Scarcity tactics can anger customers(tips.ariyh.com)
tips.ariyh.com
Scarcity tactics can anger customers
https://tips.ariyh.com/p/scarcity-promotions-cause-anger
56 comments
Only a few left? Well I don't really need it that much, I'm not an asshole so I better leave them for someone who actually needs them.
The Consistency Principle can be annoying too when used exploitatively. I walked away from a gym membership once when they tried to charge a joining fee in the last minute.
https://worldofwork.io/2019/07/cialdinis-6-principles-of-per...
https://worldofwork.io/2019/07/cialdinis-6-principles-of-per...
Thank you for bringing up Cialdini. The scarcity tactic is documented in Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion. In the scarcity chapter he ties it to the “loss aversion” cognitive bias, although he doesn’t label it as such.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28815.Influence
https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/loss-aversion/
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28815.Influence
https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/loss-aversion/
Another example of this (at least where I'm from) is kitchen salesmen. "I can only offer you this discount today." or "It so happens my district manager is in today, I can maybe arrange a discount if you are willing to sign now.". Stores that try to pull this trick are an instant no for me as I won't trust their aftersales if I can't even trust their sales tactics.
That's one trick I've often seen deployed against the older generation (were salesmen more moral in the past?). I vividly remember a salesman getting quite angry because he was trying to slam my mother in exactly this manner, and my "well, we'd like to think about it" really pi*ed him off.
The getting angry is just another sales tactic if the first one doesn't work. I've had one salesmen try that on me as well. I just set there kind of laughing at the show he was pulling of, but my girlfriend felt genuine threatened.
> getting angry is just another sales tactic
That's legitimately horrifying. I've never had the misfortune of experiencing it, but now I know - if a salesman ever tries to pull that tactic on me, then instant threat to call the police.
That's legitimately horrifying. I've never had the misfortune of experiencing it, but now I know - if a salesman ever tries to pull that tactic on me, then instant threat to call the police.
I don't know if it's a tactic. I think it may be common for salespeople to be...weird, because it seems logical if the barrier for entry is low, if they're on commission.
I was at a Honda dealer once, having owned Honda and Acura cars in the past, and thinking about a hybrid. I said something to the salesman about Honda hybrid drivetrains being second rate, engineering wise, compared to Toyota, even though I generally liked Honda vehicles in other respects.
I was startled when he seemed to take it really personally. It didn't seem like he was just acting angry - I can't see what the use of that would be.
I was at a Honda dealer once, having owned Honda and Acura cars in the past, and thinking about a hybrid. I said something to the salesman about Honda hybrid drivetrains being second rate, engineering wise, compared to Toyota, even though I generally liked Honda vehicles in other respects.
I was startled when he seemed to take it really personally. It didn't seem like he was just acting angry - I can't see what the use of that would be.
> The getting angry is just another sales tactic if the first one doesn't work.
WTF? I would never buy anything from someone who's getting angry at me. If the sales experience is that bad, what can I expect from customer support later? Threaten me not to open any support ticket?
WTF? I would never buy anything from someone who's getting angry at me. If the sales experience is that bad, what can I expect from customer support later? Threaten me not to open any support ticket?
Well, if I didn't have the life experience I had by then I might have been pushed into the sale. He also tried to make me feel guilty about wasting his time (1,5 hours) talking through and drawing up a kitchen plan for us. Which is why I could laugh at the whole situation, because it's his risk for trying to get a sale. And if his kitchen drawing services where that good he should have made an agreement before spending his valuable time with us. But I doubt anyone would visit that place if he did.
I had this experience with a language learning app recently. The premium content (which I was interested in) was $30. But for the first half hour after app install the price was $20. There was a banner with a countdown timer for that 30 minutes. And lo and behold, the same banner popped up again a few days later. I don't know whether or not the technique is effective, but it sure annoys me.
I fell for it on Udemy a couple times when I was new to the site. I bought courses just in case the discount was not available when I needed it. Worked on me.
Worked, but will it again?
My mother falls for it. She gets stressed by the "sale for just X minutes more" -- eventhough I said it is mostly a scam.
That follows. I remember a hard-sell gym years and years ago. I was going to join anyway so I sort of ignored the "this offer is only good today" thing. But quitting when I moved away involved a bunch of nonsense like writing a letter to their main office.
I learned this lesson from the school of hard knocks; moved into an apartment I didn't really want because the price was only good for that day.
Now I permanently associate exploding offers with long-term dissatisfaction of the product.
