Why discontinued products

These items will constantly be discontinued, and this is by design. Large manufacturers like Johnson and Johnson, Kimberly Clark, Nabisco, and Kraft know that the consumer market will respond to a new product.

When sales of a once profitable product fall below a certain threshold or fall into the decline stage of the product lifecycle , manufacturers know it is time to stop making it. Shelf space can be allocated to a new product that will get its own advertising campaign and a lot of marketing attention. Shelf space for the declining product will be allocated to the new product.

It is a cycle that occurs constantly and what drives many of the manufacturers to continually develop new products. Many products in the decline stage still have a loyal following of customers. One example is hair color.

When women find an at-home hair color that works for them, they are reluctant to change. Hair color is always being discontinued. The next time you are in a Walgreens or a grocery store, look at the clearance or reduced section. Hair color is usually one product that is always marked down. And don't forget the men's hair color. Non-perishable food is another category to pay attention to. Remember the Hostess Twinkie frenzy back in November of ?

According to the Chicago Tribune , "The company said Friday it has asked a bankruptcy judge for permission to go out of business and lay off 18, workers, blaming a labor strike by members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers International Union. Smart eBay sellers rushed out to grocery stores, Target, Walmart, and anywhere Twinkies were sold. Sometimes, a major event like the Twinkie situation is a great way to make some fast cash on a disappearing product.

Other brands and types of products that are frequently discontinued:. Learning about a discontinued item is mostly paying attention. A few ways to learn if an item has been discontinued:. Pay attention to what customers in stores are saying.

Have you ever been shopping and another customer is looking for something and comments that they can't find something. Or they turn to the person they are shopping with and say something like:. I wonder if they don't make it anymore. That's your cue to ask them what they are looking for and do the research later. Just paying attention to what is going on around you can have huge rewards. Remember to do your homework and check completed listings to determine a fair and competitive price.

Unfortunately, setting up a redirect away from the original product page is tricky when it comes to customer experience. Those records are valuable, so you will need to ensure that information is maintained. Source: Leica Rumors. Often, customers will come back to the product page to find instruction manuals or other vital information.

It may be a good idea to inform customers who bought that product that you have a new, up to date version they might be interested in. This can actually be an effective email marketing strategy. If your online store is run on Shift4Shop, you may be wondering how you can set all of this up.

There are several ways to handle discontinued products in Shift4Shop. Rather than making changes globally, you can also do this on a per-product basis. Check out this knowledge base article for more information on inventory control. Check out this knowledge base article for more information on redirects. However, if done right, you may be able to turn that unfortunate situation into one with high conversions while maintaining the value of the original page.

Sign Up. By Jessica Grioua 0 Comments. Why Would a Product be Discontinued? A product may be discontinued for the following reasons: Permanently Discontinued If a product is permanently discontinued, this means that it will never be sold on your online store ever again.

Temporarily Unavailable A product that is only unavailable temporarily is one that will come back to your online store in the future. These include: You have many discontinued products on your store. You are a small business with less than pages on your website. You already have pages for other reasons.

Do networks cancel your favorite new TV shows? Were you an early adopter of the Zune when everybody else bought an iPod? New academic research has identified certain types of consumers whose preferences can predict product flops. It dubs them "harbingers of failure," according to a study to be published in the Journal of Marketing Research. If you're a marketer, it could be valuable to know that these customers love your product — because then you know it's probably doomed.

A study of retail purchases from about , consumers at a national convenience store chain found that 13 percent of them had purchasing habits that predicted failure of a new product, defined as surviving less than three years.

Specifically, half or more of the products they bought flopped.