Why would the ThredUp example not fall under current regulations against false advertising? If I say "This dress was bought 4 minutes ago!" or "Hurry now! Only one left!", those statements are obviously either true or false.
How e-commerce sites manipulate people into buying things
21–30 of 113 posts
Re: How e-commerce sites manipulate people into buying things
#22"The report coincides with discussions among lawmakers about regulating technology companies, including through a bill proposed in April by Senators Deb Fischer, Republican of Nebraska, and Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, that is meant to limit the use of dark patterns by making some of the techniques illegal and giving the Federal Trade Commission more authority to police the practice. "We are focused in on a pro…
Trying to ban things as they pop up is a long and arduous process. On the other hand, making more sweeping laws may have a lot of unwanted or unforseen side-effects.
agile lawmaking, eh?
Re: How e-commerce sites manipulate people into buying things
#23An age old tactic I have encountered: Deep discounts (after raising the prices of course). For e.g. (Harvard research paper - WIP) https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/18-113_16977... https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/11/how-ret... https://www.forbes.com/sites/camilomaldonado/2018/09/24/what...
Those seedy furniture stores that have "going out of business" sales that seem to last for years, are often running the same scam. Grocery also stores do this, with their shoppers cards discounts.
Consumers are the other half of the problem though. At least some of the scummy tactics are psycological hacks to get around real irrational behaviors that actually work against both the consumer and the business. The rest are dark patterns meant to manipulate and coerce that work strictly for the business, consumers be damned. I'm not sure where the line is.
Side note: Even to this day, I still catch myself sometimes thinking/saying the cost of something is $X rather than $X+1, when the listing price of something is $X.99, and I curse myself for the foolishness :P
Re: How e-commerce sites manipulate people into buying things
#24An age old tactic I have encountered: Deep discounts (after raising the prices of course). For e.g. (Harvard research paper - WIP) https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/18-113_16977... https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/11/how-ret... https://www.forbes.com/sites/camilomaldonado/2018/09/24/what...
I don’t understand the issue with this sales tactic. There is complete price transparency, and it takes minimal mental capacity to understand that “discounts” are just to fulfill people’s desire to “get” something that others might not be able to. If they want that dopamine hit, then let them have it. If something is worth X at time Y at place Z to the buyer, then it doesn’t matter what the discount is or isn’t.
There is not complete price transparency. The shop claims the normal price is higher than it actually is, in order to make the discount seem more attractive. That is deception, and therefore not transparency.
If only the final price mattered, shops wouldn't be advertising such discounts.
Re: How e-commerce sites manipulate people into buying things
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t understand the issue with this sales tactic. There is complete price transparency, and it takes minimal mental capacity to understand that “discounts” are just to fulfill people’s desire to “get” something that others might not be able to. If they want that dopamine hit, then let them have it. If something is worth X at time Y at place Z to the buyer, then it doesn’t matter what the discount is or isn’t.
Assume that the price of an item is $100 today ($200 original price - so a 50% discount). A week from now is Black Friday. The retailer has said 70% off on all goods. Now if the retailer increases the price to $333.33 (100/(1-0.7)) and then discounts it by 70% to give a final selling price of $100, wouldn't you feel cheated? I know I would.
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Re: How e-commerce sites manipulate people into buying things
#26> About 30 sites made it easy to sign up for services but particularly hard to cancel, requiring phone calls or other procedures. The Times requires people to talk with a representative online or by phone to cancel subscriptions, but the researchers did not study it or other publishing sites. Nice that the editor was at least allowed to point out that their own employer employs many of these "dark patterns".
Also, I'd actually been considering a Times subscription for a while. That's going to be a hell no from me now.
I've heard that if you use privacy.com with a California mailing address they let you cancel online due to California law.
Re: How e-commerce sites manipulate people into buying things
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t understand the issue with this sales tactic. There is complete price transparency, and it takes minimal mental capacity to understand that “discounts” are just to fulfill people’s desire to “get” something that others might not be able to. If they want that dopamine hit, then let them have it. If something is worth X at time Y at place Z to the buyer, then it doesn’t matter what the discount is or isn’t.
There is not complete price transparency. The shop claims the normal price is higher than it actually is, in order to make the discount seem more attractive. That is deception, and therefore not transparency. If only the final price mattered, shops wouldn't be advertising such discounts.
The only purpose of a discount is to make the buyer feel better. If they changed the price without labeling it a discount, the buyer’s utility of the item doesn’t change, but they’re feeling good about it does.
I’d rather see education in schools teaching people that discounts are sales tactics that should be ignored rather than laws governing discounts, which would be costlier to implement and enforce.
Re: How e-commerce sites manipulate people into buying things
#28> About 30 sites made it easy to sign up for services but particularly hard to cancel, requiring phone calls or other procedures. The Times requires people to talk with a representative online or by phone to cancel subscriptions, but the researchers did not study it or other publishing sites. Nice that the editor was at least allowed to point out that their own employer employs many of these "dark patterns".
Also, I'd actually been considering a Times subscription for a while. That's going to be a hell no from me now.
They offer a discount, you just say no. It's a nuisance, but I wouldn't reconsider a subscription to what is maybe the best newspaper in the world because of it.
Re: How e-commerce sites manipulate people into buying things
#29An age old tactic I have encountered: Deep discounts (after raising the prices of course). For e.g. (Harvard research paper - WIP) https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/18-113_16977... https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/11/how-ret... https://www.forbes.com/sites/camilomaldonado/2018/09/24/what...
Those seedy furniture stores that have "going out of business" sales that seem to last for years, are often running the same scam. Grocery also stores do this, with their shoppers cards discounts. Consumers are the other half of the problem though. At least some of the scummy tactics are psycological hacks to get around real irrational behaviors that actually work against both the consumer and the business. The rest…
> real irrational behaviors that actually work against both the consumer and the business
Do you have examples of such behaviors?
Re: How e-commerce sites manipulate people into buying things
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t understand the issue with this sales tactic. There is complete price transparency, and it takes minimal mental capacity to understand that “discounts” are just to fulfill people’s desire to “get” something that others might not be able to. If they want that dopamine hit, then let them have it. If something is worth X at time Y at place Z to the buyer, then it doesn’t matter what the discount is or isn’t.
Assume that the price of an item is $100 today ($200 original price - so a 50% discount). A week from now is Black Friday. The retailer has said 70% off on all goods. Now if the retailer increases the price to $333.33 (100/(1-0.7)) and then discounts it by 70% to give a final selling price of $100, wouldn't you feel cheated? I know I would.
The words original price mean nothing to me, as it should to everyone. I ignore discounts too, I only care about how much money is coming out of my pocket for what I'm paying for, and what my alternatives are.
I lie about discounts all the time, all salespeople have to. Buying a house, car, land, businesses, etc. People in poorer countries where bartering is common do it for everyday items too like fruits and vegetables. They'll say "I'll make a deal for you I don't make for anyone else."...obviously they make it for others too, but is the buyer supposed to take it to heart? No, it's all in the game.
If the retailer says 70% off the rolling average sale price during the past 365 days, and then lies about THAT, I would feel cheated.