We just got an email from Overstock.com's flash sale site, Eziba, officially confirming their demise: "As of July 1, 2011, Eziba will no longer be open for business." The venture lasted less than a year — we blogged its opening in August of 2010. With increased competition from other new businesses crowding the pool, we expect to see a "flash sale death watch" for certain sites, while others will potentially strengthen their grip on the industry. We're wondering... Which home decor sale sites would you bet on to survive?
A recent informal survey of our readers revealed that those of you who shop home decor flash sales prefer (in order of popularity) Gilt Groupe, The Foundary, One Kings Lane, Rue La La and Joss and Main. HauteLook, Ideeli, and Fab.com also received some votes. Sites that had fallen off your radar (according to the tallies) included Eziba, Design/Story, Beyond the Rack, Red Nook, and Bespoke Global.
Photo: Eziba

Commercial Flour Sa...
The main reason Beyond the Rack has fallen off my radar is that for some reason, even though I continually marked it as allowable, my spam filter never lets it through. I just got tired of hunting for it in the junk mail bin.
My biggest gripe with Foundary is that it doesn't disclose manufacturer information for furniture. What do I do if it breaks in a year? And Foundary sometimes focuses on items like cookware. I can buy an ice cream maker at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.
When I come to a flash site that has the promise of "up to 70% off" I'm looking for a stupendous deal on something I normally could not bring myself to buy.
That's where Fab steps in, IMO. Fab's selection is pretty diverse as well, but it gives you full disclosure as to the manufacturer, and it selects interesting pieces. Fab offered the Eva Zeisel bird salt and pepper shakers for 30% off and that made the difference for me because I would never pay $48 for salt and pepper shakers, but $34 is easier to swallow.
One king's lane and Guilt are 2 sites that will probably last. I love some of the furniture pieces they sell but still too expensive!
I shop Gilt and One Kings Lane regularly.
Gilt is great as they offer not only home furnishings, but clothing, accessories and lifestyle purchases (travel, gourmet food, etc.) - and they have an excellent app for iPhone.
And One Kings Lane has their Saturday Designer sales with one-of-a-kind antiques, collectables, artwork and designer furniture - I just never know what I'm to find when I log in each Saturday morning!
IMO - because these two are the most diversified in their offerings, they'll do the best and last longest.
bepsf...yeah, even though I can't afford 99% of the stuff they sell on saturday mornig, i still like browsing..There are a lot of great stuff with even greater price tags. lol
But they are very inspiring...
I believe One kings lane recently had a sale on Swedish furniture and antique...i thought I was going to die looking at some of the beautiful stuff they were selling.
Hello! recently looked on eziba today for a table to go with this couch/rug, so sad it's closing. Any ideas, suggestions???
Eziba..just check out Overstock.com...chances are they have it there.
I tried Foundary and Rue La La, didn't love them mostly because of the UI, I've been a consistent One King's Lane customer since they began operations. Yes, they have some beautiful merchandise, you can really snag some great things at the designer tag sales (but I can also hunt locally for similar items). The problem is that just over 50% of my orders have gone unfulfilled by OKL, either because there's been a supplier issue or for absolutely NO reason at all, even after customer service stated that an item was IN their warehouse and being packed. Four to six week waits have been the norm, for my orders regardless of type of merchandise/size/cost, so I've been scared to order furniture not knowing what to expect. I love the flash sale model, I'd love to see them succeed and I've snagged some great smaller scale antiques, but if they don't learn how to deal with a distributed supply chain (the tech term for multiple sourcing) then I fear they may burn out their customer base. I'm barely hanging on as a customer, customer service is nice but being nice cannot soothe the frustration of order fulfillment, so unless OKL addresses their supply chain head-on I doubt they can survive either...
I have consistently enjoyed shopping at The Foundary. They always have a unique selection and GREAT prices. They keep me engaged as a customer and I like that!
I love the Foundary for home goods. Also Gilt, Rue La La, Ideeli, Hautelook - mostly the original flash sale sites will survive. But in the meantime - we write a mean blog about ALL the sample sales going on across the web (and have invite links!)
Hadn't realized Eziba = Overstock until I tried to purchase something and either they don't ship to Hawaii (or Alaska) or they charge just as much for shipping as the cost of the item being purchased. So, never could purchase from them.
I'm really liking The Foundry and Fab. I like the stuff on One King Lane, but can't afford most of it.
@Rucy - We’d like to thank you for your comment and apologize for the inconvenience you’ve had with past orders. We are committed to providing our members with quality products and service, and we can assure you that we take this feedback seriously. We would welcome the opportunity to discuss your experience further, if you could please contact us at sfcs@onekingslane.com and provide us with your contact information, we would like to address your concerns.
Thanks everyone for your feedback on One Kings Lane. In addition to our sales events, we hope that you also check out our new Downstairs section that features clearance items at up to 80% off retail. There are some amazing deals!
One Kings Lane and Gilt are the best executed, so if that is what determines success, they will last. I regularly click on the One Kings Lane email notices.
The Foundary I'd be a little worried about. I get their emails every day, but their emailed sales photos/listings are sometimes so abstract, I can't tell what they are actually selling. I rarely click. Joss and Main has some nice stuff, but I can't seem to sign in on Safari, so it requires launching a entirely different browser (Firefox) to be able to view the sales. That keeps me from clicking as often as I normally would. Ideeli peppers me with emails throughout the day, which I find annoying. Achica has a weird mix of product, so I don't click on the emails very often.
Don't know the rest.
It is really hard to get a grasp of the daily deal space with all these new sites entering the business everyday, but I've ordered from a couple of them and find that HomeSav (www.HomeSav.com) is by far my favorite, since they offer daily deals that fit my needs, their sales generally last longer then their competitors (helpful because I can take the time to make the right "buy" decision) and they offer excellent costumer service.
I got burnt in the past ordering from a flash sales site that I will leave nameless, which made me really skeptical about purchasing anything else from ANY flash sales site, fortunately my order from HomeSav arrived a day early, in perfect condition and their costumer service line guided me through the entire process in a helpful way.
Way to go HomeSav!!
@One_Kings_Lane, I already have, for each and every order and when necessary multiple times for each order.
Did not have a great experience at The Foundary ordering a pair of chairs which arrived in flimsy packaging, missing hardware and with brackets that didn't belong to the chairs.
If its shipping/packaging/customer service does not improve, I don't know if it will survive.