The Guide to Running a Successful Flash Sales to Boost Profit Fast

4 min readSep 20, 2019

A flash sale is a way to sell out your products quickly. A countdown and a deeper discount incite the impulse buying that most of us are guilty of.

It looks like quite an effective strategy, and it is — if you take care of everything before you commence. As good as it may sound, a flash sale is not only about offering a discount and throwing a deadline. You need to take into account various factors that ensure a successful or ill-fated outcome. That is the reason we are here to tell you how to make your first flash sale productive.

What Is a Flash Sale? Does It Work for Me?

Performing a flash sale means offering a promotion or discount for a limited time. This technique is effective for a reason: higher discounts and limited accessibility inspire customers to buy on the spot.

If you’re interested, however not sure if it works for you, look at the following statements. If you agree with some of them, then it is likely that a flash sale is a good strategy for you:

You have to sell out products that have been in stock for too long. Let’s assume you need to sell last season’s swimming wear before a new summer season. Doing so, you make room for newer items that are selling quickly.
You need to attract new customers, re-activate existing inactive customers, or drive traffic on typically moderate times of the day.
You need to increase brand awareness and customer loyalty. Though a flash sale is more of a short-term impulse, it still educates customers about your ecommerce store.

If you want to launch a flash sale for any reason, you need to prepare thoroughly — a crazy short deal will attract people, yet what should impress them is the best shopping experience.

How to Prepare for a Flash Sale

Follow the instructions below, and you’ll be ready for whatever a flash sale may toss at you.

Specify goals

Decide the goal of your flash sale: clearing out excess inventory, targeting existing customers, getting new customers, or raising brand loyalty. Keep your aim in mind during the other stages of preparation.

Select what to sell and at what price

The first thing to do after deciding the goal is to research demand and discover what people need to buy now.

A Halloween flash sale won’t interest anybody in December. Or probably you need to throw a Father’s Day flash sale, meaning there will be a discount on the “For Him” segment.

Here comes another decision: Do you need to put the whole store on sale or just some products? It may again depend on the season or your stock, for instance, if you have an excessive number of unsold products of one kind.

After that, consider the size of a discount. It should stand out, and the bigger it is, the more attention it gets, yet remember that you additionally need to make a profit here. As per Experian, strong offers like 50%-70% discounts and a selection of desirable items make for a fruitful flash sale.

Choose your target audience

Choose if you need to sell to existing or new customers, as it’ll impact the way you’re going to attract their attention.

If your objective is attracting new buyers, then you may need to pay more attention to Google AdWords than to your existing email list.

If you target existing customers, don’t surge to throw your sale at everyone who bought from you. Prepare a segment for your newsletter based on the purchase history on your sales page. Think about the most and least important customers, or retarget the individuals who visited a particular product page.

Let’s assume you’re putting a big discount on white sneakers. You’ll require to make sure you skip the part of your client base that has purchased those items recently. They won’t be too glad to see they could have saved money on those items.

Check your stock

On a flash sale, items may sell out quicker than merchants expect. Ensure you have enough products in stock and prepare your inventory chain. You’re creating a fine line here: you don’t need to run out of items too early, and you don’t need to prepare too many products either.

Pick the day and time

If you use Google Analytics, check on what days of the week and at what time of the day you have more deals. Likewise, see when your email open rates are the highest.

Flash sale emails sent after 3 p.m. work out better than late morning or lunchtime sales. In most cases, you only need a few hours for a flash sale.