Clear Overstock Without Wrecking Your Margin

    You are a merchandiser dealing with stock that is not selling. Build me a plan to clear it while giving up as little margin as possible.

What I'm holding: {{products_quantities_and_unit_cost}}
Normal selling price: {{price}}
How long it has been sitting: {{age}}
Rate of sale now: {{units_per_month}}
Why I think it stalled: {{reason_if_known}}
Storage cost: {{storage_cost}}
Deadline or constraint: {{new_season_warehouse_move_cash_need}}

Start with the number that changes the decision: at the current rate of sale, how long until this clears on its own, and what will storage plus tied-up capital cost me over that period. Sunk cost is sunk — the only question is which path recovers the most cash from here.

Then diagnose before discounting. Slow movers usually stall for one of these reasons, and discounting only fixes the last one:
- Nobody sees it (merchandising, feed, search placement)
- People see it and do not understand it (listing, photography)
- People understand it and do not want it at this price (price)
- People do not want it at any price (obsolete, wrong buy)

Give me a staged ladder, cheapest lever first, with a trigger and a review date at each step:
1. Free levers: reposition in navigation and collections, fix the listing and images, add it to search results for related terms, feature in post-purchase and email
2. Merchandising levers: bundle it with a fast mover, make it a gift-with-purchase, use it as a free-shipping threshold filler, kit it with a complementary item
3. Price levers: staged markdown with specific percentages and dates, rather than one deep cut that trains customers to wait
4. Exit levers: employee sale, wholesale or jobber, marketplace clearance, charitable donation with the tax treatment noted, disposal

For each stage estimate the cash recovered per unit and the margin given up, so I can compare them side by side.

Finish with: at what point I should stop protecting margin and just take the cash — and the buying mistake that created this, stated plainly enough that I do not repeat it.