Data Brief: 91 Pct Of Consumers Getting Discounts Of 35 Pct Or More ‘Very Satisfied’ With Flash Sales, Product Drops

Merchants are relentlessly bombarded with advice about creating experiences to attract and delight shoppers. Few things do this as effectively as well-executed flash sales and product drops, as we learn from this excerpt of the report Product Drops: Retail’s New Conversion Play, a PYMNTS and Scalefast collaboration drawing on a 2021 survey of nearly 2,300 consumers.

As the report states, “Product drops, flash sales and private sales are popular among consumers today, with 43 percent participating in them [in the month prior to the survey]. Flash sales are the most popular of those three. These events are especially popular among younger and more educated consumers. Around 60 percent of bridge millennial and younger consumers have participated in these events in the last month, whereas just 22 percent of baby boomers and seniors have done the same.”

Price is a motivator but there’s more. Respondents cited other reasons that these special sales events resonate. According to Product Drops: Retail’s New Conversion Play, “Having access to products that are affordable is important to the majority of consumers who participate in sales events. Our research shows that 71 percent of consumers who express interest in sales events value having access to products at a good price. Most consumers consider this to be important regardless of the sale type in which they participate. Buying products at a good price is particularly important to consumers when they are making purchases through flash sales: 74 percent of consumers cite it as a reason to participate in the sale.”

This all brings us back to the levels of satisfaction shoppers derive from such sales techniques.

Per the Product Drops report, “Consumer satisfaction tends to increase with the level of discount obtained as 91 percent of consumers who received discounts of 35 percent or more at flash sales and product drops were ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ satisfied. Consumers whose brand affinity has increased as a result of participating in such events report slightly lower levels of satisfaction. This affinity trend is especially accurate for product drops as 78 percent of consumers who increased brand affinity were ‘very’ or ‘extremely satisfied” with such events.