Now I permanently associate exploding offers with long-term dissatisfaction of the product.
These get an instant "no" from me. I don't care how good the offer is. If you try to keep me from thinking about my options, I'm not inclined to do business with you. Salespeople take me from "maybe today" to "absolutely not today" with this tactic, though I must be in the minority, since they keep doing it.
Plus if I reflect and later decide I do want what you're offering, then I know your "full" price is bullshit and your "special" rate probably is too, so I'll come in negotiating hard, both because I've learned something about your prices and because now I kinda don't like you.
Plus if I reflect and later decide I do want what you're offering, then I know your "full" price is bullshit and your "special" rate probably is too, so I'll come in negotiating hard, both because I've learned something about your prices and because now I kinda don't like you.
well then you may be missing out on some great deals. when I was searching for an apartment to rent I found a great place, but I wanted some time to think about it. the landlord said that they won't hold it for me and that they were showing it to someone else the next day. I chose to take apartment and I am really glad that I chose it.
Real estate's different, obviously, especially in this market. It's not the same when time actually is a factor.
Salespeople pull this crap with all kinds of things that don't really have any actual time-pressure on them, though. Home remodeling, various services, unremarkable (that is: not unique or highly in-demand) cars. In fact, "we're running a special that'll get you 10% off if you sign today" is usually a strong indicator that I can ask for 15-20% off tomorrow and get it. If that kind of salesperson offers you a "deal" unprompted, then that "deal" is actually their price for suckers. I hate that kind of thing, don't like being manipulated, and don't like it when scummy salespeople win. So I'll either look somewhere else or take that newfound knowledge and ask for something better than the "special", on my own timeline, not the salesperson's.
Salespeople pull this crap with all kinds of things that don't really have any actual time-pressure on them, though. Home remodeling, various services, unremarkable (that is: not unique or highly in-demand) cars. In fact, "we're running a special that'll get you 10% off if you sign today" is usually a strong indicator that I can ask for 15-20% off tomorrow and get it. If that kind of salesperson offers you a "deal" unprompted, then that "deal" is actually their price for suckers. I hate that kind of thing, don't like being manipulated, and don't like it when scummy salespeople win. So I'll either look somewhere else or take that newfound knowledge and ask for something better than the "special", on my own timeline, not the salesperson's.
I've actually had some good experience with a salesman where he told me there was a limited offer, but if I could wait they would have a different offer next month, just on a different brand of equipment. Still not fully transparent but at least a little more honest.
We eventually settled on a IKEA kitchen, just because they are fully transparent and offered what we needed, with no pressure or tricks. And I got the chance to build my own kitchen, which was a nice experience. If it was not for their limited choice of options they would be the only contender for our next kitchen.
We eventually settled on a IKEA kitchen, just because they are fully transparent and offered what we needed, with no pressure or tricks. And I got the chance to build my own kitchen, which was a nice experience. If it was not for their limited choice of options they would be the only contender for our next kitchen.
> I've actually had some good experience with a salesman where he told me there was a limited offer, but if I could wait they would have a different offer next month, just on a different brand of equipment. Still not fully transparent but at least a little more honest.
I think that's good. They can't promise you any upcoming sale as they don't get to decide on that, but they know the sales generally come up on X day of the month/week.
I think that's good. They can't promise you any upcoming sale as they don't get to decide on that, but they know the sales generally come up on X day of the month/week.
A sale of the week is less sketchy than my buddy the salesman giving me a special discount because we are such good new friends, but still need to jump on the offer because...
You so sure that the "someone else" actually existed? I've successfully called that bluff in the past.
It's like when you interview for a new job and ask you if you are interviewing with anyone else, why would you ever say no?
It's like when you interview for a new job and ask you if you are interviewing with anyone else, why would you ever say no?
I was that someone else, toured right as the other family was leaving. I decided I liked the place and told the landlord that if he was willing to have an awkward conversation with that other family tomorrow, I would sign immediately.
But yeah like moshmosh said, real estate is different. Anything where you are vying for exactly one of a thing is a different beast than whatever crap you SAAS vendor is trying to tell you.
But yeah like moshmosh said, real estate is different. Anything where you are vying for exactly one of a thing is a different beast than whatever crap you SAAS vendor is trying to tell you.
Even if the other person doesn't, in many cases the someone else will in a few days. Real Estate is about making sure you have just enough vacancies and no more. Enough means that when someone comes looking you have a place for them, and enough vacancies that you can remodel/upgrade between - but no more.
