more features that Airtable offers, there is a premium version of this software.
The premium version of Airtable offers more storage space and additional features to make creating and organizing tables easier. Airtable charges you based on the number of accounts you need to give creating and editing rights to. You’ll find that Airtable offers a Plus plan for $10 per month per person. There’s also a Pro plan that costs $20 per month per user.
Google Sheets
Another way to keep all of your inventory and other types of company data organized is by using Google Sheets. Like Airtable, Google Sheets is a cloud-based platform that offers spreadsheets you can use to organize information. The main advantage of using Google Sheets is that it’s free. Plus, as is the norm with Google, this program has lots of cool features you can use to create and customize spreadsheets.
Pallet Flipping Like the Pros
The process of buying electronics from pallets and reselling them is otherwise called pallet flipping. If you know how to properly flip pallets, this can be an awesome way to make money and grow your business. The tips you’re about to read will help ensure you’re flipping pallets like the professionals.
Buy What You Know
To run a successful business flipping electronics, it might be helpful to take notes from some of the world’s best investors. But, what does investing have to do with pallet flipping? Let us explain. Many of the best investors stick to companies and industries they either know of or want to learn more about. If they don’t have some type of interest in a company, these investors likely want nothing to do with it.
When you’re buying inventory for your business, it’s wise to buy products that interest you or are ones you want to learn more about. It’s also a lot easier to answer questions about these products from potential customers.
Follow the 2-Week Rule
As you get your pallet flipping business started, one of your most important goals should focus on making profits. However, it’s often difficult to come up with a timeframe to achieve this goal. That’s why industry experts recommend following the two-week rule.
The concept behind this rule is simple: make back what you spent on your pallet within two weeks. This won’t always be possible, but it’s a great way to give yourself a sales goal.
Aim to Double Your Money in a Month
If you followed the previous tip, you’re aiming to make back what you spent on a pallet within two weeks. So, where do you go from there? If you need another goal, try to double your money within a month. For example, you’d want to make $1,000 one month after you purchased a pallet for $500. Again, this won’t always be an achievable goal. But, if you can make these kinds of sales, it sets your business up for a nice and profitable future.
Calculate Expected Profits
Another essential part of flipping pallets is learning how much potential profit you can make from them. No, you don’t need to be some kind of math expert to make these calculations. Instead, follow these steps:
Take note of how much a pallet costs.
Determine how much each item on a pallet is worth.
Add up how much profit you’ll make if you sold every item on a pallet.
For example, let’s say that you bought a pallet that costs you $10,000. This pallet contains 100 iPhones. If you were to divide $10,000 (cost of pallet) by 100 (number of items), you’d have a total of 100. This means each item in this pallet has an estimated worth of $100 per unit.
If you sold each of your 100 iPhones for $200 each, you would make $20,000. After subtracting the $10,000 you spent on this pallet, you would walk away with a profit of $10,000. Making these types of calculations is an essential part of running a successful and profitable wholesale electronics company.
Set Up Shop Online
A key aspect of flipping pallets is selling what’s on them. If you want a proven and effective way to start selling electronics, you’ll definitely want to do this online. Selling electronics locally is great if you live in a big city with lots of eager customers or business partners.
By setting up accounts on online platforms, you can start ramping up your company fast. Use platforms like Trade-In Tech, Facebook, and Twitter to let the world know about what you have to sell.
Become an Authority
As you’ll soon learn, you’re likely to find many competitors online. But, don’t let that discourage you. Your company can set itself apart from the competition by working to gain authority. In the online world, you can become an authority in a few different ways.
One way to start gaining authority is by creating content. You can create content on your website and social media pages. Social media is also a great platform to gain followers by sharing other pieces of content that you find relevant. Articles, industry statistics, and memes are all great ways to connect with your company’s audience and gain more followers.
Should I Hire Employees for My Pallet Flipping Business?
As your business continues ramping up, this is something worth celebrating! However, running any kind of business by yourself for long periods can get exhausting. Considering that, you might think about hiring one or several employees to help you out as your business grows. With that in mind, here’s how to determine when it’s time to hire more employees for your pallet flipping business.
Ask Yourself These Questions Before Hiring New Employees
Are you looking to expand into new markets?
Is it time to start expanding your company’s reach into new cities, states, or countries?
Do you have the money needed to pay employees?
Will you need part-time or full-time help?
Can you provide your employees with benefits or other incentives?
Prepare Withholding Taxes
If you’re going to hire employees, you’ll need to take care of withholding taxes. This step ensures that your company is operating above board and legally. While we’re not tax experts or advisors, we can give you a bit more information about the most common forms you’ll need to prepare.
The first form is a W-4, which new hires will need to fill out. This form allows a new employee to determine tax withholdings and other important information.
You’ll also need to fill out Federal Wage and Tax Statements. These documents inform the IRS of how much money your company makes and its tax withholdings. You’ll also need to send a copy of this document to the Social Security Administration.
Determine Your Company’s Pay Periods
Every employee wants to know when they’re getting paid. While this might seem like an extra step, it also helps your business with quarterly and annual taxes. During this step, it’s also good to write up your company’s holiday and vacation plans.
By having established pay periods, you won’t have to deal with the payroll nightmare that comes from paying your workers at various times. It’s also helpful for new hires that want clarity about how they’re getting paid.
Setting Up Payroll
Another important thing to take care of is when your employees get paid. To ensure that all of your workers receive their wages, you’ll need some type of payroll system. You can do all of this manually, which might be easy if you’re only hiring one person or a few people.
However, as your business continues growing, having a way to automate payroll makes paying your employees much easier than normal. After all, the last thing you want is to have your employees receiving incorrect payments, late payments, or nothing at all for their hard work.
Most business owners with growing companies often outsource their payroll-related tasks to a payroll company. In some cases, having a business handle your company’s payroll is much less expensive than hiring a team of salaried accountants.
Creating Job Openings
Since you’re the owner of your electronics business, creating job postings should be fairly easy to accomplish. Begin this process by typing or writing about what you need someone to do. If you’re having trouble meeting revenue goals, it might be time to hire a few new salespeople. You might also benefit from having a few marketing professionals on your team.
If you’re unsure of what needs to be in your job postings, it’s worth taking a look at what kinds of postings other companies are making. This might sound tough, but it’s fairly simple. First, consider looking around online job boards like Indeed or Monster. Next, type in the job you want to hire people to do. You should soon see a large list of openings.
Should you decide to use other company’s job descriptions, make sure you’re not plagiarizing from them. This means not copy and pasting word-for-word from another company’s job listings. Instead, take what you like and reword it into something totally new.
If you have any friends or family members that own or manage a business, they might also be able to help you create the right kind of job descriptions.
Wrapping Things Up
As you can see, finding pallets of electronics for sale is a great way to grow your resale business. If you’re ready to start learning more about how to manage a successful wholesale company, make sure to visit Trade-In Tech’s blog.
We’ve got everything you need including helpful tips, strategies, and interviews with some of the most successful wholesalers in the industry. With so many items for sale each day, you’ll have an easy time finding all of the electronic pallets you need on Trade-In Tech.