Strategies and tactics to generate urgency in eCommerce (Part 1)

Basically, because you have to prevent the potential customer from overthinking.

 

Our brain works this way: if we don't make decisions impulsively, the reflective and analytical part comes into play.

 

This means we'll start to evaluate all the pain points or friction points. We move from: "I want it" to "Do I need it?"

 

So, as managers of our eCommerce marketing, we have the possibility to appeal to more visceral buying motivations. A touch of urgency generates that slight anxiety of running out of the product, missing the offer, or simply being out of trend (the fear of missing out or FOMO, which greatly torments Millennials).

With that said, let's move directly to our recommendations. As always, we've tried to look for ideas that are easy to implement with minimal technical involvement and that you can start using, for example, for this upcoming Black Friday 2023.

 

In this case, we're not talking about THE competition, understood as a business rival. We're talking about competition among users. It could actually be seen as a way of social proof, but commodified.

 

We mix two concepts: low supply and high demand, recreating the ideal scenario for selling.

 

The best example is hotel websites when they inform that the occupancy in the area you're searching for is at 90%, only 3 rooms are left in a specific hotel, or the last booking was made 10 minutes ago in your city.

 

This is perfectly applicable to any product, thereby stimulating that competitiveness through urgency.

The best part of this strategy is that, while stimulating impulse buying, it can also favor our online store by fostering loyalty and recurring purchases.

 

Those offers with limited duration, which can be 24 hours or less, encourage purchasing to avoid missing out on a significant discount. However, these promotions can also be volume-based, not just time-based (e.g., 100 units at a discount for the first orders).

 

Where does loyalty come into play here?

 

It's simple: once customers know that this happens regularly, they'll likely return to the website frequently, follow our social profiles, or subscribe to our newsletter (another advantage, by the way).

 

Who does this masterfully? Amazon with its Prime Days, which generate a lot of anticipation.

Coupons for specific products or categories, with a very short validity, create a great sense of urgency. If we have a 20% discount, or even better, 10, 20, 30 euros, and we don't use them... it feels like we're literally losing money.

 

The most important part of this strategy is to communicate the expiry of these coupons, reminding the customer that they need to redeem them now!

 

If you know "Miravia" (an eCommerce site), it's probably one of the first that comes to mind regarding "express" coupons. They do it really well, making them a great example to follow.

Imagine having hundreds of people waiting for you to open your store doors.

 

This is something that has been lost, but the most successful retailers used to gather people queuing hours before opening, during high-peak times like sales, Black Friday, or when launching a new product like the latest Apple phone.

 

Digitally, this might not make sense, but it is.

 

From experience, we've seen that people are willing to wait in a virtual queue to access better prices and exclusive products.

 

A notable example would be sites offering tickets for events and concerts. However, this strategy has also been seen during video game or tech device launches.