Outlet Deals is a type of promotional activity on Amazon. Its Chinese name is “clearance sale”. However, it is completely different from Lightning Deals and Seven-Day Deals. The main function of Lightning Deals and Seven-Day Deals is to increase product sales. Because in many cases, even if the product price is 30% off, it is profitable. Therefore, most sellers choose to do Lightning Deals and Seven-Day Deals for the purpose of increasing product sales and promoting products. Of course, sellers can also set the price of the flash sale very low to achieve the purpose of clearing unsalable inventory, but relatively few sellers do so.
Compared to Lightning Deals and Seven-Day Deals, Outlet Deals is a flash sale with the main purpose of clearing inventory. It mainly clears inventory for some products that are about to be removed from the shelves. This requires that the product discount is very large, which is basically a “loss-making sale”. However, the effect of clearing inventory is better than Lightning Deals and Seven-Day Deals. Moreover, Outlet Deals is currently free, and sellers do not need to pay extra fees for clearing inventory. Amazon will only charge standard delivery fees and sales commissions.
To qualify for the Outlet Deals program, sellers must meet the following conditions.
①The product is currently available for sale in Amazon’s fulfillment centers.
②The product has a sales history on Amazon’s e-commerce platform and is rated at least 3 stars.
③The product is in new condition.
④The product complies with Amazon’s buyer product review policy and pricing policy.
⑤The product is not registered for the “Subscribe & Save” program.
So how should sellers create an application for the Outlet Deals program? Open the Amazon seller account backend and refer to the following steps.
①From the “Inventory” drop-down menu in the seller account backend, select “Inventory Planning” and then click the “Manage Excess Inventory” option.
②From the drop-down menu to the right of the eligible product, select “Create Clearance Sale”.
③In the pop-up window, enter the clearance sale price you set in the box next to “Maximum Clearance Sale Price”. The entered price must be lower than or equal to the “Maximum Clearance Sale Price”. This “highest clearance promotion price” is given by the Amazon system and is usually very low.
④Click “Submit”.
In addition, not all clearance promotion applications submitted will be approved. If your promotion is approved, Amazon will send you an email. You can view your clearance promotion report on the first Friday after submitting your promotion application. You need to log in to the backend of your Amazon seller account and select “Delivery” from the “Report” drop-down menu. The report will appear in the list under “Sales” on the left side of the page. You can access the report through the “Manage Excess Inventory” page by clicking “View Status in Clearance Promotion Report” under “Submitted ASIN Price”.