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Ecommerce stores use flash sales to boost revenue, generate brand awareness, take advantage of consumers’ “fear of missing out,” and compel shoppers to make impulse purchases.
Sound manipulative? Shoppers enjoy the benefit of getting a product they want at an irresitible price. Countless ecommerce retailers use this promotional pricing strategy to generate sales with plenty of success.
In this post, you’ll learn everything you need to know about creating profitable flash sales and see examples from real ecommerce brands.

To illustrate the effect of a flash sale, let’s take a look at one example. Let’s say an artist who you only slightly like is playing in your city this weekend. Even though you only like that one song, you feel compelled to get dressed up and head over to the venue because your 10th favorite band is in town.
Or perhaps Trivia Night has rolled around once again, and even though you would rather stay home, you go out anyway because all your friends will be there and you don’t want to feel left out. What do these scenarios have in common? FOMO. The fear of missing out.
Flash sales capitalize on this psychological phenomenon to capture qualified leads and drive impulse buying decisions.
The best-known flash sale event of the year is Black Friday (and the following Cyber Monday). In 2021, Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales topped $14.04 Billion and $10.7 Billion respectively. For most businesses, this Mother-of-All-Flash-Sales is the highest grossing sales period of the entire year.
Flash sales aren’t just limited to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, though. An effectively implemented flash sale will massively boost sales, help clear out inventory, and bring additional customers to your site who may purchase non-sale items as well. To help you launch a successful flash sale, we’ve created a list of easy steps (and examples, too) to inspire your strategy.
How to Do a Flash Sale
1. Determine the goal of your sale.
A flash sale can accomplish many things besides just boosting sales and revenue. Do you want to clear out inventory to make room for next season’s products? Or perhaps you want to increase overall traffic to your site and generate hype over a new item? Understanding the goal of your flash sale is important when crafting your strategy, especially regarding the type of promotion or discount you want to offer.
2. Choose the right product for your ideal market.
When choosing the product(s) for your flash sale, you want to make sure your selection is aligned with your target audience and your goals. Although it might be tempting to run a flash sale on any old item you want to get rid of, it is important to make sure your offer provides value to the customer and encourages your target audience to join in on the sale.
3. Promote the sale ahead of time.
Launching a flash sale is like dropping a new song. You want to generate hype amongst your customer base ahead of time and get them rushing to your site as soon as the sale goes live. Consider using social media and email marketing to give your shoppers a heads up that a sweet deal is coming their way soon.
4. Optimize your wording.
Your discount needs to stand out in your customers’ feeds and inboxes, and choosing the right language for your offer can make or break your flash sale. For items under $100, a percent-off discount is more appealing to customers than money off. However, for items priced over $100, a set dollar-off amount tends to catch the eye.
$5 off a $50 shirt doesn’t sound quite as appealing as 10% off. Meanwhile, $50 off a $500 cookware set sounds a bit sweeter than 10% off. Both offers are the same, but how you say it matters. When planning your flash sale, consider the price and variety of your items when choosing the copy for your subject lines and captions.
5. Keep the time frame short.
The “limited-time” aspect of a flash sale is what really lights the fire in customers to hit that buy button. Missing out on a great deal can cause frustration and pain; we’ve all been there. The drive to avoid that pain is often enough to fill up carts. This is called anticipatory regret, and setting an urgent expiration date on your flash sale will trigger those feelings and boost sales. A 24h time frame is typically enough to drive purchases.
6. Check your inventory.
An effective flash sale requires effective preparation. You want to make sure you have the stock numbers to fulfill your expected amount of orders. Selling out of a product too early in your flash sale can leave customers with a negative experience with your brand. It’s important to make sure you have the merchandise on hand to send enough customers home happy while maintaining an air of exclusivity.
7. Prepare for shipping and delivery.
Online shoppers expect their items to ship as soon as possible — on the next day or even same day if possible. When designing your flash sale, make sure you are prepared ahead of time to fulfill and ship all your expected orders in a timely manner.
Customers are also far more likely to complete a purchase if free shipping is included, and may even increase their order to meet a minimum for a free shipping offer. If you can afford it, consider throwing in free shipping as part of your flash sale deal. Even if you need to dial back the discount or implement a cart minimum to trigger it, free shipping can influence your customers’ purchase decision.
Examples of Great Flash Sales
1. Abercrombie & Fitch
This is a textbook flash sale example that checks all the boxes. Abercrombie & Fitch is offering a double whammy of a discount: 50% off of items that are already on sale. That deal is sure to get customers excited, and the limited time frame pushes shoppers to check out now and avoid any future regret of missing out on such a deal.
2. Starbucks
Your flash sale doesn’t just have to be a direct monetary discount. Starbucks is offering a creative deal where customers get twice the stars by purchasing through their loyalty program for one day only. As opposed to a targeted flash sale on a specific product, this one is aimed at driving traffic and sales across the board. If you have a loyalty or rewards program for your customers, consider offering an alternative type of flash sale using points and rewards as the incentive.
3. Fender
As we mentioned earlier, the wording of your flash sale matters. Fender takes advantage of the fact that a dollar amount discount is most appealing for items over $100 by offering $50 off of guitars, as opposed to a percentage. Just like any good flash sale, it’s a limited-time-only deal.
4. Oculus
Meta’s Oculus flash sale creates a sense of urgency by letting the customer know the discount is about to expire. This goes one step above simply stating the time frame of the deal, and in a personalized manner tells the customer that the time is now to take advantage of this discount. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to regret letting this deal slide by!
5. DoorDash
DoorDash’s DashMart is offering a classic flash sale: a percentage discount with an expiration date. What makes this flash sale stand out is the clean and concise design. The expiration date of the deal is front and center, paired with the offer and a simple, attractive image. This flash sale is also focused on a specific DashMart offering, not just all orders. If you have a new product or service, you might want to consider running a flash sale on that one offering to raise awareness and drive traffic.
6. Nordstrom Rack
Not only can flash sales boost sales, but they can help clear out inventory as well. Nordstrom Rack is strategically using a flash sale to make more space at the warehouse, and you can too. Nordstrom is offering a percentage off of already-on-sale clearance items, which is doubly exciting for customers. It’s wise of them to quantify this double discount as up to 75% off to drive the deal home. The bold red color of their banners, coupled with the limited time nature of the deal, maximizes the FOMO customers might feel if they fail to make a purchase.
Flash Sales Provide Value & Boost Revenue
Along with increased revenue, flash sales can help your ecommerce business get rid of excess inventory and stabilize your existing inventory. Most importantly, flash sales often drive a large audience to your site and incentivize viewers to purchase non-sale products, too. Use flash sales periodically, and both your revenue and customer base will grow to unprecedented numbers.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in April 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.    

