Great deals have long been an integral part of online retailers' strategy. One such deal is the flash sale, a well-established impulse buying strategy. A study in Cogent Business & Management found that these sales increase consumer excitement and pleasure. Consumers feel like they've made a killing and are getting something that will soon be out of reach for others. These feelings motivate them to buy immediately.
With such an impact on purchasing behavior, flash sales can increase your online store's purchase rate by an average of 35% . But only if you use them wisely in your strategy. Therefore, in this article we focus on their benefits and pitfalls, provide the best tips on how to use this type of sale, and give visual examples for inspiration.
What is a Flash Sale?
Flash sale is a type of promotion that gives customers a short time oman whatsapp number data 5 millionto get a great deal. Often, such a sale lasts up to two days, while the discount can reach 50-80%. With this clear advantage and a tight deadline, even the most procrastinating customers will consider buying right away. They understand that they can't return to this offer anytime soon, so they need to act now to get ahead of other determined shoppers.
Main Benefits of Online Flash Sales for Your Business
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The advantage of a flash sale for customers is obvious: they have a unique opportunity to purchase the desired product at a significantly reduced price. But customer satisfaction with a convenient purchase is not the only reason why e-commerce platforms cut their prices in half or even lower them even more.
Guaranteed Sales Increase
A recent survey of online shoppers found that two-thirds of them make an unplanned purchase when a brand offers a good discount, and a whopping 81% consider searching for the best deal a desirable destination on their shopping journey.
Incentive to Buy Now
Flash sales as a limited time offer not only impact shoppers’ excitement and enjoyment, but also their fear of missing out (FOMO). 60% of online shoppers admit that FOMO drives them to purchase within the first 24 hours of seeing an offer. They fear that the delay will cause them to miss the opportunity and regret it.
Eliminating Excess Inventory
According to Forbes , excess inventory has become a problem for many retailers in 2022. For example, Walmart’s inventory increased by 33% while its sales only grew by 3%. If you find yourself in this situation, a flash sale is a great opportunity to optimize inventory levels as soon as possible.
Improved Visibility
Hot deals with tight deadlines attract visitors and keep them on your website, increasing average session length. Plus, customers tend to share these deals on social media or through word of mouth, which works well for your brand awareness. Last but not least, 80% of online shoppers admit that a discount, promo code, or other offer motivates them to buy from a new brand. This means flash sales can encourage more customers to try your product.
Unpopular Items Sale
Let’s say you have some products that are selling worse. A flash sale can help you draw customers’ attention to these items because of their reduced price. Customers who like your product may repurchase it and move it out of the slow-selling category. In another scenario, you’ll simply free up space in your warehouse for more sellable items, which is also a good thing.
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Why Your Lightning Sales Might Fail
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Some retailers are surprised when their sales results differ significantly from those stated. In fact, these promoters of immediate purchases have pitfalls. If you do not consider them, your strategy also has a high probability of failure.
Slow Website Loading
Flash sales go hand in hand with increased traffic, which affects the performance of your website. If it loads too slowly, most of the potential customers will leave without making a purchase. Therefore, all your efforts to attract customers to the flash sale on the site are in vain. In an ideal scenario, your website loading time should remain between 0 and 2 seconds. Otherwise, every second after that will "steal" 4.42% of conversions.
Premature Exhaustion
More than half of products sell out before flash sales end, and many shoppers fail to get the item they want because it is out of stock. The main reason is that some retailers overestimate their inventory levels before flash sales. With this indiscretion, you can push customers to buy from competitors and abandon your brand after such a disappointing experience.
Shipping Problems
A significant number of orders during flash sales have one drawback: the issue of timely delivery. There are many cases where shoppers wait weeks for their purchases. Meanwhile, a recent report by Easyship showed that 80% want to receive their purchase on the same day, and 17% may abandon a brand if it delays shipping. Given shoppers’ high demands for delivery, you risk losing their loyalty after such a sale.
Attracting Deal Hunters
If your flash sales are only focused on the first visitors to your site, you risk attracting a lot of deal hunters. Yes, this tactic can work if you are only looking for an immediate profit. But if you are concerned about your overall strategy and customer lifetime value, these flash sales can backfire.
Deal hunters are loyal to low prices rather than your brand. As a result, they are unlikely to return to your site after the sale. In another scenario, you will have to lure them with constant discounts, which can affect your revenue and brand reputation.
How to Make a Flash Sale: 12 Best Practices
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The good news is that you can avoid failure if you plan your flash sale carefully and develop a clear strategy for its execution. To make it easier for you, we have collected all the proven practices below.
