Stores are looking for a way to reward loyal and valuable customers and use secret sales as away to give their best customers a feel of exclusivity. Customers are often alerted of secret sales by signing up to the brands emailing list. The offering of hidden sales in stores also gives the customer an incentive to sing up to the store mailing list in the first place.
Stores such as The Kooples often have hidden sales in store. Not wanting to graffiti their cool minimalistic window displays with words such as ‘REDUCED‘ and ‘SALE NOW ON‘ for the whole duration of their sale period the secret sale means no advertising and customer will get a surprise in store when flicking through the clothing to find it to be on offer.
There also websites such as secretsales.com. Designer brands are often producing more stock than they can sell to mainstream retailers and sites such as secretsales.com sell the excess. The members only site has a permeant outlet section and lets you set reminders for future sale notifications. The slight downside is that compared to high street online stores that offer next day delivery it can take around 4 weeks for a delivery with secret sales as they do not own a warehouse they have to collect to products from the brands specific warehouse that may not be located locally. They also offer a £10 voucher when a recommended friend makes a purchase. Designers such as Alexander McQueen, Valentino, Paul Smith, Jimmy Choo, Christian Dior and Tommy Hilfiger are currently on sale on the website.
Secret sales are great for impulse buyers as they are often in the form of flash sales but those who like to ponder over purchases are more likely to miss out.
