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Flash sale of the century

We all know there’s nothing like a great discount to motivate people to spend – but when we decided to hold a flash sale for our gift cards, we never would have guessed just how successful we would be.

In just one day, we made $14,250 from selling gift cards. No, that’s not a typo! In ten and a half hours, we sold 95 gift cards – that’s one every seven minutes!

It will probably go down in history as the single greatest – and craziest – day we’ve ever had in the salon. The vibe was electric! Everyone likes to feel like they are getting a big deal, and our clients were loving every minute of it.

The entire Woohoo Salon team got caught up in all the excitement too – it was a huge amount of fun and just a little chaotic, with the phones ringing off the hook all day, we didn’t know what had hit us!

Our reason behind having a flash sale was to inject some extra cash flow into the business as the festive season approached.

We decided to offer a great deal on our gift cards: spend $100 and we’ll give you a $50 gift card for you to use, or to give away to your friends.

Offering this much of a discount is something we never do, and we had a feeling that our clients wouldn’t be able to resist.

We chose to hold the sale on the 12th of December, because we knew everyone was starting to panic about what they would give their family and friends for Christmas.

We were pretty confident that we had a winning formula. Little did we know!

During the week before the sale started, we put up teasers on Facebook letting everyone know to keep an eye out for the offer. We also promoted the campaign via email, SMS, direct to our database.

When the sale started, the response was immediate and almost overwhelming. I knew we had a great offer, but even I was suprised at what we achieved. Honestly, the profit was amazing!

If you’re thinking of running a similar campaign, I have one piece of advice: be prepared! You need to know how you’re going to promote the offer, and ensure you’re adequately resourced, ahead of time.

You can download our checklist for running a successful flash sale here.

Fleur Murphy

Fleur Murphy is a strategic thinker and marketing expert with a passion for the hair and beauty industry. With her drive to build strong brands, Fleur has helped businesses across Australia achieve tangible results from their marketing activities. At Shortcuts, Fleur focuses on strategies to help salons, spas and clinics get the most out of their business technology.