1. Define a Clear Goal
A flash sale, like any campaign, must have a specific goal. By establishing a goal, you will understand which products make sense to discount and which audience segment you should target. At the end of the sale, you will be able to determine if it was a success (i.e., if the goal was achieved). Here are some examples:
Eliminate excess holiday inventory
Draw attention to specific products
Increase existing customer loyalty
Attract new customers
Activate inactive customers or cart abandoners.
In fact, a flash sale can serve many different purposes, and you need to choose the one that best fits your overall strategy.
2. Segment Your Customers
Targeting a large audience with a flash sale is a tactic that fails for two main reasons. First, your offer will lack any personalization. Meanwhile, 65% of customers expect personalized promotions from brands, and 76% will buy from the one that meets those expectations. Second, a free-for-all sale can put you in an awkward situation. For example, you reduce the price of products that your existing customers have already purchased to the original price. They are unlikely to be happy to know that other shoppers can now buy them at a 60% discount.
So, focus on a specific segment of your audience. For example, you could organize an exclusive flash sale on a new collection for existing customers with a long history of orders. This way, you increase their loyalty and, at the same time, test the demand for your newly launched products to avoid overproduction.
Another tactic is to attract new customers to your online store by lowering the price of popular, low-margin products that your competitors have in stock. Finally, you can offer significant discounts only to hesitant shoppers who have abandoned their carts. Perhaps it was the price that stopped them from purchasing.
3. Choose Wisely Your Flash Sale Products
The success of your sale depends greatly on the discounted products. To choose the right ones, you should rely on data.
Search Query
With Google Keyword Planner, you can determine your audience's search terms. It allows you to understand which articles attract customers the most in a given period and offer them what they need.
Competitor Data
Another winning tactic is to study the top products or bestsellers of your competitors. If you offer the same or similar products in your online store, you can offer them at a discounted price and therefore be ahead of the game.
Your Product Data
When analyzing your assortment, you can pay particular attention to the following aspects:
Excess products. This is a good choice if your goal is to free up space for new arrivals.
Iconic or best-selling products of your brand. By offering products that are your signature, you can increase brand awareness.
Products with high views but low conversion rates. Your customers may browse but not buy because of the price. In this case, price cuts can work well to increase loyalty.
4. Choose a Suitable Period for Selling
There are two main periods when sales work perfectly:
Pre-holiday . It’s no secret that holidays are always associated with shopping and discounting. Retailers’ revenue for Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday 2022 was $5.3 billion and $9.12 billion, respectively . At the same time, 56% of customers started shopping in October. This means you can organize a flash sale before the peak season and hit your target.
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Post-holiday . The holidays are over, but the shopping activity remains. 70% of surveyed customers are willing to continue shopping after Christmas. Your sale could be more than welcome given their significant spending before and during the holidays.
But you don’t have to tie it to the holidays. Instead, you can create an occasion for your online flash sales. For example, you can schedule them to coincide with some significant date for your brand or simply start them at 11:11 on August 11th for fun and increased attention. The main advantage of this tactic is the minimal competition compared to the aforementioned holidays.
5. Set the Right Time Limit
Remembering the definition of flash sale, you can only run them for a short period of time. Otherwise, it is not so flash. The duration of such a sale is usually up to 48 hours, and expirations of 2 or 3 hours have the highest buying rates.
Determine the days and hours with the most traffic on your website using Google Analytics. It will help you choose the best time to start selling and not lose conversions.
6. Promote Your Sale in Advance
Even your best sale can fail if no one knows about it. Since it has a tight time limit, it is in your best interest to bring as many ready-to-buy visitors to your site at the right time. Therefore, advertise your flash sale early to:
Pique the customer's interest in an upcoming opportunity
Inform customers about the date, time and essential details
Grow your subscriber list if your flash sale is aimed at attracting new customers.
An email campaign is a great way to advertise if your flash sale is aimed at existing customers or potential customers who have previously signed up to your newsletter. In this case, be sure to mention the size of the discount offered in the subject line. These emails generate an average conversion rate of 18.1% , as most shoppers pay attention to good deals. This way, you can attract an audience to the next sale and make a profit.
Social Media
A McKinsey study found that social media significantly influences purchasing decisions directly (a product recommendation was a deciding factor in purchasing) and indirectly (when social media was one of the touchpoints in the customer journey). With this in mind, you can promote your flash sale on social platforms in a variety of ways:
Announce the offer as soon as you decide the date and time
Ask followers to tag friends under the post in exchange for some freebies
Add a reminder on the eve of the start
Run ads if it fits within your budget.
Pop-Up on Website
Entrepreneur reports that websites with pop-ups convert 4x higher than sites without them—16% versus 3.7% conversion rate, to be precise. At the same time, pop-ups with timely, essential marketing offers and information work best. And that’s what you need in the advertising phase—telling site visitors about the upcoming flash sale and briefly describing its benefits. When customers see how much they can save at your online store soon, they’ll be more likely to revisit your site on day X.
