News Liquidating Old and Surplus Inventory: 11 Smart Ways to Get Rid of Excess Stock Having too much inventory is pretty high up on the list of no-nos for retailers. In addition to taking up precious backroom or shelf space, surplus stock ties up capital and can keep you from re-investing in your business or buying things you actually need. How to Buy Liquidation Pallets by Store Consider this: Consumers spent $861.12 billion online with U.S. merchants in 2020. And a whopping 30% of those purchases will get returned (compared with just 8.9% for in-store purchases). Liquidation store 'treasure hunt' grows in popularity, helps online stores like Amazon Experts say increased online shopping driving growth of liquidation stores