When you are driving down the street and see a flashing sign on a park bench or a big billboard that says “SALE! You just proved that this kind of advertising is effective.” Hmm… they’re right, even if their plan is a little sneaky. They are completely right.
Taking this psychology into account for your drop shipping business, you can use a flash sale to get the attention of online shoppers who have never bought from you before or who haven’t bought in a while.
In this article, we’ll show you how to use a flash sale on your e-commerce website and how to use an omnichannel marketing plan to make your special promotion more successful.
How do I make the most of a flash sale?
This kind of sale or discount is offered by an online store for a short amount of time and on a limited number of items. With a flash sale, there is some deep selling psychology at work that makes people want to buy instead of feeling FOMO (fear of missing out) when they come to your store. A few things to remember about shopping and how people think:
- We all want things that don’t seem to be easy to get.
- Things that are on sale are what we like to buy (rather than paying the regular price).
- When you shop online, you often buy things on the spot. See it? Need it! Buy it.
Online shoppers today know how to get the best deals. They go to independent e-commerce shops to find new products that they can’t find in brick-and-mortar stores. These shops not only have the products they want, but they also have better prices. Use some of these flash sale tips from our team at Dropship Corporation to satisfy your desire to save money and get a good deal.
What kinds of items can you discount as a promotional incentive?
If you spend a little time researching some of the most popular and trending products, you can find the “holy grail” and use that high-demand, high-priced item as traffic (and sales) bait. But don’t limit flash sales to only low-priced items; remember that a big discount on a high-priced item makes it seem like a better deal. AliExtractor is a tool that can help you find the products on AliExpress that are in high demand and have the best sales trends.
This tool helps you find the best manufacturers and suppliers on AliExpress by letting you filter products based on a number of factors, such as sales, number of items shipped, and even vendor ratings. AliExtractor is also great because it gives you up to 8% cash back on everything you buy on AliExpress.
When you figure out how much you will make (or break even) on a flash sale item, the cash back bonus will help you make up for the loss. It also lets you download real customer reviews with four or five stars straight from the AliExpress vendors you buy from.
How long should a flash sale last, and how often should you have them?
There are a lot of successful big brands that run flash sales all the time to attract online shoppers with great deals that are only available for a short time. Think of sites like Zulily and, to a lesser extent, Deal DashTM, which work like auctions. Here is where Dropship Corporation can really help you organize and plan flash sales, special price promotions, and discounts. Make a board on Dropship Corporation just for the product bundle or individual product that you’re going to sell at a deep discount.
Next, use our custom pricing parameters to set a special price just for this product and when that special price will end (date). In Dropship Corporation, you will need to make two separate entries for the product. One product will be shown in each category at its regular price so that customers can see how good of a deal they are getting. However, before you make a page for flash deals or other promotions, your sale page will show duplicate products that are on sale.
Check out our training video to learn more. In a flash sale, how many items should you sell? No more than three at a time on your website. Don’t forget that since the price has gone down, your profit on the item has also gone down. It is a break-even or loss-leader product that is used for advertising. Many online store owners choose to only have one flash sale each month.
Where should you tell people about the sale?
Everywhere (no, we’re not kidding). When you plan your flash sales ahead of time, you should already have a few pieces of content written and ready to go so that you can promote the sale through all channels.
There will be posts and graphics on social media with a direct link to the item on sale.
1-3 emails to remind your customers about the items on sale and the limited-time offer.
Some pay-per-click advertising on your social media channels to get your followers to take advantage of your special offer.
Don’t forget to tell your own social media followers about your sale. Family and friends will definitely want to join in on the fun, and they may even share your post on their own private channels. If you remember to ask people you know to help spread the word, word of a great sale will spread quickly through online circles.
How do you deal with customers after the sale?
When a customer comes up to you after a sale is over, you might feel really bad. They might have just heard about the sale from a friend and want the discount to last longer. What do you do? Well, there are two ways to go about it. First, you could stick with your limited-time offer.
Of course, the customer doesn’t hear that, and we all know that “the customer comes first” in good business. But think about how giving someone the special sale price after the flash sale is over could cause a whole new set of problems. You could make your flash sale last longer, but if a customer tells their friends that they got the discounted price after the limited time offer was over, you could be in trouble.
If customers find out that you “bent the rules,” they may not be happy with the terms of the price and the promotion. And they might not trust (or take advantage of) the fact that you want to help them in the future.
What’s our best tip? Follow the rules of your flash sale and end it on time. When a customer asks you to make the offer last longer, ask them to sign up for your email list so they don’t miss out on future deals. They will respect you, and, interestingly, some studies have shown that it may make them want to come back and buy (often) even though they missed one sale and were turned down.
It’s your turn now. What kinds of flash sales work best for you, whether you have been running an online store for a long time or you just opened your first one and are learning the ropes? Tell us about what you think.
