5 Flash Sale Website Examples: Key to Revenue Growth

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Attractive deals have been a part of good business strategy for millennia. The Internet only made it possible for these deals to be available online.

And with that, it created unprecedented access and options to both sellers and buyers.

How to Flash Sales Work?

In particular, given the ubiquity and immediacy of the Internet, flash sales can be a particularly lucrative tool in stimulating impulse buying, driving up revenues and getting rid of excess inventory.

But flash sale success depends on more than just the offer of prices that are 40 to 70 percent lower than usual โ€“ the dealโ€™s presentation matters.

You have to capture peopleโ€™s attention first and then skillfully persuade them to buy the product. The design of a flash sale website or web page can make the difference between pulling in a high number of buyers and ending up with a flop despite offering pricing thatโ€™s considerably lower than your competitors.

Thereโ€™s no better way to know and apply what works than learning from stores that have demonstrated the ability to roll out winning designs.

Best Flash Sale Examples

In this article we’ll take a look at some of the best examples of flash sale websites. We have deliberately included a mix of globally recognizable brands as well as some that may not be as well known outside their industry or country.

We do that to demonstrate that a store does not need to ride on the power, reputation and recognizability of their brand to achieve great flash sale success โ€“ online stores of all sizes can extract optimal value from their flash sale if they put in the work.

1. Bed Bath & Beyond

Bed-Bath-and-Beyond flash sale example

One of the biggest mistakes ecommerce stores that stock numerous products from diverse brands do is failing to specify exactly what items are covered by the flash sale.

While it would seem good for key performance indicators (KPIs) such as website traffic and time on site, the disappointment of majority of visitors not finding what they thought was part of the sale would be counterproductive over the long term.

Once customers start to view a particular websiteโ€™s flash sales as clickbait, the meaningfulness and impact can only deteriorate.

Bed Bath and Beyond steers clear of this danger by making it apparent at the very start of the flash web page, what items are on sale, the brands included and the potential savings available.

For customers that were holding out for a specific product, they will immediately know from the page whether itโ€™s part of the sale. The rest of the page shows other discounts available (albeit not as steep as the flash sale) and low priced products visitors may be interested in.

That way, customers that land on the page are likely to find something they might like even if itโ€™s not part of the flash sale.

Further, Bed Bath & Beyond has a timer near the top that gives visitors an idea of how long they have before the flash sale runs out โ€“ a tried and tested means of giving visitors a sense of urgency.

2. Scout & Co. Kids

scout flash sale example

Despite Bed Bath & Beyondโ€™s relatively focused page, diversity of products is not necessarily an impediment to the success of a flash sale. It all depends on how the idea is executed and whether it is presented in a way that is organized enough for potential buyers to quickly get to the exact product they would be interested in.

Scout & Co. Kids takes this approach by having a flash saleโ€™s page whose banner first lists some of the major brands covered by the offer. Thereafter, it provides a clean, organized multi-page list of the hundreds of items available at an exceptional discount.

Products are arranged by โ€˜featuredโ€™ first so the store can present to potential buyers the products they would want to give first priority in the sale. An intuitive filter on the page allows visitors to zero in on the product they would be interested in by brand, size and whether the item is in stock or sold out.

To make sure every visitor to any page of the website knows there is a running flash sale, there is a banner at the top of every page indicated.

3. Bath & Body Works

bath body flash sale example

The home page is by far the most visited page of any website. If a store is going to be running any announcement that will be seen by the maximum possible number of site visitors, then the home page is the most logical place to put it.

In realization of this fact, Bath & Body Works does not relegate information about the flash sale to just an item in the navigation bar or a thin banner at the top of every page on the site. Instead, visitors are bombarded by a large banner occupying much of the space above the fold on the home page.

In the announcement, the store only provides as much information as is needed for the customer to know they could be missing out on a great deal but little enough for them to be curious enough to want to click through to the flash sale page.

In line with best practices of running a flash sale geared to trigger FOMO, it states what the sale is about, the scale of discounts available and invites the visitor to click a button or link if they want to learn more. On the flash sale web page itself, each itemโ€™s image is accompanied by an average rating based on the views of past buyers as well as an indication of its availability in near real time.

4. The Knitting Network

What good is a flash sale if no one knows itโ€™s on? One of the main barriers to sale success is inadequate promotion. There are several ways a site can let prospective buyers know there are opportunities available they may want to take to take advantage of. The Knitting Network makes the most of an onsite, social media-like notification feed at the top right of the page.

When visitors (whether registered users of the site or new visitors) click on the notification icon, they are presented with a feed showing the available time-limited sales and especially the ones that are on the verge of running out.

Unlike promotional email messages that stand the risk of being buried in spam folders or a sea of other emails, notifications have high visibility and give visitors the opportunity to act on their impulse on the spot. Further, notifications are considerably easier to create than marketing emails and much more concise in the text the user has to read before they act on the call-to-action (CTA).

Once visitors click on the notification, they are directed to the actual page with the flash sale.

5. Blume

How does an ecommerce store ensure a flash saleโ€™s visual prominence but at the same time avoid making it a hurdle to an online shopperโ€™s ability to seamlessly navigate the website? Itโ€™s a balance online store owners have to think about throughout. A sale that interferes with the buyer’s journey would be self-defeating.

Blume, a store that specializes in self-care products, seems to have got it just right with a smart use of minimizable pop-windows. Ordinarily, when presented with a popup window promoting a flash sale, visitors often wonder whether closing the window will mean losing the offer (because that is what happens sometimes).

Blume customers that want to close the popup and first continue with their shopping need not worry about that. If they do choose to close the popup and get back to the main window, all that happens is the popup is minimized and goes to the bottom of the screen.

And when they are ready to grab the offer, they need only click the minimized window and the popup returns to full screen mode.

Itโ€™s a win-win. Customers that want to quickly get in, buy and leave the website because they already know exactly what they want, have the option of disregarding and navigating past the flash sale popup. Those that want to take advantage of the sale always have access to it.

Wrapping Up

A flash sale can generate an unprecedented amount of revenue. Like anything good though, that can only happen when it is deployed correctly. There is no one size fits all as far as flash website design goes.

Think about your brand, overarching strategy, the goals of the flash sale and determine the design that is most likely to realize your goals.

Once you settle on a design and layout, monitor performance and make changes as needed to improve results for current and future flash sales.

Bogdan Rancea

Bogdan is a founding member of Inspired Mag, having accumulated almost 6 years of experience over this period. In his spare time he likes to study classical music and explore visual arts. Heโ€™s quite obsessed with fixies as well. He owns 5 already.

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