Today, we like to answer the question: How to increase conversions with a sense of urgency on your e-commerce store?
It might seem “basic,” but knowing how to use urgency to drive e-commerce conversions does a lot for your online store.
Take Black Friday sales, for instance. Because of that “fear of missing out,” or FOMO, it generated $9.8 billion in online sales in the US alone.
Clearly, with the right techniques, your store has a lot to gain from the power of urgency. That’s why we’re going to look at 11 ways you can use urgency to drive e-commerce conversions.
So, let’s see how you can increase conversions with urgency!
How to Use Urgency to Drive eCommerce Conversions
Creating a sense of urgency means giving customers a reason to act quickly when they visit your online store. This urgency can motivate them to make a purchase sooner rather than later. We’ve put together 11 effective ways, with examples, to help you create this urgency and increase the number of sales on your e-commerce store.
Flash sales
First, flash sales. Short-time offers are an excellent way to incentivize your potential customers into pressing that “Buy” button immediately. It doesn’t matter if you do flash sales or daily deals.
For this to work, your customers must know that the deals are limited to your set time.
Think about it: what happens if you have a 24-hour deal on your site that they still see the next day? You lose that sense of urgency from future offers and their trust.
So, how do you get the best out of this technique?
Create a page on your store that has your “Flash Sales” or “Deals of the Day.” This drives your customers’ impulses and proves that the offers won’t last long enough to come back later.
According to Attrock, eCommerce marketers can increase conversions if they optimize their “Flash Sales” landing pages. It helps them to provide a good customer experience.
And make sure you stick to the deadline to keep the FOMO active.
End of sale dates
The second strategy to increase conversion with urgency is about the end-of-sale date.
We know how customers get excited about sales. But usually, they put off the actual buying until it’s too late. That’s why you need to get your customers to make that purchase once they see the sales notice.
Also, Integrate the best customer service software to your website that can provide personalized answers to your customers.
A good way to do that is to let them know exactly when the offer will end.
You can even promote the sales deadline on the same page you advertise it. Just make sure your customers know the exact date the promo ends.
“Coming Soon” offers
To create that sense of urgency, you need to add a bit of anticipation.
Everyone loves limited-edition and brand-new products. This makes tapping into your customer’s anticipation a great way to get to them.
Start with a tease about upcoming products. And as the release date gets closer, paint them a bigger picture of what the products offer. You could also keep the product under wraps until then to add an element of mystery.
What’s more?
Build a form and attach it to popups or a landing page to collect your customers’ information as a “waitlist.’
By doing that, you’re already planning for future advertisements to boost your online sales.
Also, when you finally release the products, limit their stocks. This piques your customers’ anticipation and gives them a feeling of excitement when they buy that product.
Free delivery for a limited time
One more way to increase conversions with urgency is to offer free delivery for a limited time.
Most people are still used to shopping in-store rather than online. And, when they decide to shop online, you don’t want to discourage them with an unexpected cost, like shipping, during checkout.
This could be one of the mistakes hurting your online store sales.
An excellent workaround for this issue is stating your delivery or shipping fees upfront. This way, it won’t come as a surprise for your customers.
But how about using shipping as an urgency tactic?
You could offer free delivery only for a limited period. But, the offer must be stated clearly on your site for this to work.
Also, you can place these offers on the same page as the product for more visibility. Or, you can use OptinMonster, one of the best WooCommerce plugins, to build a popup for your site.
An excellent example is Allen Edmonds’ free 2-day shipping holiday promo.
Countdown timers
Everyone has a love-hate relationship with clocks. We’ve all stared at the seconds ticking, waiting for something to start or something else to end.
As an eCommerce store, you can take advantage of the psychological hold countdown timers have over us. And luckily, they work exceedingly well in creating a visual representation of your internal sense of urgency.
The good news is that you can add a countdown timer anywhere on your online store to drive quick actions. It could be a banner beside the product or a separate landing page.
Your customers see numbers slowly counting down, which instills a touch of anxiety in their heads. It doesn’t get more urgent than that.
Limited stock of products
Also, you can increase conversion with urgency if you have a limited stock of products.
Suggesting that a product has limited stock is a highly effective way to use urgency to drive eCommerce conversions. By doing this, you create an illusion that the product is sought after by other customers.
