How to profit from this ‘rescue strategy’ for mis-sold products…

By Sharon Fussell, March 5, 2014

I don’t know if you have ever found yourself in the situation where you have sold a product and either you can’t find it, or it turns out that there is a defect with the item – meaning you are unable to send it out.

Whilst the scenario of being unable to fulfil an order is not a common one, the situation has occurred to me on one or two occasions over the years.

So, what are your options if you find you are unable to fulfil an order for any reasons, such as mislaid stock or defective stock?

Just before Christmas last year, I sold a gift set containing a book and DVD. I am not sure how it happened, but in fact I had already sold the item and did not have any more of these products available to sell.

I could have just apologised and cancelled the order, which was a shame, as the value of the order amounted to over £30.

So before conceding defeat, I checked on other online sites to see if I could find the item on sale.

Imagine my delight when I found just the item I required, in the same condition – NEW and boxed – described as an unwanted gift on an auction on eBay.

As luck would have it, the item was on offer for £3 with £3.99 p&p: total £6.99 – with the auction due to finish on the Sunday evening.

This fitted in with the time period for posting the order, should I win the bid (I had received the Amazon order on the Friday and so was due to post it on the Monday, perhaps Tuesday at worst).

I placed a bid for £3 and hoped there would be no other bidders pushing up the price.

Luckily, there were no other bidders and I was able to secure the item for the total of £6.99. I requested that the seller did not include paperwork with the order and arranged that they sent the ‘gift’ direct to my customer.

The Amazon buyer had no idea that it was not I that sent the item to them, and was very happy with the condition and speed of delivery.

The outcome of the exercise was that I snatched a victory from defeat and made a nice profit, despite having paid £6.99 for the item.

The eBay seller was happy to make a few pounds for an unwanted gift; and the Amazon customer was happy they received an item that in fact is quite hard to get hold of. So a win win-win situation.

So, if you find you are unable to fulfil a book order, where might you find an identical product to send to your customer?

The main sites I use include:

Ebay.co.uk
Albris.com
Abebooks.com
Play.com
Every one of the above sites has assisted me in snatching victory from defeat; and, on occasion, has helped to secure a nice profit.

I am happy, as long it does not result in losing profit… Should this outcome be the scenario, I just wouldn’t fulfil an order: I would just apologise and cancel.

Of course, the above rescue strategy has come in very handy with Copy Paste Profit, my new programme for online selling.

I have recently been using an online site called Abe Books. I have been aware of Abe for many years, but didn’t realise I could purchase books often for much less than Amazon’s lowest merchant seller prices of £2.81 – which, of course, increases the bottom line.

So not only does it work to use sites such as Abe Books to get me out of the mire on occasion, but also to increase profits too.

If you’re not using Abe Books in this way, I urge you to consider it.