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I can tell you that most of the time, buyers don’t fear missing out. Most buyers have a lot of options, and also busy lives. Here are things that can actually

by EGreg 2y ago

I can tell you that most of the time, buyers don’t fear missing out. Most buyers have a lot of options, and also busy lives. Here are things that can actually make buyers buy: 1. Social Proof / Testimonials 2. Friends / Peer Pressure 3. Free Trial + Structure, eg courses 4. Access to social capital (eg celebs) 5. Matchmaking to what they need (eg dating) 6. Time and Data Entry Investment (quizzes, meetings) 7. Relationships and access to Community Now, there are a form of micro-FOMO called Impulse Buy and Group Deals. But they are organically motivated by 1 (social proof of timely notifications) 2 (group deal coming together because of friends acting) and 6 (having invested time in the search, now they will either shit or get off the pot, cause their friends are going to that thing). I’ve spent 12 years building community software that automates all this, and now started adding AI to it. People underestimate the role of GROUP PSYCHOLOGY in affecting what people do. That is why I have nearly gone broke (having never taken VC) building open source community software that is far more healthy and responsible. Here is the societal issues it solves: https://www.laweekly.com/restoring-healthy-communities/ https://www.laweekly.com/restoring-healthy-communities/

jschveibinz 2y ago
Thanks for the info!
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
derefr 2y ago
Okay, but if a person has already decided that they "want" a particular product (probably due to the other effects you describe), to the point that they have gone to an e-commerce website and added the product to their shopping cart — but they haven't decided to buy it at that moment, i.e. haven't checked that cart out yet, even though they've come back to the site several times since then to check on both ongoing sales, and the status of that cart... then what aspect of consumer psychology make them ultimately decide at some point to check out the cart with the item in it? And alternately, what is it that makes them ultimately decide to abandon the cart / remove the item from the cart? FOMO is a good explanation for this, I think. Personally, there'll be times when the only reason I'm buying something now — rather than postponing the purchase indefinitely — is that if I don't, it's going to be out-of-stock for who-knows-how-long. My opportunity to choose to buy it is going to be taken away, and I literally fear missing out on the ability to make the purchase. (See Amazon's "only N left" note under some items.) Also, sometimes, the item will suddenly go out-of-stock without any clear date for resupply — leaving me sad that I "dallied" on my choice to buy it and so did "miss out." If such an item comes back in stock, I'll usually immediately buy it, because I now realize I was taking its continued availability for granted, but no longer can — and so "need" to get it before it goes out-of-stock again.
- EGreg 2y ago
  There is a form of FOMO that can work when taught to… Put expiration timers on ads! Like an elevator ad. People pay more attention when they know the ad will be gone soon, so they better click. The only thing is that clicks don’t necessarily convert to results. So this is far better to be done for CPM ads and display ads that rotate. Which platforms still offer CPM? PS: combine with limited classes “filling up” during the ad so the FOMO is legit at least
ilaksh 2y ago
I think FOMO and the first two items in your list may be the same thing. People fear missing out on the latest thing that everyone else is doing.
- EGreg 2y ago
  The main point is YOU aren’t the one scaring them with this “fear”. It is organic elements coming from their social circle. Testimonials and Social Proof doesnt need to instill any fear. They instill comfort. The opportunity can be available indefinitely. Peer pressure on the other hand instills discomfort, that would resolve with making a small purchase, but again it is coming from the friends. This is examples of NETWORK EFFECTS. They also help with lock-in. Keep this in mind: people continue to pay for something when 1) They have a problem 2) Your product can solve it 3) Every week, it costs less to pay for your product (automatically) than solving the problem themselves (eg forking your software)
gcanyon 2y ago
I can directly contradict this from my time managing the booking (last step) page on agoda.com. One of the first things I tried was putting a countdown timer on the page: “we are holding this booking for you for five minutes. After that we’ll release it back into inventory” That produced an immediate ~1% jump in bookings.
- EGreg 2y ago
  Okay, I stand corrected. Your measurements showed an entire 1% effect!
  - gcanyon 2y ago
    No other experiment in the year before or after did close to as well. So yeah, a whole 1%. :-)
- cwillu 2y ago
  Presumably that was an increase like “conversions on carts older than 5 minutes went from 5% to 6%”, not “5% to 5.05%”?

by EGreg 2y ago

jschveibinz 2y ago

Thanks for the info!

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

derefr 2y ago

Okay, but if a person has already decided that they "want" a particular product (probably due to the other effects you describe), to the point that they have gone to an e-commerce website and added the product to their shopping cart — but they haven't decided to buy it at that moment, i.e. haven't checked that cart out yet, even though they've come back to the site several times since then to check on both ongoing sales, and the status of that cart... then what aspect of consumer psychology make them ultimately decide at some point to check out the cart with the item in it? And alternately, what is it that makes them ultimately decide to abandon the cart / remove the item from the cart? FOMO is a good explanation for this, I think. Personally, there'll be times when the only reason I'm buying something now — rather than postponing the purchase indefinitely — is that if I don't, it's going to be out-of-stock for who-knows-how-long. My opportunity to choose to buy it is going to be taken away, and I literally fear missing out on the ability to make the purchase. (See Amazon's "only N left" note under some items.) Also, sometimes, the item will suddenly go out-of-stock without any clear date for resupply — leaving me sad that I "dallied" on my choice to buy it and so did "miss out." If such an item comes back in stock, I'll usually immediately buy it, because I now realize I was taking its continued availability for granted, but no longer can — and so "need" to get it before it goes out-of-stock again.

EGreg 2y ago
There is a form of FOMO that can work when taught to… Put expiration timers on ads! Like an elevator ad. People pay more attention when they know the ad will be gone soon, so they better click. The only thing is that clicks don’t necessarily convert to results. So this is far better to be done for CPM ads and display ads that rotate. Which platforms still offer CPM? PS: combine with limited classes “filling up” during the ad so the FOMO is legit at least

ilaksh 2y ago

I think FOMO and the first two items in your list may be the same thing. People fear missing out on the latest thing that everyone else is doing.

EGreg 2y ago
The main point is YOU aren’t the one scaring them with this “fear”. It is organic elements coming from their social circle. Testimonials and Social Proof doesnt need to instill any fear. They instill comfort. The opportunity can be available indefinitely. Peer pressure on the other hand instills discomfort, that would resolve with making a small purchase, but again it is coming from the friends. This is examples of NETWORK EFFECTS. They also help with lock-in. Keep this in mind: people continue to pay for something when 1) They have a problem 2) Your product can solve it 3) Every week, it costs less to pay for your product (automatically) than solving the problem themselves (eg forking your software)

gcanyon 2y ago

I can directly contradict this from my time managing the booking (last step) page on agoda.com. One of the first things I tried was putting a countdown timer on the page: “we are holding this booking for you for five minutes. After that we’ll release it back into inventory” That produced an immediate ~1% jump in bookings.

EGreg 2y ago
Okay, I stand corrected. Your measurements showed an entire 1% effect!
- gcanyon 2y ago
  No other experiment in the year before or after did close to as well. So yeah, a whole 1%. :-)
cwillu 2y ago
Presumably that was an increase like “conversions on carts older than 5 minutes went from 5% to 6%”, not “5% to 5.05%”?