Even if you’re not a professional storyteller, you can use storytelling frameworks to share more engaging narratives in your content marketing copy. You’ll not only be able to tell your company’s story more effectively to stakeholders, but you’ll be able to write more effective, readable material that converts users into loyal customers.
Whether you’re writing for your website, blog, social media profiles, presentations, or online offers, the framework discussed below will help you gain confidence in storytelling and start telling better stories in business and in life. Let’s get started.

Why use a storytelling framework?
As content strategists, we should spend a lot of time thinking about the importance of storytelling in marketing, but we don’t — mainly because it’s so intimidating. The pressure-filled process of creating a framework and telling a story can keep a lot of people from even making an attempt. When the subject comes up, we understandably get nervous.
The thing is: storytelling is part of what makes us human. We don’t have to be Ernest Hemingway to be good at it. We can use a storytelling framework to guide us in the writing process.
Storytelling frameworks make our copy and content feel familiar to readers, while providing us with an easy “formula” to follow. The good news is that your content will never feel formulaic, because you can (and should) diversify how you write individual pages or posts. However, the bare bones stay the same.
Storytelling Template: The Hero’s Journey
The Hero’s Journey is a storytelling template from author Joseph Campbell, and it’s everywhere. It’s one of the most relatable storylines because it basically mirrors the journeys of our own lives. Understanding The Hero’s Journey can give you insight into how to frame your own stories, whether it’s the true story about your company or a fictional story that stirs your imagination.
The following diagram breaks down this Hero’s Journey template, step by step.

Typically broken down into three acts, the Hero’s Journey goes as follows:
Act 1:

Ordinary World: A character (either you or your customer) is living a regular life.
Call to Adventure: The character becomes aware of a problem or a task that must be completed.
Refusal (of call): The character initially shows refusal — think of a customer who refuses to switch from their current provider despite their pain points.
Meeting with the Mentor: The character meets a person who’ll guide them in the process of completing the task — think of a sales person guiding a lead toward conversion.

Act 2:

Crossing the Threshold (into new life/experiences): The character officially starts their journey of solving the task, like a customer who’s just made a new purchase.
Tests, Allies, Enemies: The character faces different trials in the process of completing the task.
Approach to Innermost Cave: The character approaches the final battle — think of a professional who must now get their entire team to adopt a solution.
Ordeal: The character goes through a battle or showdown — like in-team disagreements or discussions with stakeholders.
Reward: The character emerges triumphant.

Act 3:

The Road Back: Typically, the challenge isn’t over, and the character must deal with “blowback” from their previous battle.
Resurrection: The character emerges with a new power, internal lesson, or external change.
Return with Elixir: The character returns home or moves forward into a new adventure.

