How to operate a flash sale product well?

As a powerful means to attract users, flash sale products have always occupied an important position on major e-commerce platforms. So how can we operate a flash sale product well? You can learn from several aspects of this article, enjoy~

1. The value of flash sale products

1. As a marketing product to promote activity

E-commerce has become a red ocean, and consumers have developed the habit of online shopping, but their attention is also constantly dispersed. Flash sale products are positioned as a low-price, limited-time purchase strategy, which is conducive to attracting consumers who are highly sensitive to prices, regularly visiting e-commerce platforms, and driving traffic to the main site, thereby driving sales of high-priced products.

2. As a growth product to attract new customers

Currently, e-commerce is a stock market, the number of new users is growing slowly, and the acquisition cost is very high. Flash sale products can take advantage of low average order value to snatch users from other platforms and attract new customers. For example, if I see a pot of green radish for 9.9 on Suning’s mobile app, but it’s selling for 6.9 on JD.com’s flash sale, then I’m very likely to become a new user of JD.com.

2. Four major operating factors of flash sale products

1. Products

The products are divided into hot-selling products and image-making products.

• Hot-selling products are used as bait to attract users to pay attention to flash sales and accumulate traffic for the event;
• Image products increase the average order value, cultivate users’ purchasing habits, and boost sales.

Please note that flash sales do not mean only providing low-priced products, but should encourage users to purchase medium- and high-priced goods at the right time. Otherwise, the product’s positioning in the users’ minds may be greatly reduced. Some categories are more suitable for flash sales, such as fresh food, which takes advantage of people's natural desire for delicious food. Fresh food with a high repurchase rate is even more popular. For example, mothers and children's clothing. Mothers are well aware of the cost of raising children and have relatively more time, so toiletries, diapers, etc. sell better.

2. Time

The flash sale time is divided into agreed time and duration, and the agreed time is the start time of the flash sale. Different flash sale products have different agreed times. For example, JD.com’s flash sales and Taobao’s flash sales are more frequent than Suning’s mobile flash sales, which is based on the number of products and user habits. The flash sale times for different categories of goods are also different. For example, you can have flash sale on delicious food at night, targeting people who stay up late and are hungry; you can have flash sale on maternal and infant products, targeting new mothers after their children have fallen asleep. Duration: Generally speaking, the shorter the duration, the more it can stimulate users’ sense of tension and encourage them to place orders. However, if the number of goods is large enough, appropriately extending the duration will help increase the order volume, especially for goods whose prices are not strong enough.

3. Price

The price of flash sale products is relatively low, but the lower the better. The user's consumption threshold and the merchant's profit should be considered at the same time. Low-price activities can effectively stimulate user consumption in a short period of time and accumulate traffic for the platform. But in the long run, low-price activities reduce merchants' profits and hurt their enthusiasm for signing up for activities, and flash sales will result in a shortage of goods. Operations personnel must have the ability to discover new hot-selling products through competitive product research, merchant selection, etc., to bring in new user traffic .

4. Quantity

The flash sale product page has a progress bar control, and users can be stimulated to buy by reasonably setting the quantity of the products. If a product normally sells in single digits but the promotional quantity is set at 1,000, you can imagine that the progress bar will look ugly and will not stimulate users to buy. However, if most of the products on the page are sold out, not only will the user experience be deteriorated, but the page traffic will also be wasted. The operations clerk should always pay attention to the inventory quantity of the products on the page, so as to ensure that there are both sold-out products and products with good sales volume, so as to encourage users to place orders.

