While US shoppers search the stores for post-Thanksgiving bargains, small businesses that buy and sell excess stock are being offered even more extreme deals this winter, as leading retailers struggle to shrink their inventories.

Liquidation.com, a web-site that stages auctions of excess products, or those that have been returned, says it has had an increase of “about 800 per cent” in the number of auctions currently on its site compared to last year.