Festivities and Flash Sales

If there is one thing I have discovered about my own consumer trends this year while taking marketing, it is that I am a sucker for flash sales.

I didn't even realize how bad it was until I found myself online shopping on a friday night, unwilling to leave my room because I knew leaving my shopping cart unattended for even five minutes would give the thousands of other girls, also online shopping in their dorm rooms somewhere else in this world, the opportunity to steal the last indigo crocheted crop top in a size medium that I had just taken an interest in.

Sounds crazy, right?

 I couldn't agree with you more.

You see, I thought flash sales were the bee knees, but after a certain reading in my marketing book, I discovered that flash sales, sales that involve cutting prices for only a few hours, often deceive customers about "the size of the deal they are getting or whether they are even getting one." Because these flash sales happen so quickly, consumers are unable to take the time to work out the math of the sale and can end up making "bad, snap-decision purchases.”

I can definitely relate.

As a college student, I really enjoy and appreciate a good deal or discount when it comes to shopping; I very rarely purchase anything full price, or so I think, and try my best to limit my spending when it comes to buying clothes.

  

Notorious for their affordable prices, Forever21 is one of the most popular retail chains amongst young women and men alike. They have a large selection of clothing with prices ranging from as low as $3.00 to $150.00, which I think is a great example of a Tiffany/Wal-Mart strategy, a form of marketing segmentation that “offers different variations of the same basic offering to high-end and low-end segments.”

Forever21 has online flash sales quite often, but they are only marketed to the consumers that are signed up to receive their daily emails. I believe this helps to create a trend of loyal consumers, which further promotes the 80/20 rule, “a concept that suggests 80 percent of a firm’s sales comes from 20 percent of its customers.”

Overall, flash sales have become, and are still becoming, a very successful form of promoting a firm’s use of online sales. Although they may offer very good deals, I am learning the importance of actually reflecting and figuring out the discount value before making snap-decision purchases and wasting my money on things that I don’t need.