Online shoppers are rarely in a hurry. They can browse endlessly, leave, return, and keep browsing. They’ll even compare your prices to those of your rivals. Consequently, a sale can take days. This isn’t ideal. The faster they make their purchasing decisions, the more you can sell. This is where urgency elements come in.

 

Before we begin…

Make a point of using urgency elements sparingly. Your customers are bound to exhibit strong negative reactions if they feel they’re being manipulated. Your urgency elements shouldn’t be “spammy” or interrupt the shopping experience. So, avoid pop-ups and flashing signs.

 

Scarcity

Scarcity is one of the most effective marketing tactics. We tend to inherently value scarce items more than the common ones. Every luxury brand in existence effectively maintains the demand for its products by limiting production. We feel like we’re part of an exclusive club whenever we own something that only a few other people own.

You may not run a luxury brand but you can still borrow a leaf from them. If you have a product that won’t be restocked or if you’re running a promotion of a set number of items, showing stock levels goes a long way in motivating your customers to make a purchase. You can also show the number of customers that are interested and the number of people who’ve made a purchase in the last 24 hours.

 

Countdown timers

Countdown timers are great when you’re running time-limited offers. Customers will react more strongly to a 50% offer if they see only 30 minutes left on the clock than if the offer appears to be permanent. 

As great as countdown timers on offers may be, don’t have offers that will be getting discontinued in a couple of hours all the time. Customers will perceive those offers to be ingenuine or develop the impression that yours is a discount store where they can get a discount any time. Either way, they’re not going to act on your offers.

Examples