Strategies used by online stores so that we end up buying.
This is how they manipulate us so that we end up spending much more.
Since time immemorial, humans have used psychological tricks to take advantage of our fellow human beings for our own benefit.
Of course, this survival tool has been perpetuated up to the present day, and is even part of the way we live our lives.It is even part of the way many companies and people work, and although they do not cheat, because the law keeps them at bay on many occasions, they manage to manipulate our brains to make us choose the option they want.
Psychological tricks of online stores
It is well known that the big supermarket chains use many of these tricks, which we already told you about in the past here, so that we end up buying much more than we need. These techniques have been deeply studied by the field of marketing called consumer behavior, which continues to advance thanks to disciplines such as neuromarketing and neuromarketing. continues to advance thanks to disciplines such as neuromarketing and neuromarketing..
However, in recent times, purchases in physical stores are decreasing due to the rise of online commerce. And this is due to the rise of online stores in the heat of platforms such as 1and1 that allow you to create and maintain an online store with almost no computer knowledge. Thus, both large and small businesses that thrive on the Internet also use certain psychological tricks to, like physical commerce, sell more.
1. Reduced prices
Among the various strategies used by online sellers are those that take advantage of the aversion to loss that a consumer may feel. In this sense, price reductions that are displayed next to the original price give the potential buyer the feeling that they are missing out on a great acquisition at a very good price, given the savings offered.
In addition, many companies, especially airlines and many companies, especially airlines and accommodation sites, play on the feeling of scarcity and urgency.. In this way, websites such as Booking show you that there is only one room left in the hotel you are interested in, and that at that very moment there are several people looking at the same accommodation you are interested in. Similarly, they show discounts for a limited time that create an urgency to the potential consumer. Amazon, for its part, also uses time as a weapon in its favor by including the possibility of receiving an item the next day or as soon as possible when buying that product before 'X' minutes.
2. Free of charge when buying multiple products
On the other hand, another very recurrent technique is to offer free shipping over a certain amount, which in many cases makes us buy things we do not really need in order to get free shipping.
In addition, online sellers can be very insistent, since once you select the product you want, even if you do not complete the purchase, they will continue to offer you the product or service you have shown interest in through advertisements on other websites, all thanks to cookies.
3. Good user experience
But undoubtedly, what really increases the sales of any website, beyond the tricks, is that the purchase process is as easy, comfortable and pleasant as possible. In this sense, the e-commerce giant, Amazon, allows you to finalize the purchase with a single click through the Checkout Express, once the web already has your personal and payment data. And it is that online sales experts are increasingly clear that buyers are lazy, so many of the shopping carts are left halfway without completing the purchase transaction.
But although online stores get us in countless occasions more money than we would like, they can be a very useful tool when it comes to spend less, especially following tips to save money on the Internet and often having patience.
(Updated at Apr 13 / 2024)