When people shop online, chances are, they’ll look for opportunity. Whether it’s finding a product that they’ve been wanting to buy, or they want to save money on a certain product, shoppers will look for something great to buy online.
The good news is, online businesses can tap into this want for opportunity. How? By creating a sense of urgency.
In this quick guide, we’ll show you 8 ways to get more online conversions by incorporating the practice of creating urgency. Let’s dive in!
1. Use The Clearance Tag
First and foremost, shoppers love to see the “Clearance” label on a product. Who wouldn’t want to buy something that’s on clearance?
According to TIME Magazine, shoppers often jump on “clearance” items, because they’re driven by the fear of missing out – commonly known, nowadays, as FOMO. With that said, people love to snag something from the “clearance” section of your online store, because it’s priced lower than usual. In turn, customers can save money when taking advantage of clearance. So, when you advertise something on clearance on your site, you’ll find customers coming in to take advantage.
2. Show How Many Are In Stock
When you show off how much of a product is in stock, you’ll get shoppers noticing and might want to act quickly.
However, this tactic can be a double-edged sword. Be honest with the stock numbers, or else you’ll lose consumers’ trust when you display exaggerated numbers.
3. “Don’t Miss Out” Emails
According to P2P Marketing, nearly half of the global population use email. Therefore, there’s never a better time to use email to create urgency. With emails, you can let your subscribers know about amazing promotions and discounts that they can take advantage of when they shop your site.
To make your emails successful, be sure that it includes the following:
• A compelling subject line highlighting promotions or offers
• A straightforward message, AND
• A clear call-to-action (CTA)
4. Limited-Edition Products
Who wouldn’t want something that’s “limited edition”?
Every so often, you’ll come across “collectors.” In other words, you’ll come across people who like to collect things to:
• Complete a certain set
• Practice the hobby of collecting, OR
• Any other reason
So, when you offer limited-edition products, you’re creating a sense of urgency in buyers.
5. Show Real-Time Activity
Much like showing real-time updates on product stock levels, showing other real-time activity can also create urgency. Some activities you can report on include:
• How many users are viewing a product?
• How many users are signing up for a newsletter to get a freebie?
• How many users are getting free shipping, because they’re buying a certain product?
… the list goes on.
This tactic also creates FOMO.
6. Offer Same-Day Shipping With Time Limit
Time limits are also beneficial in creating FOMO. When online shoppers see a countdown timer on your site, they might decide to act quickly to take advantage of, say, same-day shipping. However, the trick here is to allow users to see the timer without shoving it into their faces. By making the timer non-intrusive, you’ll nurture customers into making a purchase.
7. Special Limited-Time Discounts
As mentioned earlier, people love to save money. Now, imagine offering people the opportunity to save AND making it a limited-time offer. This tactic urges customers to shop now than later.
Speaking of now and later, this leads to the final strategy…
8. Show, Don’t Tell
Don’t ever tell your customers when a promotion ends. If you tell shoppers when a promotion ends, then one of a few things might happen:
• People might wait until the “deadline” to make a purchase (which can be problematic if you were planning on ending the promotion in two weeks – During that time, you could’ve been making instant sales).
• People might forget about the promotion.
• People might not even take advantage of the promotion. And so on…
Instead, by making the ending of a promotion open-ended and mysterious to the shopper, you’re letting shoppers speculate. When they speculate, they’ll have FOMO. When they have FOMO, they’ll act on impulse.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are so many options, when it comes to enticing customers to buy on the spot. In fact, people want reasons for them to buy right away. That’s why creating urgency is a great strategy for online businesses.
By utilizing these 8 tactics discussed in this quick guide, your online business will soon start seeing more conversions.