Thank you for downloading this program from the BBC. In this edition of the bottom line,

Evan Davis and guest discussed the world of discount shopping and a new business model

offering huge bargains, flash sales. Hello and welcome to the program. We're taking a peek

into the world of sales and discounts this week. Companies want to

offload, excess stock, overstock, and that means offering bargains, and we'll examine the

rules of the game by looking at the relatively new phenomenon of flash sales. If you've never

heard of them, don't be surprised, because shrouding them in a layer of obscurity is part of the game. But flash sales

are a form of extreme discounting that started in France and is now in the UK. And it tells us

a lot about what brand do to manage their stock, keep their image up and maximise their income.

It's not so different, incidentally, to airlines selling seats at cut prices

or using those so-called bucket shops, as they used to do. I'm joined by three people who've been

working in the world of flash sales and can explain it all to us. And first is Ilan Benet,

who's the co-founder of a company called Vente Privet. It's a company that is absolutely massive in France, but little known here.

It perhaps sounds like an adult accoutreement store, but Vente Privy simply means private sale.

And VP, I think, is perhaps credited with creating the phenomenon of the flash sale.

Ilan, tell us when VP was founded.

It was founded in 2001 with the idea of providing brands with a new way of selling their overstock.

Every year they have 5 to 15% of their production in overstock, and they needed a new way to sell it. The traditional way were not good enough. And we'll get into all of that. Now, just tell me what the customer experience is. You have a logging and a password. Okay, so it's like a private club. You need to be a member to enter and to benefit from the discounts. I pay to join? No, not at all.

It's absolutely free.

But the reason why we put a login and a password,

it's really to prevent the search engine to index the content.

Because brand, when they're going to display incredible discount,

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