This is not related to the example on the thread. If the other person after you didn't want the apartment, you could still get it for the price they were offering you. If the apartment was overpriced and still on the market after 6 months, you could get it for less.
Also, real estate is an exception because:
1 - there is actually scarcity. A building with 200 apartments only has 200 apartments.
2 - Some buildings are already (almost) full, so you can only get in when someone gets out.
But what I see here where I live are offers that are valid for a whole month or two. Of course, if all units are taken, then you can't get it, but if they have an unit available, the offer is good
Also, real estate is an exception because:
1 - there is actually scarcity. A building with 200 apartments only has 200 apartments.
2 - Some buildings are already (almost) full, so you can only get in when someone gets out.
But what I see here where I live are offers that are valid for a whole month or two. Of course, if all units are taken, then you can't get it, but if they have an unit available, the offer is good
I feel you're not alone, it's just that - rightly or wrongly - they seem to genuinely optimize for "Max sales I can squeeze in TODAY/RIGHT NOW", rather than "Max sales I can squeeze in overall". I mean, their whole incentive structure operates this way - neither salesperson nor their boss get commission or bonus on sales that happen at some other point in the future when you may or may not be there, and may or may not be the one to make it. This happens on macro/corporate level too - quarterly sales / revenue targets, future be damned.
I disagree, and think this could actually be a good overall optimization technique. If the product you are selling is overpriced (not a bad value per se, but maybe ~35% above where it could be) then the sales person should absolutely optimize for the immediate sale. You get to sell RIGHT NOW at a high markup, and any time you would invest later trying to close a deal at a lower price can instead be spent selling someone else at a high markup. There's obviously no opportunity to close later at a higher price, since by then the customer has had a chance to shop around and discover true market pricing.
This works particularly well for large one-time sales where pricing information is scarce and the relationship is less important. Example: sales for replacement windows, doors, roofs, etc.
This works particularly well for large one-time sales where pricing information is scarce and the relationship is less important. Example: sales for replacement windows, doors, roofs, etc.
Indeed, it must work somehow, or else they would no longer be in business. I think it also has to do with demographic. Some people are just easily persuaded by these kinds of offers, so if there is a hole in the market, someone will fill it.
> If you try to keep me from thinking about my options, I'm not inclined to do business with you.
I've also adopted the principle that if someone comes to me with an offer, it must be beneficial for them. This is especially true for door-to-door salesmen and utility contracts. Like they give you a big (like 50%) discount on electricity, but the gas price is where they get you.
I've also adopted the principle that if someone comes to me with an offer, it must be beneficial for them. This is especially true for door-to-door salesmen and utility contracts. Like they give you a big (like 50%) discount on electricity, but the gas price is where they get you.
100% agree on the "today only" being an instant "no" from me.
Conversely, I've had a good experience with this. I was buying suits for the groomsmen in my wedding, and the salesman offered to hold everything until the following Thursday because there was a 15% off everything sale that day. He put them in a closet and I came in on that day so he could ring the sale and I'd get the discount.
Conversely, I've had a good experience with this. I was buying suits for the groomsmen in my wedding, and the salesman offered to hold everything until the following Thursday because there was a 15% off everything sale that day. He put them in a closet and I came in on that day so he could ring the sale and I'd get the discount.
About 25 years ago, we were looking for a new car. We visited a couple of dealerships in the Washington, DC, area without buying. We then visited on in "West Shore" suburbs of Harrisburg. The saleswoman made the sale when we all sat down in her office, and she waited for us to speak first--it was almost unnerving to hear silence from auto sales staff.
>it was almost unnerving to hear silence from auto sales staff
Use this as an opportunity to inform people about the dangers of proprietary software.
Use this as an opportunity to inform people about the dangers of proprietary software.
It's interesting how often on Amazon Prime I'll add one relatively obscure product to my basket on the promise it'll be delivered tomorrow, then add one more of the same and the delivery goes out for a day (or more).
On common products though, the whole FOMO "Only X left in stock!" is just a big ignore for the sales tactic it is.
On common products though, the whole FOMO "Only X left in stock!" is just a big ignore for the sales tactic it is.
Am I the only one that sees stuff like this and thinks "yeah sure you do". It's a blatant high pressure sales tactic. But yes Thomas McKinlay is correct, it isn't helping your company at all.
That's a big problem with Kickstarter items. If the initial batch is tiny, buyers may think "they'll never get this into production" and avoid buying some hand-made prototype that might not work.
