Flash Sales

How to create the perfect flash sales for BFCM in 2022

The most renowned International Sales Day in the world is a little more than a week away. It is essential for your business to make the most out of Black Friday. A good strategy that many eCommerces use is to prepare Flash Sales to attract visitors to their store and get rid of leftovers.

There are many Pros in Flash Sales. But you must also pay attention to some Cons. For this reason we prepared this guide. We will walk you through some good practices, and marketing techniques that you can implement right away.

Why offer a Flash Sale for BFCM?

flash sales

First things first, what is exactly a Flash Sale?

“Flash sale” means that you sell products at considerable discounts only for a short period of time.

Usually, Flash Sales are used as a means to increase eCommerce sales, however you must keep in mind that the ultimate goal is for your store to be profitable.

It is also important to keep in mind that the money earned from selling these super-discounted items should not be your main source of profit.

When working on your BFCM Flash Sales, you should ideally aim to encourage:

  • Up-sell and Cross-sell orders;
  • New repeat customers.

While it is true that there will be a surge of Flash Sales during BFCM, it is also true that there are many benefits from them. Among these helping you get rid of leftover stock, surge your sales volumes during slow season, and increase your eCommerce’s visibility.

The PROs

But let’s go through all the PROs and CONs in detail.

There are quite a few PROs to BFCM Flash Sales, if you run a successful sale, you can:

  • Sell excessive or leftover inventory, while creating new in-demand items, that haven’t previously sold as anticipated;
  • Create Visibility for your store, the more your store appear in your clients’ feed, with your incredible products at convenient prices, the more likely they are to purchase from you;
  • Increase Sales Numbers in Slow Season, good discounts could lure even the most reluctant clients to buy from you;
  • Boost client retention, a significant is a great way to reward your most loyal consumers;
  • Collect New Leads, attract new customers to your store and grow their customer loyalty in the following year.

The CONs

Perhaps the most obvious CON is that if you offer considerable discounts, you might:

  • Get Lower profits, Flash Sales are good short-term strategies, but they are not sustainable long-term. 
  • Get the Wrong type of client, the result of flash sales should be getting more repeat clients, and not only one-time buyers;
  • Push too hard and get bad results, the secret is finding a balance, because if you send too many emails or exhaust your customers with too many updates, you risk getting the opposite outcome, they won’t make the purchase;
  • Get a Bad Reputation if you Mishandle your Sales offers, be sure to set clear rules and clearly indicate when the promo ends and the conditions.

BONUS TIPS: Make sure you are always available to answer your customer questions and be mindful of offering top-quality customer service.

6 Steps for creating Perfect Flash Sales

flash sales black friday 2022

Now that we cover all the Pros and Cons of a Flash Sales, you can decide if this kind of promo is a good strategy for your store and start building your offer.

Continue reading this article to find some tips that you can use to make your Flash Sales really perfect and remember that this kind of promos are different from others because: 

  • Go Beyond your Normal Discounts;
  • the Shorter the better;
  • Find a balance and organise sales in different categories on your eCommerce Store;

Flash Sales are Limited in Time

The key to running a successful flash sale is the timeframe.

A Flash Sale should offer to clients the product they are looking for at a lower price.

But only for a limited period of time.

Ideally a flash sale should not last more than 24-72 hours. 

A study published by Experian about Flash Sale Emails, found out that: 

  • Running a 2-hour flash sale has email open rates 14% higher than average;
  • Running a 3-hour flash sale has email open rates 59% higher than average;

The reason why the length you run your flash sales for is important is because you want to create a sense of urgency in your clients. 

You want them to act right now, before they do additional research, and before they have the chance to change their mind.

Drive Sales with Urgency

Have you ever heard of impulse shopping? 

As Online Shopping becomes every day more widespread and accessible, so is impulse shopping. 

Purchases made on the spur of the moment, can help you grow your conversione rates. 

So how can we ensure impulse buying? Simple, by creating a sense of urgency and by curating some additional small steps:  

  • Be active on Social Media and engage with customers;
  • Send or Port reminders when your flash sales end;
  • Make use of countdown timers on your website;
  • Add the discount percentage in your marketing emails subject lines;
  • Work on a shorter copy, just a few lines straight to the point. 

Daily Deals Flash Sales

Perhaps the most important factor of a Flash Sales is that it should be limited in time, in order to promote FOMO, aka “Fear of Missing Out”. 

