Scarcity is the phenomenon where, when a product or service is limited in availability (or perceived as being limited), it becomes more attractive. The ecommerce giant continues to enjoy being the king of online marketplaces, thanks in large part to how well they use marketing tactics. Combining the ideas that tons of people are after something (ex. Urgency The one at play depends on three differe… And they release a special item for pre-sale with the guarantee that it will arrive right before the 4th. Whether it be for first-time customers, or just rewarding the ones you already hold, this small incentive can be a great push. Amazon do a great job of displaying their popular items by showing their huge inventory in ‘best seller’ categories. What does this do to your credibility? You can incorporate countdown timers into your eCommerce site to highlight: But as good as they are at driving urgency, they also play a functional role for your website users. ModCloth has plenty of examples of scarcity. And in reality, the spicy nuggets caused more of a debate by splitting public opinion. Therefore, it must be of higher value. Discounts and freebies can also be a great way to attract new customers and to generate leads that can then be a part of your future scarcity marketing campaign. It all plays into our desire to own something unique and beat other people to it. I found it really surprising! Furthermore, Spotify has over 50 million paid users, partly because of this wait-skipping practice. Booking.com does many things well, one of them being scarcity. Obviously, these methods work best when you have a real reason to limit the numbers, but you can even limit digital products. Our Sites If your brand has been around for a while, like Evo (13 years! TigerDirect.com has deals every day and uses a countdown timer to show visitors how long the deal will last. Quibb is a news network that has a very strict vetting process. We’re used to go to a store, trying the phone out for ourselves before actually buying it. Ask it here: © 2018 Performance Marketer. Ralph Lauren offers pre-order options for Olympic clothing. Customers know that they have to act fast, as these items usually belong to previous seasons, or are no longer in production. They cleverly number the best sellers from 1-100 per category, allowing them to split stock into sections. It’s an effective way to show you that the product is in high demand and low supply: Modcloth is another site that is optimized in terms of persuasive triggers. These methods tend to provoke a sense of emotion, plus they’re fun and show personality. Same as Spotify, this strategy worked only because the perceived value of the product was high enough to begin with, and there was solid reasoning for the wait – controlled influx of users prevents server overload. We're glad you have chosen to leave a comment. It is characterized by the ‘desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing.’”. The following examples sometimes utilize the limited-number, limited-time or both of these techniques. Limited Availability. The majority of emails are never opened, let alone clicked-through. Scarcity is non-linear process. Whether you are an eCommerce store, a local shop, or any type of business, using scarcity marketing is proven to boost conversions and sales. With that in mind, it is no wonder that they have scarcity triggers sprinkled all through their pages. Take a look at how Boohoo display 2 banners to alert visitors about their sale. Entering this limited window can create positive associations for customers. In the human psyche, things are usually more desirable if they’re more difficult to obtain. Travel websites frequently use scarcity marketing … They added a 24hr reply deadline when the match is made – in heterosexual matches the woman makes the first move and has 24hrs to contact a guy that caught her eye, and then the man has 24hrs to reply. It was recently reported that offering free shipping can increase your average order value by as much as 30%. All of their offers are time limited to generate scarcity and you can also see how many others have viewed that particular offer to create social proof. Spotify was hugely popular in Europe, and its release in the US was highly-publicized. This encourages me to order quickly because I want to guarantee that I’ll get my new headphones before Monday. Discounts were based on a number of headphones you wanted to buy, but there were also several tiers that were hard-capped to a certain number of pledges. Otherwise, scarcity effect is lost, as people will simply wait for the next one that’s right around the corner. When you combine scarcity triggers with prestige, social justice, and causes that are important to your target audience, you can get a truly powerful weapon to incentivize that same audience to act. Another scarcity marketing strategy that ModCloth uses is to create limited quantities of holiday items. This should be clearly laid out in your product or service’s ‘unique selling proposition,’ or USP, which is a statement or sales points used in some fashion in all your marketing material. Special edition products are a great scarcity marketing technique for online retailers. eBay uses auctions to add scarcity marketing. By choosing to reject more than half of all applicants, Quibb has succeeded in creating a community that is truly exclusive, and also extremely high-quality. Additionally, due to their high traffic, it would do Amazon more damage than good not to point that out. These three reasons highlight how scarcity can influence buyers in certain ways, but using this approach in your marketing comes with both advantages and disadvantages. Whether you are an eCommerce store, a local shop, or any type of business, using scarcity marketing is proven to boost conversions and sales. Two Norwegian fashion companies have teamed up to make a special limited edition of reversible sunglasses. They certainly don't want to miss the chance of joining the crowd of happy customers. Users who wanted to try out the service had to sign up for a reservation, where they’d be shown the number of people who signed up before them, and those after: This gave users an idea of where they are in this virtual waiting line, which some users would check back regularly to see the counter move. We’re simply naturally inclined to want what we can’t have. This uses social proof to add scarcity. It worked because their arrival was highly-anticipated, and they were better than their competitors. Their marketing is beautiful. The only difference was that one jar had ten cookies, while the other jar only had two cookies. You know the old saying, people always want what they can’t have. The folks from Memobottle offered an exclusive green-colored lid for project backers, as a way to thank them for hitting the $250,000 stretch goal. There’s a million ways to go about this, but they can all be roughly grouped up in several distinct categories. I’m a Chubbies fanboy. Sometimes, you can create a scarcity campaign seemingly out of nothing. There’s a million ways to go about this, but they can all be roughly grouped up in several distinct categories. Here are five of the best companies leveraging scarcity to drive big profits. Your strategy of creating the illusion of scarcity might feel deceptive or downright dishonest. To recap: scarcity can be presented in mainly two ways: limited-number and limited-time. Another study conducted by Stephen Worchel offered subject two nearly identical jars of cookies.