eMarketer has an interesting post up about flash-sales sites and the key role email plays in driving their success. According to this, email marketing takes the gold, driving 18% of traffic to these sites. Social media takes silver with 13% and search takes bronze with 11%. “Overall, 56% of businesses had higher click-to-open rates for flash-sales emails compared to regular campaigns.” Not surprisingly, time of send and the duration of sales are big factors in the success equation. Evening sends outperformed lunchtime sends in terms of:

  • Open rates
  • Total click rates
  • Transaction rates
  • Revenue rates

Shorter sale durations also seemed to work best for flash-sales. Read the full eMarketer post.