I once encountered a shopping cart with a 5 minute timer. Didn't matter what you added, once you put something in your cart a banner with a clock showed up and started ticking. I was going to spend more on accessories than the base item, but once I saw what they were doing I paid a few % more elsewhere.
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society recently put a 10-minute cart timer on their website, and I'm perfectly fine with that.
For those who don't know SMWS, they're basically an independent bottler under the guise of a club. Everything they bottle is cask strength, non-chill filtered and natural color, which is how I think all whisky should be.
You pay a yearly membership fee, which gives you access to regular tastings and other events, as well as access to buy bottles. Their sort of trademark thing is that they don't officially tell you which distilleries the bottles come from, so bottles are marked with a numerical code for the distillery and one for the specific cask. That means they can sometimes get casks from distilleries that are not too keen on having their name on independent bottlings, but the official reason given is that SMWS wants people to taste any given bottle free of preconceived ideas of what a whisky from any certain distillery "should" taste like. Of course, there are readily available lists mapping codes to distilleries all over the web, but the official pretense is kept up.
Coming back to the shopping cart, the 10 minute timer is there because they may only have 5 or 10 bottles of a given whisky, so adding it to your cart reserves one bottle for you, until you complete the order or the timer runs out. For limited-stock merchandise, I think that's a sensible way to ensure you don't get an annoying surprise right as you're trying to pay, and to ensure that people can't just reserve a bottle forever and never actually buy it.
For those who don't know SMWS, they're basically an independent bottler under the guise of a club. Everything they bottle is cask strength, non-chill filtered and natural color, which is how I think all whisky should be.
You pay a yearly membership fee, which gives you access to regular tastings and other events, as well as access to buy bottles. Their sort of trademark thing is that they don't officially tell you which distilleries the bottles come from, so bottles are marked with a numerical code for the distillery and one for the specific cask. That means they can sometimes get casks from distilleries that are not too keen on having their name on independent bottlings, but the official reason given is that SMWS wants people to taste any given bottle free of preconceived ideas of what a whisky from any certain distillery "should" taste like. Of course, there are readily available lists mapping codes to distilleries all over the web, but the official pretense is kept up.
Coming back to the shopping cart, the 10 minute timer is there because they may only have 5 or 10 bottles of a given whisky, so adding it to your cart reserves one bottle for you, until you complete the order or the timer runs out. For limited-stock merchandise, I think that's a sensible way to ensure you don't get an annoying surprise right as you're trying to pay, and to ensure that people can't just reserve a bottle forever and never actually buy it.
vneur(3)
Ticketmaster does this and it's really annoying because they then want you to type in all of your personal information while a clock is ticking away in the corner. The event isn't for 6 goddamn months, you can give me more than 10 minutes to type in my entire life history that you demand for no good reason!
The timer may be to deal with inventory issues. A denial of inventory attack exploits a site that uses carts to calculated available inventory. Sites which track item availability need to reserve the item for the customer when it is added to the cart. If it’s not, the item may not exist when they checkout.
Usually this works fine as only a small percentage of stock is floated in inventory, but if someone wants to take your store down, they can add many items to their cart that they never intend to buy and leave it indefinitely. If you don’t periodically empty unused carts it will create a problem. It’s possible that the site you visited kept a very small inventory and was suffering from these issues even without it being an attack.
Usually this works fine as only a small percentage of stock is floated in inventory, but if someone wants to take your store down, they can add many items to their cart that they never intend to buy and leave it indefinitely. If you don’t periodically empty unused carts it will create a problem. It’s possible that the site you visited kept a very small inventory and was suffering from these issues even without it being an attack.
This article assumes alternatives exist.
Obviously, if you're selling a commodity product with readily available alternatives, your customers are simply going to order the alternative.
However, scarcity tactics work extraordinarily well for a subset of customers. Entire markets have been built around artificial scarcity. A valuable pokemon card or baseball card isn't valuable because it's hard to print colored squares on to card stock. It's valuable because someone in an office somewhere decided that only 1000 of those cards should be printed, and all of their customers decided that the 1000 card limit makes it valuable. The majority of the population rolls their eyes and moves on, but it doesn't matter because their core audience believes in the artificial scarcity.
Obviously, if you're selling a commodity product with readily available alternatives, your customers are simply going to order the alternative.
However, scarcity tactics work extraordinarily well for a subset of customers. Entire markets have been built around artificial scarcity. A valuable pokemon card or baseball card isn't valuable because it's hard to print colored squares on to card stock. It's valuable because someone in an office somewhere decided that only 1000 of those cards should be printed, and all of their customers decided that the 1000 card limit makes it valuable. The majority of the population rolls their eyes and moves on, but it doesn't matter because their core audience believes in the artificial scarcity.