3. Comparison of 3 flash sale products

1. Channel activity comparison

(1) JD.com Flash Sales

It is divided into single product flash sales, brand flash sales and category flash sales. The channel activities for single product flash sales include top product flash sales, million-dollar benefits, limited discounts and mass sales. Among them, the top-selling products mainly promote high-priced image products to meet the needs of high-end customers; the million-dollar welfare event is a "Jingdou for cash" event, inviting friends to compete for Jingdou to accumulate energy for super value instant sales; the mass-market life event mainly promotes products with large purchase volume and small profits but quick turnover. The secondary channel is for super value instant shopping, which shows that JD.com is supporting social e-commerce and competing with Pinduoduo. Occasionally we will hold pop-up events such as “Big Brand Flash Sale Day”, for example, on August 8th we jointly held “Travel Carnival Day” with NetEase.

(2) Suning snap-up

Single product flash sales and brand flash sales. The home page channel activities include first-hand purchases of top products, brand snap-ups and special sales of good products. The secondary channel has must-have products and mainly promotes mid-priced popular items. The products will change at different times. Relatively speaking, Suning’s mobile grab activities are rather monotonous.

(3) Taobao rush purchase

There are more diverse activities; the homepage channel is for must-buy goods and hurry up and miss out, mainly promoting high-priced products; the secondary channel will have exclusive recommendations, generally 4 products, with higher sales. Taobao flash sales also include brand marketing activities , with 4-5 fixed activities every day. For example, the fixed channel "Good Time to Get Up Early" targets white-collar workers and mainly promotes Chinese fast food breakfast with a half-price offer for the second portion. Each activity recommends 3-4 items. Fixed channels "must grab" special sales in collaboration with big brands, such as Adidas , Xtep, etc., targeting people who are price sensitive but have high requirements for brand awareness. Occasionally, we will hold floating ball activities, such as the "Don't Compromise on Breakfast - Night Grab" on August 23 and the "Trendy Sweatshirts" on August 31, which add to the fun of shopping for users outside the fixed channels. Taobao Tuangou makes more use of regular activities to stimulate purchases among a fixed group of people and cultivate user consumption habits.

2. Comparison of single product activities

In terms of sub-categories , JD.com has 20, Taobao has 17, and Suning has 14. JD.com's categories are more detailed, making it easier for users to find suitable products; while Taobao has added a search function, probably considering the large number of products in each event, and users can directly search for products to purchase.

JD.com has XX activity sessions , and 5 of them are fixed on the page. Users cannot switch to other sessions to view products, which gives a poor experience. Taobao has 12 activity sessions every day, one every 2 hours, which stimulates consumers' activities at a high frequency and allows them to participate in flash sales at any time. Suning has 7 activity sessions every day, which is relatively too few. However, Suning has a special sale for new customers, with all products priced at 9.9 yuan, using low average order value to attract new users.

In terms of product prices , Taobao’s price range is wide, almost able to meet the needs of users at all levels. The prices of JD.com’s flash sale products are concentrated in the middle and high average order value, which shows that JD.com’s users have a high purchasing power; while Suning’s flash sale products have the lowest average order value and mainly recommend low-priced products.

4. How to operate flash sale products well?

1. Understand the rhythm of flash sales

Operations require a sense of rhythm, especially for flash sales of marketing products, it is necessary to grasp the rhythm of event promotions. Plan the rhythm of next month's activities in advance, communicate with different business units, collect suitable products, etc., so as to have a clear idea of ​​each activity. Understand what frequency of activities can motivate users, retain users, and increase the number of orders.

2. Data analysis leads the work

Operations emphasize data orientation, especially for flash sale products. For example, you need to pull weekly product sales data to see which flash sale products are selling well, whether they can be used as lead products, and which products can become hot-selling products. Only by becoming familiar with the products through data can we have a clear idea of ​​the situation and arrange the products for listing in reverse order to achieve the effect of winning by the best.

3. Always pay attention to competitive product research

One's own ideas are always limited, especially when one is too familiar with the product for which one is responsible, which in turn limits one's thinking. Take a look at what activities your competitors are doing and compare them with your own product activities. This can help you open your mind and create new ways to attract consumers. Competitive product research can also help you understand the development status of the entire industry, especially by benchmarking against leading competitors.

Source: Bread and Butter