The eCommerce Guide to Flash Sale
Do you know what is expected from these numbers? You assumed it right. All these are record-breaking sales numbers rendered by online flash sale events by top retailers. Insane right? But it works. Consumers look forward to those days when their fav product prices will decrease by a steep 20-50%.
Do you know there is a science behind these techniques? And you can leverage that too for your online store. If you’re a Shopify store owner and examining ways to increase your store, these methods can arrive in handy.
This article will cover the following key concepts that will aid you to understand everything about Flash Sales and how to execute a thriving campaign.
In this blog, you can learn this.
- What is a Flash Sale?
- Who should make a Flash Sale?
- Benefits of a Flash Sale
- How to run a successful Flash Sale?
What is a Flash Sale?
We all have participated in flash sales of one or the other kind. As a customer, we all know what flash sales are. But let’s glimpse this from the store owner’s view.
A flash sale is a discount or promotion presented for a limited period. In simple terms, any sale lasts for a short period ranging from periodic minutes to a few hours.
Another way these sales are amazing is that the discount offered is vertical. The offers typically are compelling sufficiently to stir the emotions of your consumers.
The essential psychological tactic here is absence. Scarcity or shortage of time or interests makes more buying behavior from customers. Psychologists state that when an offering is perceived as scarce, people want it more.
Who should execute a Flash Sale?
Before you determine a flash sale campaign for your Shopify store, you should know how it will benefit you.
Flash sales act as a spotlight and convey attention to your store. Almost like a wildcard for store owners. These work throughout the year. You can utilize them to assist you to complete your projections and optimize your profits.
You’ll likely witness the most traffic and your best sales numbers during these promotions.
Benefits of a Flash Sale
- Boost sales in an undersized amount of time and grow revenue.
- Increase consumer loyalty or attract modern consumers. It gives curious visitors a reason to try your store. They show existing consumers you care about them.
- Clear extra stock or make room for modern inventory.
- Quick promotions and secured lead conversion. The buzz surrounding your brand will keep bringing in modern prospects if done right.
So, if you want any of these benefits, you should go for a flash sale.
However, there can be a flip side to flash sales too. You should carefully consider those before you fully decide on this move.
- Profits: Since flash sales are all about steep discounts, does this technique fit in with your short-term and long-term business goals?
- Recurring customers: While flash sales are normally great for quick promotions and boosting sales, you’d fail to attain recurring consumers if not done right. It may become one time hit.
- Positioning: Your flash sale should be positioned well. If you’re a Shopify business that drives deep discounts all the time, it may not create an effect. It would make no difference to your end consumers. Or, if you’re a store that would run it too often, you’ll have to secure the positioning and value proposition are maintained. Otherwise, your end consumers will go untouched by your actions.
Again, the proper technique and long-term thinking can balance this out well with the suitable technique and long-term thinking in place. You can take a step back and estimate what works out best for you.
Once you’ve worked that out, you must plan out your flash sale well. We’ve covered some crucial action items to aid you to make it successful.
How to drive a successful Flash Sale?
Now let’s get to work! Flash sales might not be as simple as they sound. So, good planning is a must-to-do.
So, how do you successfully plan and execute a flash sale encountering no trouble?
Drive it live for a short duration.
There’s a reason they are called flash sales. The reason is it works if it lasts for a limited time. The shorter the sale duration, the more emotional your buyers, will be. Riddle to a duration between 3 hours to 24 hours. 3-hour flash sales are most useful, having 59% higher email open rates.
Pick the proper flash sale inventory.
Flash sales are carried out to sell products with low conversions. So put those products up, which drives way to the checkout page but never after that. Recapture the attention of consumers that never made it past the cart. You can also put up your excess inventory. Or, if you target to attract modern consumers, let the best sellers go upstage.
Select the right discount.
While your prices should decrease jaws, you still require to make a profit. So, select that sweet spot just below your normal sale discounts and still beneficial to you.
Obtain your marketing right, and sales will follow.
People like to do analysis and read reviews on products ahead of time. So, it’s savvy to deliver your shoppers a heads up before your flash sale is life. It is also a possibility to broaden your reach on social media and email by making fun countdown emails and social media posts. Send emails to boost your Sale. Mostly to let past consumers know about your flash sale and encourage them to head to your Shopify store. According to a study, it was found that flash sale emails increase click-to-open rates by 74%.
- If you want to send more short and crisp messages, you can also send SMS campaigns about your flash sales. With your SMS campaign, we would suggest supporting the message as short as possible.
- When executing flash sales, secure that even shoppers who have abandoned their carts know about the request. Update your abandoned cart messages across marketing channels to retain the discount you are driving.
- Once your Sale is live, it’s important to extend the word. Set up a short social media campaign, allowing your followers to know about the flash sale. Since social media is filled with promotions, it’s crucial to get inventive with your campaigns.
Stick to straightforward terms of purchase.
If your terms and approach are too difficult, the Sale will fail to produce suitable outcomes. So, try keeping your terms and offers easy to complete the purchasing procedure free of hiccups at any stage. Flat discounts or available buy-one-get-one offers are some incredible ways to go.
Remind visitors of the limited period.
Counting an easy timer on your site and emails will maintain your customers under stress. It will give you record-breaking marks.
Set up the delivery and logistical chain.
It would be challenging to keep the unique consumers’ loyalty if it assumes too long to bring the items they ordered today when next-day deliveries are anticipated. You’ll want to prepare ahead of time for mass shipping and distribution. So, you can offer shoppers a seamless experience from beginning to finish.
Steer clear of flash sale fatigue.
Last but not least, if the flash sale is a hit, don’t keep repeating them very often. Else your consumers will only wait for discounts to buy from you. Also, sufficiently spaced flash sales mark the excitement alive among consumers.
These sale tips are sufficient to make sure you obtain the most out of the flash sale.
Shopify’s app store ecosystem is strong and allows store owners to do many things. We’ve organized a list of recommended apps that can assist you to take it to the next level for flash sales.
Conclusion
We expect these flash sale tricks and guides will assist you to set up successful flash sales. Flash sales can fast render decent sales for your Shopify store. They offer not only short-term benefits like obtaining rid of extra inventory, meeting sales projections, and growing revenue, but also long-term advantages like creating brand awareness, achieving customer loyalty, and fueling business development. We recommend spending significant time and action marketing your flash sales to create the most out of them.
Born Techies –Digital Commerce agency offers Shopify, Shopware, Magento, and Bigcommerce development with the latest technologies.
Do you want to receive a free consultation about how to optimize your store and generate more sales? Reach us out at [email protected] or contact us, and we will be more than happy to help you out.