Flash sales turn ordinary shopping into a high-speed event. The ticking clock, exclusive discounts, and limited stock push customers to buy on the spot.
These campaigns help achieve different goals, including generating instant revenue and clearing out old inventory. But running an effective flash sale isn’t just about offering discounts—it’s about the right platform, smart timing, and compelling messaging.
Let’s dive deeper into what flash sales are, how to build effective campaigns, which platforms to consider, and how you can achieve your business goals with Viber for Business solutions.
Strike while the offer is hot: The power of flash sales
A flash sale is a temporary discount or promotion designed to create a sense of urgency, encouraging shoppers to seize a deal before it expires. The aim is to generate a high volume of sales within a brief period. It typically lasts only a few hours or days, prompting shoppers to act quickly to snag a juicy offer. Amazon's Prime Day, an annual sales event exclusively for Amazon Prime members, continues to grow in revenue every year, generating $14.2 billion in sales in 2024, which is 10% higher than the previous year. This approach is not exclusive to large-scale retailers; businesses of all sizes can benefit: offers with time constraints can convert up to 332% more visitors compared to those that are available indefinitely.
Mastering flash sales: Tailoring your strategy for maximum impact
Flash sales are powerful tools for driving immediate consumer action, but their success hinges on a well-thought-out approach tailored to your audience and platform. This involves understanding who your customers are, how they shop, and which platforms will best deliver your message. Let's explore the key factors you need to consider before launching your campaign:
Audience
Before launching a flash sale, you need to understand who your target audience is and how they typically shop:
- Segment your customers: Identify different customer groups based on their purchasing behavior, preferences, and engagement history. This allows for targeted messaging that resonates with each segment.
- Analyze engagement: Determine the best times to reach your audience by studying when they are most active on different channels.
Platform
Choosing the right platform for running flash sales directly impacts the reach and effectiveness of the campaign.
For example, there is a high chance of reaching your audience quickly on their mobile screens, with the average user spending around 3 hours and 46 minutes on smartphones daily. Your customers are also likely to shop from mobile devices—56% of consumers globally use smartphones for shopping at least once a week. Mobile sales account for 67% of all e-commerce, surpassing those made on desktops.
It’s also important to understand how different demographics interact with brands. Fifty-three percent of Gen Z, who will soon become the biggest consumer group, prefer using messaging apps to engage with brands. By aligning platform choices with these consumer preferences, companies can make their flash sales campaigns more effective.
Rakuten Viber is a communication and utility app that offers companies access to 3 million active users worldwide at any given time. The super app is often located on the home screens of users across different markets. The first screen of smartphones is one of the most desired brand placements and some of the most valuable digital real estate today—it’s the perfect place to reach your audience with time-sensitive offers.
Viber for Business solutions for running successful flash sales
Viber for Business suite has a range of solutions for running effective flash sales. It allows businesses to connect directly with their audience through targeted ads and personalized messaging. By integrating seamlessly into users' daily app interactions, Viber helps drive quick purchase decisions with engaging content.
Let’s take a look at some of the Viber for Business solutions you can use for flash sales campaigns.
Viber Ads allow businesses to display their advertisements directly within the Rakuten Viber app, positioning them where users naturally spend much of their time. This integration offers a seamless experience by embedding ads into the app's interface, making it feel like a part of the user's environment.
- The platform's advanced targeting capabilities enable brands to reach specific audiences based on demographics, interests, and locations. This targeted approach helps to capture the attention of potential customers, increasing the likelihood of conversions.
- Viber Ads’ analytics allow brands to assess ad performance, refine their campaigns, and optimize strategies for greater impact.
- Viber Ads can be linked to websites or specific product pages to encourage immediate purchases and drive sales for time-sensitive promotions. They can also lead to a Viber Chatbot of your brand, where customers can learn more about the product and make a purchase.
To make conversions even easier, brands can use Click-to-Message on Rakuten Viber. It’s an ad format that leads to a predefined chatbot where customers can complete a purchase in just a few clicks. Customers click on the ad, go to the chatbot, start shopping, and then complete the purchase via the in-app view. Click-to-Message is easy for brands to launch, but most importantly, it makes the customer journey from awareness to sales quicker and more seamless for limited-time campaigns.
Viber Business Messages offer an effective way to have 1-to-1 personalized communication with your existing customer base and let them know about your flash sale.
You can integrate your CDPs with Viber Business Messages to tailor them based on user preferences and past behaviors, increasing the relevance and impact of your communication. You can also use rich media capabilities and include eye-catching images and videos of your products to capture attention and motivate customers to purchase.