Pokemon card buyers are self selecting into a collecting competition. People aren't going to brag to all their friends about how they managed to snag one of the very limited rooms at some no-name hotel. They might though, if you have some special gimmick I suppose, like if you cater to the crowd that sees travel as completing a collection of attractions.
> Pokemon card ... artificial scarcity.
It is not an artificial scarcity though. The seller can't print more rare cards, unless you were refering to Nintendo. I.e. if I am low on dollars there is no artificial scarcity of dollars just becouse the Fed can print more.
It is not an artificial scarcity though. The seller can't print more rare cards, unless you were refering to Nintendo. I.e. if I am low on dollars there is no artificial scarcity of dollars just becouse the Fed can print more.
Underhanded marketing tactics anger people? Of course they do.
Seen this in real life, too.
A brand new ice cream place opened down the street and, since opening, lines have been out the door. 45 minute waits at minimum in the evenings.
But there they are on social media telling people "it's a great time to stop in!" The first two replies were people stating they'll wait a month until the lines die down. Probably not the reaction they're expecting and maybe a fatal one if word starts spreading.
A brand new ice cream place opened down the street and, since opening, lines have been out the door. 45 minute waits at minimum in the evenings.
But there they are on social media telling people "it's a great time to stop in!" The first two replies were people stating they'll wait a month until the lines die down. Probably not the reaction they're expecting and maybe a fatal one if word starts spreading.
"Nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded"
> We don’t know how customers that do manage to buy a scarce product feel afterwards.
I bought an instrument the other day, online. When I first saw it, it said 3 people had it in their cart. Maybe they were saving up, maybe they were waiting on a tax refund, I don't know.
I feel kinda bad I took away their chance to play it instead of me. Anticipation destroyed. If it showed names & avatars, I'd probably feel even worse. Maybe it's different for truly mass-produced stuff, where the serial numbers are in the billions.
I bought an instrument the other day, online. When I first saw it, it said 3 people had it in their cart. Maybe they were saving up, maybe they were waiting on a tax refund, I don't know.
I feel kinda bad I took away their chance to play it instead of me. Anticipation destroyed. If it showed names & avatars, I'd probably feel even worse. Maybe it's different for truly mass-produced stuff, where the serial numbers are in the billions.
Why these things are not taught in schools?
I have had airlines do a weird form of this all the time. Particularly Delta, IIRC. "Only 2 seats left at this price." Which is already bad, since what are the chance that those aren't two middle seats half a plane apart? But then you click in to purchase, and there will be zero seats at the listed price. I don't know what the point was — there was never going to be a sale, because the offered price never really existed, and it only ever serves to reinforce that I should have just taken the offer from SWA in the first place, because they continue to be the airline that screws with me the least…
So there's a couple things going on there. When there's actually only 2 seats left at that fare, it's not usually the case that those are referring to specific seats; the fare gets you any available seat in some section, but only a limited number are available at the nice prices (and inventory management systems adjust pricing over time); also, not all bookings get a seat assigned, so even if the section will be 100% booked with your purchase, you may have choices in seats, and you can often (but not always) call and talk to someone who can finagle something together.
The other thing is while I think some of the only 2 left is probably intentionally misleading, some of it related to cached data. Airline inventory systems tend to be expensive to query, so it's tempting to show data from a cache if possible, but then there's freshness issues that you noted. Or there's just other people shopping too.
The other thing is while I think some of the only 2 left is probably intentionally misleading, some of it related to cached data. Airline inventory systems tend to be expensive to query, so it's tempting to show data from a cache if possible, but then there's freshness issues that you noted. Or there's just other people shopping too.
This is like that saying in advertising, they either buy our the product or are annoyed to hell with us.
It likely works, the additional sales makes up for that crowd who gets turned off. It even builds branding and desirability as angry as consumers get, look at Rolex, Patek Phillipe or Supreme.
It likely works, the additional sales makes up for that crowd who gets turned off. It even builds branding and desirability as angry as consumers get, look at Rolex, Patek Phillipe or Supreme.
Like that‘s news. Dark patterns make you look slimy and untrustworth AF. Example: N26 (bank) has the plan list aligned so the free one is always perfectly outside of the browser window. When you select it they try to trick you twice into signing up for a paid one.
Yeah, I‘m sure I can trust you with my money, then.
Yeah, I‘m sure I can trust you with my money, then.