3 ms·

> Faking urgency and scarcity No need to fake it, you can just make it up. “this discount only valid on this special day” And you make a discount and you take

by Swizec 7y ago

> Faking urgency and scarcity No need to fake it, you can just make it up. “this discount only valid on this special day” And you make a discount and you take it away after that day. There’s both your urgency and your scarcity. Neither was fake. It won’t get you new buyers but it’s a great way to nudge people who were thinking of buying anyway over the edge.

PeterisP 7y ago
Sure, a shop can do what you describe even in German laws - every now and then. However, if you do it systematically, if you offered that "special day" discount also yesterday and will offer it tomorrow then it's de facto the regular price, telling that it's valid only today is literally a lie, violates false advertising law (which goes into detail on how discounts can be advertised, so simply gaming it with definitions doesn't wowrk) and would get your store fined so hard for lying to customers. Yes, misleading people to drive them over the edge works, that's the whole point. If it didn't work then we wouldn't care, but since it does work we as a society have chosen that we don't want that and merchants aren't going to be allowed to use such practices.
- serhatozgel 7y ago
  If you produce only 50 of every product, they will always be low on stock and consumers will always be about to lose the opportunity. This is typical behaviour and retailers are increasingly designing business models around the idea. I am not sure if the German law has anything against producing a large variety of products in small quantities.
  - luckylion 7y ago
    I doubt that this would matter unless you're not planning to produce more than 50 and then decide to add another 50, as you would with book editions - most products aren't produced in parallel, you'll typically get batches shipped. I'm fairly certain that you'd be asked to publish information about expected re-stocking if you publish stock counts. The same goes for advertising & only having few items. For example, supermarkets that advertise a special offer need to have "reasonable" amounts in stock - you can't say "new iPhone X only 10 Euros" to draw in buyers and then just have two in stock.
Dayshine 7y ago
The fake urgency is if the discount is available every day. And that's generally considered misleading advertising in the UK at least. If you want an example: https://www.asa.org.uk/rulings/j-sainsbury-plc-a17-404229.html https://www.asa.org.uk/rulings/j-sainsbury-plc-a17-404229.ht... Rotating a price between £4 and £3 every 21 days was considered to be misleading.

by Swizec 7y ago

PeterisP 7y ago

Sure, a shop can do what you describe even in German laws - every now and then. However, if you do it systematically, if you offered that "special day" discount also yesterday and will offer it tomorrow then it's de facto the regular price, telling that it's valid only today is literally a lie, violates false advertising law (which goes into detail on how discounts can be advertised, so simply gaming it with definitions doesn't wowrk) and would get your store fined so hard for lying to customers. Yes, misleading people to drive them over the edge works, that's the whole point. If it didn't work then we wouldn't care, but since it does work we as a society have chosen that we don't want that and merchants aren't going to be allowed to use such practices.

serhatozgel 7y ago
If you produce only 50 of every product, they will always be low on stock and consumers will always be about to lose the opportunity. This is typical behaviour and retailers are increasingly designing business models around the idea. I am not sure if the German law has anything against producing a large variety of products in small quantities.
- luckylion 7y ago
  I doubt that this would matter unless you're not planning to produce more than 50 and then decide to add another 50, as you would with book editions - most products aren't produced in parallel, you'll typically get batches shipped. I'm fairly certain that you'd be asked to publish information about expected re-stocking if you publish stock counts. The same goes for advertising & only having few items. For example, supermarkets that advertise a special offer need to have "reasonable" amounts in stock - you can't say "new iPhone X only 10 Euros" to draw in buyers and then just have two in stock.

Dayshine 7y ago

The fake urgency is if the discount is available every day. And that's generally considered misleading advertising in the UK at least. If you want an example: https://www.asa.org.uk/rulings/j-sainsbury-plc-a17-404229.html https://www.asa.org.uk/rulings/j-sainsbury-plc-a17-404229.ht... Rotating a price between £4 and £3 every 21 days was considered to be misleading.