Tips for Online Shopping: Merchant’s Reoccuring Sales and Promotions

Outside of the big public holidays, merchants “schedule” other periodic sales during quiet times.  These times tend to have very good promotions because the merchant is trying to drive up sales and it is more difficult to advertise them.  The merchants tend to use their distribution lists.

Below are some examples:

Anniversary – to celebrate the commencement of their business

Semi-Annual – usually focus on a particular category of goods or season, often referred to as semi-annual clearance sales and are meant to get rid of high inventory or out of season items

Friends & Family – these are the most ad-hoc sales as merchants can schedule them whenever they want (or need to) to get a bump in sales revenue.  These are usually only available to people who have a promo code (received in an email)

One Day Sales – exactly what they sound like, random ad-hoc sales for one day only.  Many merchants refer to these as “Flash Sales”.  The discounts can range from sitewide to one particular category of goods and sometimes are free shipping with no minimum purchase.

So the best advice is to sign up for your merchant’s distribution list so you know when all their sales/promotions are happening.

Alternatively, you can also search for your “merchant and anniversary sale” online and find out when the last one was so you can plan ahead your shopping.

Some examples are:

Bath & Body Works – mid-June through mid-Jul and end December

Back Country – Aug

Crocs – mid-Aug

Khols – mid-Sep (just finished 19 Sep)

Macy’s – usually January and July

Nordstroms – mid-July through beg-Aug

Pier 1 – end-Jul

Personalization Mall – the beginning of Aug

REI – mid-May

Samsonite – end-Jul

Victoria Secret – the beginning of June

You can find links to these merchants and over 100 others on our website.