That fear of missing out leads to shoppers acting immediately.
This eCommerce marketing strategy works so well that even mobile manufacturers have used it in the past. Here’s an example from Mindzai using this strategy.
Clearance prices
On one hand, some customers constantly seek discounts and offers to find a steal deal.
On the other hand, there’s the online store version of the Pareto Principle or 80/20 rule—you get most of your revenue from only a few products.
It’s fine, though. Now you can offer “clearance prices” on those poorly selling products.
Seeing the term “clearance” lets customers know that items are limited in stock and heavily discounted. This makes them act fast to avoid missing out on the products.
You can take it a step further and add a clearance section to your store so customers can browse through it. This ensures that they keep visiting and press “BUY” more often.
Here’s an example of Walmart’s clearance page:
Display the number of purchases
Your customers’ desire for a product rises when they know others want it too. It’s the same way you’re tempted to walk toward the section of a store with more people.
You can use that quirk of human nature to drive conversions. But how?
Show how many people have bought a product in your store. This triggers competition and lets customers know that other people want it too.
Also, customers start worrying about availability, which nudges them toward purchasing it quickly.
Naked Wines does a great job with this. They show the exact number of people who bought the product, what percentage would order again, and how many have reserved.
That alone promotes repeat purchases and acts as social proof.
Charity donation sales
People are now more socially aware.
So, you can combine their desire to contribute to the world with their shopping needs. This is different from affiliate collaborations where you promote products for a commission.
Instead, you can partner with a charity or NGO and tell your customers that a cut from their purchase would go there.
Take BoxLunch, for instance. Their promotion shows that they provide a meal to a person in need with every $10 that customers spend. Here is an example of how to increase conversions with urgency regarding donation sales.
Floating bar promotions
A constant floating bar at the top of your website keeps the idea of sales and offers in your customers’ minds.
You could even have it on multiple web pages. This way, customers will notice your offers throughout their browsing experience.
One more thing: keep it crisp and small but loud or bright. You don’t want it to become annoying to your customers. But you’ve got to make it such that it gets noticed.
Forever 21, for example, has a great floating bar on their site. The black bar in the center of the page reminds customers of all their offers.
Capitalize on Holidays
Every eCommerce store loves holidays. They are the answer to sales woes.
Plus, more people buy online since we associate most holidays with the tradition of treating yourself and gifting others.
Those celebrating winter holidays budget almost $900 on average on seasonal items like decorations, food, and gifts.
The image below also shows that people are spending more this year than previously. So, you need to take advantage of this trend.
This is not limited to the Christmas season, Thanksgiving, or even Black Friday, though. You can run deals on Valentine’s Day, Back-to-School seasons, and so on.
During these holidays, remind customers of limited stocks or delivery deadlines so that they act immediately. You can even add details of these deals in your social media content throughout this period.
Here’s a great example of Chubbies taking advantage of the holiday season:
Why Using Urgency Drives eCommerce Conversions
Creating urgency in your customers’ minds encourages the idea of scarcity. This way, shoppers are forced to act more impulsively.
The thing is that consumers usually get a feeling of power when shopping digitally — they have a lot of options to pick from. Plus, they can easily compare products.
However, reminding them that the promos, deals, and products are scarce induces a state of urgency. You’re sure to have more shoppers buying from you instantly in this situation.
Summing Up
Everything from the copy and design of product pages to product pricing can potentially impact your sales. So, you have a powerful motivator if you can use urgency to drive eCommerce conversions.
That’s why you should start integrating the language of scarcity throughout your shop’s copy. It could be in the product details or on a landing page.
From offering free shipping to running promotions and creating discounts, you have multiple ways of instilling urgency. So, ensure that every deadline or discount gears toward this strategy.
When you target your customer’s FOMO, you help them make faster decisions. And faster decisions lead to more purchases.
And that’s it. Our 11 ways to increase conversions with urgency.
Reena is the Director of Operations and Sales at Attrock, a result-driven digital marketing company. She is quite an industry expert with 10+ years of sales and operations experience in e-commerce and digital marketing. She is a people person and considers human resources as the most valuable asset of a company. In her free time, you would find her spending quality time with her brilliant, almost teenage daughter and watching her grow in this digital, fast-paced era.
