Case History: Inventory Monetization/
"Pop-Up" Liquidation
Costumes & Accessories:
Booville Halloween
"Pop-Up" Liquidations are an effective strategy to help merchandise suppliers monetize excess inventory at higher rates of return than selling off at pennies on the dollar.
Situation
A national merchandise supplier was working with an abundance of Halloween merchandise that had been sourced from other costume retailers dealing with excess that needed to be turned over for new merchandise. Fortis Business Advisors was called upon by the supplier to develop a “Pop-Up” store similar to how other well-known costume shops operate, but with a strategy to effectively liquidate the merchandise for maximum recovery. While Fortis is recognized as a leader in developing “Pop-Up” liquidations, unlike other "Pop-Up" liquidations this business presented a unique set of challenges, including a definitive end date of Halloween, unpredictable demand trends due to Covid, and the threat of, like 2020, Halloween effectively being canceled.
Objective
When setting out to develop and Booville Halloween, Fortis embraced the idea that the goal was not to out-compete the other Halloween stores, but rather stay within a radius of a competitor with the intent to “chip away” at some of its market share. Fortuitously, Fortis has a long-standing relationship with a landlord and property that hosted an annual Halloween store; however, that space was occupied by a candy store through the Holidays. Therefore, Fortis opted to occupy an alternate space on the same property recognizing that customers searching for the annual Halloween store would discover Booville Halloween. As the inventory began to be shipped in, it was merchandised for liquidation, the operation was set up a zero-based budget, a recognizable logo was designed that led to a website specifically for the sale, along with Instagram and Facebook social media pages. Fortis then executed a high-impact marketing program.
Results
Recovery driven from a distributable net profit margin of 27.5%
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As customers became more comfortable with Halloween occurring, 67% of the sales occurred in the last 10 days of the sale
Cash flow positive with distributable profit after Week 4 of an 8-week sale
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Results from the marketing program went viral with multiple days of 50+ customers shopping a 1,700 sqft store
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