Spotting and saving with flash sales

LAKE MARY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - If deals too good to pass up seem to pop up in your inbox all the time, consider yourself the target of flash sales.   Countless companies use the tactic to get you to buy with discounts available for a finite amount of time. 

"It's a window where you can buy the product or service at a very reduced price," said Larry Meador, founder and chief strategy officer for Evok Advertising.  Meador encourages his clients to offer flash sales.  "It's a great way to get consumers to try a new product that they otherwise wouldn't have and it's also great for data collection," Meador said.

Sales and advertising teams know that flash sales capitalize on human nature.   "There's that sense of urgency-- in the mindset of consumers-- they have to buy it now.  And if they don't buy it now someone else is going to buy their stuff,” Meador said. 

A retail study by Experian Marketing Services suggests 56 percent of businesses that use flash sales  have higher click-to-open rates for emails about flash sales compared to regular marketing emails.  Meador said flash sales are used to help brands clear out their inventory. Though the deals seemingly pop up out the blue, Meador said most stores schedule them on a weekly or monthly basis. 

FOX 35 asked the advertising executive: if you skip a flash sale are you really missing out? 

"You know... no,” Meador said.  “I think that there's great deals to be had through flash sales, but I would just caution customers that if you aren't really in the market for that or even have considered it, don't make an impulse buy on just a flash sale,” Meador continued.