This is the Hero’s Journey, which—modified in various ways—we see repeated in stories throughout history. We have an ordinary person (what is), and we have adventure that lies ahead (what could be). The transference from one to the other is the journey.
Another great story template comes from comedy writing. It starts similarly: A character is in a zone of comfort. But they want something, so they enter into an unfamiliar situation. They adapt, and eventually get what they’re looking for, but end up paying a heavy price for it. In the end, they return to their old situation, having changed.
The Hero’s Journey: Fiction Example
The greatest story ever told…
Yes, we’re talking about Star Wars. Let’s step through a crude synopsis to see how well it matches Campbell’s pattern:

Ordinary World: In the first Star Wars film, we begin with the rather ordinary Luke Skywalker. He lives on a farm on a desert planet.
Call to Adventure: One day, he meets some robots who need help. They need to find a local hermit named Obi-Wan Kenobi. Luke takes the robots to Obi-Wan, who basically says, “Luke, you need to go out and help save the universe.”
Refusal of Call, Meeting with Mentor, & Crossing the Threshold: Luke initially says, “No, I have all this stuff going on,” but Kenobi, who becomes Luke’s mentor, convinces Luke that he should go. Kenobi trains him how to use a lightsaber, and Luke goes on an epic space adventure.
Test, Allies, Enemies: On the journey, Luke meets the villain, Darth Vader. He battles evil stormtroopers. He makes friends: Han Solo, Chewbacca, Princess Leia.
Approach to the Innermost Cave: Luke then has to help defeat the super-weapon, the Death Star.
Ordeal: Nearly everything goes wrong, but in the end, Luke succeeds in blowing up the Death Star.
Reward: The last scene of the movie is of Luke getting a metal put over his neck by the princess, who kisses him on the cheek.
The Road Back, Resurrection, & Elixir: Now he is in his new home, a changed man, emboldened by the great power of the Force, which he can use on future adventures.

The Hero’s Journey: Business Example
In business, the Hero’s Journey can most apply to case studies. (Most of them are a little less entertaining stories than Star Wars, unfortunately.)
A case study is the story of where a customer was, where they wanted to be, and how they overcame that gap.
If you listen to podcasts, you’ll hear this story told in almost every ad. You’ll also see it in “About us” pages. For example, check out Harry’s:
“Our founders, Jeff and Andy, created Harry’s because they were tired of overpaying for overdesigned razors. Instead, they wanted simple, high-quality products that felt good to use, all at a fair price. When they asked around, they learned lots of guys were upset about the situation too, so they decided to do something about it.”

The problem with most brands’ stories is that they don’t walk us through enough of the steps of the Hero’s Journey to capture our attention.
That’s why these frameworks are so useful. They’re a really easy way to ensure that we’re more creative when we’re coming up with stories or trying to convey information. This framework helps you focus your creativity.
Need more? Check out The Storytelling Edge: How to Transform Your Business, Stop Screaming into the Void, and Make People Love You for more detail on using the Hero’s Journey in your business writing. 
How to Bolster Your Storytelling Framework with the Benjamin Franklin Method
As you continue using storytelling templates, you can use Benjamin Franklin’s writing method to strengthen your skills and create better business stories.
What is Benjamin Franklin’s method, you ask?
Benjamin Franklin devised a system for mastering writing. He collected issues of a publication that contained some of the best writing of his day, and reverse engineered the prose. He took notes at a sentence level, sat on them for a while, and tried to recreate the sentences from his own head, without looking at the originals.
Upon comparison, Benjamin found that his vocabulary was lacking, and his prose was light on variety. Despite that, he did it over and over. Unlike the more passive method most writers use to improve their work (reading a lot), this exercise forced Franklin to pay attention to the tiny details that made the difference between decent writing and great writing.
Here’s how you can use this method to bolster your storytelling template.
Step 1: Reverse engineer your competitors’ copy.
Take a piece of copy that you particularly admire from your competitor’s website. It can be a webpage, a case study, a white paper, or an article. Read it while noting what’s particularly effective about it, then set it aside and rewrite it in the best way you know how. Be sure to use your notes to guide your rewrite, and try to identify the storytelling template your competitor is using.
Note: Don’t publish this material, as it can be flagged as plagiarism! But you’re welcome to keep it in a private doc.
Step 2: Compare your reworked version to the original.
Set the two versions side by side. How does yours compare? What is it missing? What did your competitor do well? How did you do well? Note your findings in a separate document. Do this again and again with your competitors and even your own copy. Once you have enough insight and experience, you can begin applying your findings to your new copy and even use it to rewrite your old copy.
A Storytelling Framework is Essential for Great Copy
By using storytelling frameworks, you’ll learn to write stronger business stories in no time. The Hero’s Journey is a best-in-class example for writing case studies, advertisements, articles, and even tutorials. Remember: People don’t remember brands. They remember stories. Use this to your advantage.
Note: This post contains excerpts from The Storytelling Edge: How to Transform Your Business, Stop Screaming Into the Void, and Make People Love You by Joe Lazauskas and Shane Snow.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in January 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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