Amazingly, there is not one Wikipedia entry on this term yet, although there are several entries that do mention it. For those who aren’t comfortable with the term, it means a huge sale for a very short time on a particular item. Sites like Woot.com, DailySteals.com, and etc. work on the idea of a flash sale. Groupon works as a flash sale, by having its members rush in and buy, buy, buy! Can your business accomplish this without services like these? And does it make sense to try?
First of all, let’s break down the term. Flash, in this case, has to do with speed and impact. A “flash mob” forms immediately, has high energy, and is gone forever. They drive up viral video, and work as guerrilla marketing in many different ways. The same is true of a flash sale. They happen quickly, and the outcome is huge.
A recent example of a flash sale is Lady Gaga’s new album going on sale on Amazon for $0.99. It was only available at that price for one day. Amazon had several trending tweets that day. There was a ton of hype around this sale, on all different social media channels. The rush to take advantage of this sale brought down Amazon’s servers, and it brought an unprecedented amount of people onto Amazon’s site. The site, which is the fifth largest site in the United States, ground to a halt by the level of traffic this sale generated.
What does this mean to you, the small to medium business? Can you somehow capture this same level of increase in a day, and make it a positive experience for your customers and your bottom line? You bet!
First, you need to think of an item or service that you typically sell in volume. Something that everyone could use, that is exclusive to you, and that your competition would never dream of giving away at a loss. You want it to be expensive enough that you can show a huge discount, but not so expensive that reducing the price cheapens the product after the sale ends. It also cannot be the only product you sell. You need something that goes hand in hand with lots of other products you sell, with the hope of selling these when your customers arrive. We’ll call this, for the remainder of the blog, “Product X”.
Now, you need to deliver the knowledge about this sale out to the masses. All of your social media channels need to pump this message out, as well as possibly some direct mail, print advertising, etc, depending on your current marketing strategies. You need people to write down on their calendars that this is the day to go buy Product X.
I don’t recommend this type of sale to everyone is that you need a dipstick to test the waters. If you have no social media already in place, and have no email marketing, I don’t necessarily recommend it. You need to be able to see some feedback before the day of the event. You need to be prepared. Without this knowledge, you won’t be able to prepare your stock levels.
The day of the sale, SELL. Sell everything you can. Sell Product X, and everything else that you can sell that day. They come in for Product X, and you want them to leave with Y and Z, and return tomorrow for A, B, and C. You have three goals for this day:
- Sell like crazy.
- Make everyone happy.
- Expand your customer base.
You have to make sure that everyone who partakes in this deal sees how great your business is. You need word of mouth to flow. You need your level of customer satisfaction at its highest on this day. Warn your employees, that although they are going to leave tired, they’d better have their game faces on.
Now, who needs Groupon? If you’re still thinking, “Can this work for my business?” click on the Feedback tab on the left, and we’ll work with you to start your business revolution.
