[This is an excerpt of an article, Not So Fast: Flash-Sale Models and Publishers’ Place in the Changing Landscape of Online Retail, which was published in the September issue of Publishing Trends. To receive our newsletter in full, find out how to purchase a subscription here.]
Since Publishing Trends last covered them in December 2010, flash-sales have exploded not only beyond the confines of their original fashion “sample” focus, but in number and variety of approach. Growth in the number of publishers doing business with flash-sale sites has been equally dramatic; any new retail outlet for print books is hardly an opportunity to miss, after all. But recent uncertainty about the sustainability of the current flash-sale model, along with changes to that model already taking place raise the question of exactly what kind of success publishers should be looking for from the flash-sale channel.
Both flash-account buyers and publishers’ sales departments with whom we spoke emphasized the enormous speed with which the flash-sale boom has taken place. According to the New York Times, overall visits to flash-sale sites this July were double what they were in July 2010. Inc. magazine recently reported that Ideeli.com is the fastest-growing private company of 2011, and as with everything else, Amazon has gotten in on the game—though its flash-site, MYHABIT, (ironically?) hasn’t featured books, and, according to a spokesperson there, has no clear plans to do so.
Although all the publishers we spoke to emphasized that flash-sales remain a “tiny” part of overall special sales, they also offered uniformly optimistic outlooks on their experiences with the channel: HarperCollins has increased from dealing with one site last year to six as of September 2011—with plans in the works to grow this number before the end of this year. Abrams quadrupled sales in 2011 to date against 2010 full-year, and has doubled the number of sites with whom it does business within the last 12 months. Random House reports success for all title categories, though their 2011 growth is only just above 10%.
Flash vendors seem equally pleased with publishers’ involvement. Amanda Chajes, senior buyer for Homesav.com, said that while they used to have to seek out willing publishers, publishers both domestic and international are now initiating discussions. And whereas the site initially did deals only with smaller publishers, it has recently added major houses to its roster as well. The growing market still rests largely on high-end illustrated/coffee table titles (a fact that elicited the hilariously existential question from Chajes, “We [are] dedicated to interior design and have therefore naturally gravitated toward coffee-table books … for what is a coffee table without its artifacts?”). Accordingly, growth reports were especially dramatic from illustrated publishers (e.g., Abrams’ quadrupling mentioned above). Jaime Ariza, VP, Special Sales at Macmillan, says that across the four sites with whom they currently do business, 90% of sales have been children’s, especially from the Priddy Books imprint. Children’s is also a strong category for HarperCollins, which has seen an especially large demand for titles that are “classic [or] nostalgic.” Children’s also stands out among “all the categories” with which Random House has seen success, and Random House and HarperCollins both report cookbooks as being strong sellers.
The draw of a flash-sale is usually discussed—and marketed—as being the draw of a discount. Some publishers certainly pointed to the price-appeal: “Since the savvy shopper enjoys a bargain, we foresee this becoming a more popular and widespread way to shop,” reasoned Pam Roman, VP, Special Sales, at Random House. But some are starting to question whether the lure of a bargain—even in a race against the clock—is the main reason people shop flash-sales. And even if it is, is it possible to attract enough shoppers to make for a profitable retail business?
