Conversion
Scarcity
We value things more when they’re in limited supply
There’s a reason this Nugget is #1 in our library.
The concept of Scarcity lies at the core of economics, and greatly influences perceptions of value, status and our competitive desire to attain certain items over others.
Unfortunately, it's also one of the more poorly-applied concepts out there, along with Defaults and Loss Aversion.
Mastering quantity scarcity
An airline stating that there's
“Only 3 seats left” may well be using accurate data and not simply using faux-scarcity to artificially suggest that there's less supply of seats than there actually is.
However, from the user's perspective, the buildup of mistrust around the use of scarcity means cynicism is higher, so one must be careful with information presented.
Similarly, hotel websites telling you that “30 other people are looking at this item” engineer stress to compel people into action without changing supply yet highlighting demand in a manipulative way.
Instead, use quantity scarcity to focus on the craft and high quality of what you're selling.
Make your scarcity feel valuable, not stressful.
Mastering time scarcity
Ensure that any time restriction is highlighted primarily for the purpose of maintaining the quality of your product or service, and not merely to cause stress that could be avoided.
As an example, use time scarcity to launch unique or experimental products that are only available within a particular window (say a week, month or season).
This use of time scarcity is positive and encourages brand exploration, used creatively to highlight your unique value.
There’s a reason this Nugget is #1 in our library.
The concept of Scarcity lies at the core of economics, and greatly influences perceptions of value, status and our competitive desire to attain certain items over others.
Unfortunately, it's also one of the more poorly-applied concepts out there, along with Defaults and Loss Aversion.
Mastering quantity scarcity
An airline stating that there's
“Only 3 seats left” may well be using accurate data and not simply using faux-scarcity to artificially suggest that there's less supply of seats than there actually is.
However, from the user's perspective, the buildup of mistrust around the use of scarcity means cynicism is higher, so one must be careful with information presented.
Similarly, hotel websites telling you that “30 other people are looking at this item” engineer stress to compel people into action without changing supply yet highlighting demand in a manipulative way.
Instead, use quantity scarcity to focus on the craft and high quality of what you're selling.
Make your scarcity feel valuable, not stressful.
Mastering time scarcity
Ensure that any time restriction is highlighted primarily for the purpose of maintaining the quality of your product or service, and not merely to cause stress that could be avoided.
As an example, use time scarcity to launch unique or experimental products that are only available within a particular window (say a week, month or season).
This use of time scarcity is positive and encourages brand exploration, used creatively to highlight your unique value.
146 people were asked to rate identical cookies that were either presented in a jar as scarce or in abundance. They were then asked how likely they would be to want to eat a further cookie.
When scarce, the cookies were rated as more desirable and having a higher value. They were also seen as more valuable when going from an abundant state to scarce than when always scarce.
Scarcity comes in 4 flavors:
Quantity, Time, Access & Rarity.
Control quantity.
To increase perceived value of your product, release it in smaller and diminishing quantities, emphasizing its finite nature.
Restrict time.
When the clock is ticking and we’re overwhelmed, we take mental shortcuts that speed up decision-making.
Motivate customers by emphasizing the limited time remaining in which to act.
Limit access.
Restricting access to your products or services will increase desire and perceived value. Do this selectively for certain features and / or customer segments.
For instance, you might want to design valuable, unique rewards that are only unlocked for very special efforts on the part of the customer.
Conversion
Zeigarnik Effect
Incomplete tasks weigh on our minds until done
47 subjects were given around 20 small, manual tasks to complete, one at a time. Experimenters randomly interrupted completion of half of these tasks. After, subjects were asked to recall as many tasks as possible.
There was a 90% higher recall of incomplete and interrupted tasks than those completed.
Make important task completion frictionless. If customers leave your site without finishing their order, make it effortlessly easy to get that completion feeling, such as allowing for completion with a single click, tap or swipe.
Focus on completion’s emotional release. Providing reward incentives for task completion actually demotivates consumers. Instead, remind them not just of the product they’ve not yet bought, but of the feelings that this ‘purchase task’ will unlock.
Make known campaigns incomplete and interactive. Greater familiarity with an advert increases consumer ability to complete an interrupted ad message. Active participation also boosts ad memory (Heller, 1956). So if your popular campaign’s reaching its end, consider a special second follow-up version that allows for active participation in completing the ad message.
Pricing
Boundary Pricing
We're more likely to upgrade if the base price feels closer
378 people were were split into two groups and offered two coffees, small and large, with prices either $0.95 and $1.20 or $1 and $1.25.
Results showed that people were 55.5% likely to upgrade to a large coffee when the small was $1 than when it was $0.95 (28.9%). Average coffee sale prices were also higher in the boundary condition ($1.14 vs $1.02).
Offer upgrades? Use boundary pricing.
If you offer more than one product option at different prices, boundary pricing can help improve the rate of upgrades.
This is because, next to a price set just below a boundary (e.g. $95), increasing a base price to just above ($105) makes the upgrade option ($135) appear cheaper and less of a painful step up.
It's because of the way we encode numbers, chunking them into broader numerical categories to infer value. This increases willingness to upgrade and therefore spending.
Works with multiple upgrade options
As long as the prices all sit within the same price boundary, the effects persist for product ranges with more than two options. This was shown with further studies on purchases of apartments and cars, which both offered multiple upgrade options.
Maximise upgrade range by setting your base price around a more round numerical amount (e.g $10,000 vs $11,000).
This will allow you to offer upgrade options that sit within a broader, albeit the same price boundary ($10000-19000 vs $11000-11999).
Present options together, not sequentially
The effects of boundary pricing disappear when the options are shown separately (different screens / post-purchase), relying upon the user's memory in some way.
Ensure that users can easily see the value of upgrading, by showing the base price next to the upgrade.
Note that impact also reduces when the upgrade option sits in a higher boundary ($205) than the base ($105).