By limiting your discounts’ timeframe and your products’ stock. A good way to achieve this is by organising Daily Deals: 

  • Create sales that are only available on that particular day;
  • Promote different items or different categories on different days;
  • don’t just vary the products, make different kinds of offers;
  • Use Set Prices, for example “all shoes for $20” or “socks for 5$”;

Offer Discounts on High Margin Products

The reason why Black Friday has become so popular is because brick-and-mortar stores offer incredible discounts on high margin items. 

You use the same concept and translate it on online store by: 

  • Creating excitement over high-value products;
  • Offering higher discounts on expensive items;
  • Attracting traffic to your store, and encouraging customers to add cross-sell and up-sell items to their orders;
  • Offering free shipping when reaching a predetermined spending goal, ex. Free Shipping for orders above 69$.

Create Customer Loyalty with Flash Sales

BFCM Sales can drive customers to your store and grow your conversions. But how can it help you create a loyal customer base? 

If you want your store to be successful in the long-term, you must find a way to retain the clients. Perhaps the best way to get them to come back buying from you is by offering them an additional discount for the next purchase. 

You can do so easily by adding to your parcels a Thank You or a Discount Card with a code that can be used in your store. These cards will not only help grow your customer loyalty, but will also raise your customer satisfaction rate. You customers will think: “Wow, another discount? Can’t miss out on this!”

From Yakkyofy’s dashboard, you can easily arrange the production of personalised Thank You Cards starting at $30 for 500 cards.

Get your Shipping Strategy in check for BFCM

One of the most common errors eCommerce owners make during Black Friday is not keeping up with the fulfillment. If you don’t prepare and keep track of your orders, it can lead to disastrous implications. 

For example, while you might be offering “Free Shipping” above a certain purchase goal, you will still need to pay for the shipping costs. 

Being up to date with your shipping rates is especially important during BFCM. Online shopping rates increase, and so do shipping costs. During this period, shipping costs could rise from one day to the other, so keeping track of them will help you ensure you get good margins and you do not risk making a loss. The best way to do this is by getting in touch with your supplier. 

Let me say this again, during BFCM, pretty much EVERYONE purchases something online. 

This means that there is a lot of commercial traffic among the continents, even in the same country. This increased traffic could cause your parcels to be delayed, since the number of planes and couriers is limited. 

This is one of the reasons why this period (October-December) is referred to as peak season. Make sure you inform your customers of the possible delay to keep your customer satisfaction rates high. Share truthful delivery times. Also, considering the likely delays, allow a few extra days to allow parcels get to your clients in time. 

Products could go out of stock quickly, or the price of the item can change if your request is really high so it is advisable to purchase a stock so that you can control your inventory quantity and your costs.

If you want your eCommerce business to be successful in the long term, the key is finding a supplier that can assist you as you scale. 

Many eCommerces source their items in China, or sell products Made in China, however as we all know, the quality can vary. The quality of your products is especially important, if you want to keep your returns rate low. 

You need to find a supplier who can help you source high-quality products at B2B prices and arrange their shipping in bulk or dropshipping to their final destination. 

The Right Partner for a Perfect Flash Sales

flash sales black friday

If you want to make sure that your Flash Sales are successful and your parcels will be delivered in good time, you could try Yakkyofy’s services.

Thanks to our Image Recognition Software, we can source over 12 million products in just a few minutes, offering you different supplier options that you can select, depending on the product price and variants. 

Via our Yakkyofy’s Dashboard, you will also be able to request bulk quotations, if you want to import them to your country or simply cut down on processing days to deliver your items in dropshipping faster. 

You will be able to follow your parcels’ trips and be up-to-date on their shipping and delivery status. 

From the very same dashboard, you will also be able to see changes in shipping costs, request Thank You Cards in just a few clicks, and essentially automate your entire fulfillment process.

That’s right, once you connect your store to Yakkyofy, and import products, you will be able to follow your orders, and pay for their fulfillment from the same dashboard.  We will assist you when you scale, and be there from start to finish. 

Yakkyofy is an all-round service that can:

  • Source for your some of the top quality suppliers in China;
  • Evaluate the samples of your products before purchasing a whole stock;
  • Produce original photos, videos and 360 rendering of your items;
  • Provide you with stocks of products at highly competitive prices;
  • Keep your products in Shenzhen for free, ready to be dropshipped or shipped in bulk;
  • Personalise your items with your own Logo;
  • Provide Custom Packaging to go with your items;
  • Fast ship your products one by one in dropshipping;
  • Bulk ship your products to a custom location or to an Amazon FBA location;

So what are you waiting for? 

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