Best Flash Sales Apps for Shopify [2021]
Had a bit of a sales slump lately?
Need a flash sale to re-energize your Shopify store?
There’s nothing quite like the promise of big savings to get customers flocking to a store.
But how do you get the announcements out there? Amend prices to reflect the discounts? Create the urgency? Convince customers old and new to buy from your store?
Like most things Shopify, it’s best done with the help of an app.
There are plenty of flash sales apps to help you package offers and bulk discounts, apply them across the store or to certain products, announce them to the world, and drive hungry buying traffic to your store.
Let’s take a look at the best five out there…
Bold Discounts – The Sale App
Bold Discounts from the well-established team at BOLD Apps allows you to set up storewide sales in seconds, making it easy to announce flash sales and create the urgency to buy.
Over 10,000 merchants use the app to run promotions during their biggest sales of the year, including Black Friday and Cyber Monday – and over a thousand of them have left positive reviews on the Shopify app store.
Price: $19.99/month
Free Trial? Yes – 14 days
Average Shopify Rating (out of 5 stars):4.1 (1178 reviews)
Main pros:
- Set up dynamic sales immediately – or schedule them ahead of time
- Change storefront prices of 1000 products in 10 seconds
- Great app for Black Friday, Cyber Monday (BFCM sales), and more
- Automatically give customers the best discount – no stacking or combining discounts
- Reduce cart abandonment by putting on sales without discount codes
- Built-in countdown timers to create urgency
- Use custom sales icons for discounted products
- Discount by percentage off, a dollar amount off, or a fixed price
- Apply sales at a variant, collection, or store level, or to hand-picked products only
- Run an unlimited number of promotions
- Mobile admin to help you edit promotions on the fly
- Industry-leading support through in-app live chat
- Customizable versions available
- Simple pricing – one plan does it all
Any cons?
- Some comments about difficulties setting up the app and discounts affecting page layout – but support is responsive and most issues can be worked out
- No free plan available – but the app has a 14-day free trial
BD Bulk Discount Price Editor
BD Bulk Discount Price Editor by TenGrowth allows you to set up and schedule storewide flash sales quickly and easily with bulk product discounts and price editing tools.
Very well-reviewed on the Shopify app store, this time-saving app has a free version that includes all the functions of the paid plans, but with discount/product limits.
Price: Free plan available. Paid plans from $9.95/month up to $24.95/month (unlimited product discounts)
Free Trial? N/A – fully functional free plan available
Average Shopify Rating (out of 5 stars):4.6 (68 reviews)
Main pros:
- Automatically change prices in bulk for flash sales – no more manual editing
- Returns prices to normal after the sale automatically
- Full functionality with the free version
- Live chat support – even with the free version
- Automatic downgrade to the cheaper monthly plan if the discount limits are not met on your chosen plan
- Schedule sales of any scale, e.g.,10% off for the first sales week and 50% off for the final week
- Create simultaneous mass discounts on certain products, variants, and collections
- Apply discounts to different products as a percentage or as a fixed amount
- Easy to manage discount rules: enable/disable as often as required
- Fast and simple to set up and use
Any cons?
- The free plan includes discounts for up to 10 products only
- Some comments about lack of support during US business hours (strange as they have offices in NY and Berlin)
- Does not include tools to increase sales urgency
Ultimate Sales Boost
Ultimate Sales Boost by Hextom is one of the most established and respected flash sales apps for Shopify – reviewed positively by over 6,000 merchants.
Rather than simply editing prices in your store, this app is more of a sales promotion companion, including tools to boost conversions through urgency and scarcity at all stages of the customer buying process.
Price: Free plan available. Paid plans at $9.99/month (Basic) and $24.99/month (Pro)
Free Trial? No
Average Shopify Rating (out of 5 stars):4.8 (6,785 reviews)
Main pros:
- Boost conversions with countdown timers, trust badges and buy one/get one free offers
- Add urgency to product pages, collection pages, and cart pages
- Add featured products/countdown timers/image labels/sales sticker image labels to home, collection, and product pages
- Promotional widgets on single-product home page (reserved timer, promotional message, etc.)
- Include get-it-by time/BOGO upsell message/free shipping message, etc. on product pages (paid version)
- Includes checkout page tools for Shopify Plus merchants
- Helps particular “bestseller” or promotional products stand out on home/collection pages
- Even the free plan includes basic conversion tools
- Supports multiple languages for global reach
- Additional tools for targeting, scheduling, and urgency-creation available in the paid plans
- One-click installation
- Responsive support
Any cons?
- Some criticism about the lack of features on the free plan – but it is free!
- A few customers have page layout issues when using the app
- No free trial of paid plans
PE (Discount & Price Editor)
PE (Discount & Price Editor) is another app by the team at TenGrowth – the same team behind the BD Bulk Discount Price Editor reviewed above.
This one is a little simpler, offering either a free version or one paid plan at a reasonable monthly fee. It focuses on setting up promotions and sales rather than converting customers.
Price: Free plan available. Paid plan$4.95/month
Free Trial? N/A – fully functional free plan available
Average Shopify Rating (out of 5 stars):4.9 (30 reviews)
Main pros:
- Bulk update the prices of as many products/variants as you like
- Intuitive price editor tool – no lengthy configuration required
- Save time setting up flash sales/promotions
- Select products by browsing a simple search bar
- Product search by collection, vendor, and tags for targeted bulk price editing
- Simple navigation
- Apply changes to the entire store, certain products or certain collections
- Apply bulk pricing rules – great for setting up multiple discounts or changing the entire pricing table
- One-click rollback to undo discounts
- Increase/decrease product prices by a certain percentage or a specific value
- Use different operations to change product prices (divide, multiply, add, or subtract)
- Easy to set up and use – no coding skills required
- Manage an unlimited number of products and their variants with the paid version
- The free plan allows price changes up to 50 product variants
Any cons?
- Some comments about not being able to use it without writing a review – not the case, according to the developer
- A simpler app with fewer features than others featured here – though also a lower monthly fee
- No tools to increase sales urgency
Announcement Bar & Web Push
The Announcement Bar & Web Push app by AAA eCommerce focuses on the marketing and motivational side of flash sales rather than the technical side i.e., getting the message out during sales and converting customers rather than adjusting prices.
This free app is extremely popular with over 8,000 merchants installing it and over 1,000 positive reviews on the Shopify app store in the past five years.
Price: Free
Free Trial? Not applicable
Average Shopify Rating (out of 5 stars):4.8 (1,042 reviews)
Main pros:
- Increases customer reach to boost sales
- Includes creatively designed announcement bar templates for flash sales on Black Friday, Christmas, etc.
- Countdown timer tools included
- Other sales motivator tools available – including free shipping bar
- Sales motivator bar automatically passes on discounts
- Web push notifications help you reach customer desktops directly with personalized messages
- Great for “welcome to bestseller” messages, “back in stock” notifications and “price drop” alerts
- Allows you to schedule notifications
- An effective tool for reactivating abandoned carts with an image of the product(s) sent automatically
- Includes MailChimp signup bar
- Works with page builders and loyalty programs
- Easy to install and use
- It’s completely free!
Any cons?
- A few historical bugs reported but nothing recently
Get ready for the next flash sale with Shopify app
Black Friday or Cyber Monday may not be the first things on your mind right now – but flash sales are useful at other times of the year too.
In this strange retail environment that we’ve experienced in recent months, ecommerce has become more competitive for many of us.
Flash sales can be a point of difference for your store – and the above apps help you arrange them quickly and easily, not only boosting traffic but all-important conversions too.