Viber Chatbots help manage the surge in customer engagement and the potential lack of resources to address each query promptly. If you have a Viber Chatbot with a subscriber base, you can send trigger notifications about flash sales. You can also link your chatbot to an ad campaign on Viber to automate support during your flash sales.
Chatbots can provide instant answers to frequently asked questions, guide users through the buying process, and offer product recommendations based on previous preferences. By offering real-time assistance and reducing wait times, chatbots ensure customers get the information they need quickly, helping them make decisions before a sale ends.
Achieve Your Business Goals with Flash Sales on Rakuten Viber
Flash sales can help brands achieve various objectives—here are a few examples of how Viber for Business can support your campaigns for different occasions and business goals.
- Boost engagement during milestone events. Your anniversary is a great opportunity to treat your loyal customers and increase the visibility of your brand with a flash sales campaign. You can create a 360° campaign around your milestone date and support a dedicated flash sales event. Imagine launching branded Stickers and AR-powered branded Lenses to celebrate the occasion, increase visibility, and create buzz. At the same time, you can send tailored Viber Business Messages to your customer base, notifying them of the upcoming sales event and inviting them to participate. During the flash sales event, you can set up a Viber Ads campaign with ads leading to your website or Viber Chatbot to generate leads and increase conversions.
- Increase demand for new products by offering a lower price for early buyers. For example, you can launch an advertising campaign targeting your audience on Viber, encouraging them to pre-order the new collection within 48 hours and receive 20% off. You can also segment your existing customers and send personalized notifications to your loyal audience through Viber Business Messages.
- Generate foot traffic with online promotions. SM Supermalls in the Philippines effectively used Viber Business Messages to engage customers within a 10km radius, promoting a three-day summer sale event at one of their branches in Manila. They were able to use the app’s advanced targeting to boost event visibility. This strategy not only demonstrated the potential of Business Messages to drive offline results but also achieved impressive outcomes, with a 60% open rate and a 10% increase in foot traffic during the sale period.
- Drive sales among the last-minute shoppers, especially in the days leading up to holidays or major sales events. These time-sensitive promotions create a sense of urgency that encourages procrastinators to make quick purchasing decisions. You can send notifications about flash sales and sweeten the deal with same-day delivery options or share last-minute gift ideas through Viber Business Messages to simplify the decision making for them. You can also highlight popular or trending items in Viber Ads to appeal to last-minute shoppers looking for easy gift options. During peak shopping periods, customer service teams can become overwhelmed – you can use Viber Chatbots to handle a large volume of inquiries simultaneously so that everyone receives the support they need without long wait times.
- Boost traffic during low-demand periods and clear out excess inventory, especially post-holidays or at the end of a season. By offering time-limited discounts and exclusive deals, businesses can draw in customers even when interest might typically wane, resulting in a spike in both online and offline traffic. In addition, deep discounts on surplus stock help quickly convert stagnant inventory into revenue, ensuring that the product range remains dynamic and attractive to buyers. For example, you can launch seasonal campaigns that align with off-peak times, such as mid-week specials or end-of-month clearances, and encourage immediate action by sending notifications through Viber Business Messages and Viber Chatbots.
- Fight cart abandonment. Flash sales offer an additional incentive to complete the purchase. Seeing a time-limited discount on items left in their cart can motivate customers to finalize the transaction, addressing concerns over price and or indecision. You can use Viber Business Messages or Viber Chatbots to send trigger notifications when the products left in a customer’s cart go on sale.
- Boost customer loyalty and retention. By offering exclusive, members-only sales events, businesses create a sense of privilege and appreciation among their most valued customers. These flash sales often feature special discounts, early access to new collections, or unique offers that are not available to the general public. Members are more likely to engage with the brand regularly, knowing that they have access to special promotions that enhance their shopping experience. Additionally, these events can entice non-members to join the loyalty program to gain access to similar benefits, expanding the program's reach and increasing customer retention. Brands can use Viber Chatbots to manage their loyalty programs and offer exclusive deals to the loyalty program members.
After the flash sale, you can use Viber for Business solutions to retain customers by following up with personalized alerts through Business Messages and Chatbots, and using the retargeting capabilities of Viber Ads to re-engage those audiences.
Flash sale with Rakuten Viber: More than just discounts
The right approach to flash sale campaigns can generate substantial buzz and drive immediate sales. With Viber's advertising and rich business messaging capabilities, brands can effectively reach their audience with time-sensitive offers and personalized communication for better engagement and conversion.
Ready to optimize your flash sales strategy and see tangible results? Discover how Rakuten Viber can elevate your campaigns by reaching out to our team.