Sample sales are used by retail businesses

Retailing

Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...

 in order to discard excess merchandise. Sometimes these samples have been used by agencies to sell products that they will distribute to local vendors. Sample sales are often associated with the fashion industry. These sales are an opportunity to get near perfect merchandise at a fraction of the price. It is often difficult to have information on the date and time of sample sales, although there are websites which list information about sample sales in on line diaries list sample sales in the US). They are also used to draw in new clients, hoping that the new people will return to the company's store and buy more merchandise.

Sample sale websites are a new trend expanding upon the popular brick and mortar (B&M) sample sales that often occur in New York, LA, and other prominent locations. Sample sale sites are invite-only websites that receive the opportunity to sell certain products from top labels in the fashion industry (often these items are from previous seasons, but just as often they are current products) at a heavily discounted rate. Each sample sale tends to run for about 24 to 48 hours, or until sold out; since inventory is often limited and some sites are extremely popular, some items on some sites will sell out in a matter of minutes or even seconds. Sometimes these sites place their orders for the number of products they would like ahead of time, sometimes they place their orders after receiving the customers' orders (in the latter case, shipping to you will take longer). The popularity of these sites has exploded in recent months such that many of the sites have expanded beyond fashion labels to household items, wines, and even travel. Comparatively speaking, the prices and selection are typically better than department store discount stores (Saks Off 5th, The Rack, etc.).