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How e-commerce sites manipulate people into buying things

nytimes.com

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Re: How e-commerce sites manipulate people into buying things

#51

Post by lotsofpulp »

mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #49
lotsofpulp wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because people like the feeling of getting a discount. I don't know why, but it satisfies some part of their ego. Discounts don't change the utility of the product or the budget of the buyer or anything, other than the buyer feeling good about themself.

You are way overcomplicating it. People are not talking about comparing the discounted price with some fictional “intrinsic utility” price and your comments about the utility of the item are tone deaf and missing the point. Advertising that you are selling something at a discount is information that your price might be lower than a competitor. Nobody likes getting a discount at store A then seeing the same item for l…

I think expecting a seller to make sure they have the lowest price compared to other sellers is ridiculous.

It’s not a seller’s job to make sure the buyer is getting the lowest price. It’s not possible for a seller to know every single other seller’s price so I don’t see how anyone has a reasonable expectation to that in the first place.

People like to THINK they are getting a discount. They don’t care that the actually are. Clear evidence is JCPenney trying to offer people the best price without discounts:

https://www.priceintelligently.com/blog/bid/152018/lessons-f...

It’s how Kohl’s and Bed Bath And Beyond survive. Consumers rewarded sellers that offer 80% off ridiculously marked up items versus JC Penney who tried to offer an “honest” market price, and they forced JC Penney to engage in “deceptive” sale pricing again.

Re: How e-commerce sites manipulate people into buying things

#53

Post by Doubl »

SmirkingRevenge wrote: post #23
vmurthy wrote: post #6

An 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…

Years ago in the UK, the prices were commonly, say, £9 19s 11d instead of £10, that is a discount of 1/240 of a pound

Re: How e-commerce sites manipulate people into buying things

#54

Post by RandomInteger4 »

djflutt3rshy wrote: post #21

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.

Those statements say nothing about the product they're selling to you.

Re: How e-commerce sites manipulate people into buying things

#55

Post by justaguyhere »

2T1Qka0rEiPr wrote: post #18

> 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".

In the US, businesses try to get you to sign contracts even when it makes zero sense. For example, why do I need to sign a contract for a gym? I pay X dollars for a month, and use it for that month. If I want to use it next month, then I pay X dollars again. Makes sense (this is how it is, at least in the countries I have been), right? Nope. I made the mistake of signing up for NYSC, imagine my surprise when I wanted to cancel (because I was moving away) and I got calls non stop for $250 "cancellation fee"? My fault for not reading the fine print, lesson learned.

Re: How e-commerce sites manipulate people into buying things

#56

Post by mcv »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #39
mcv wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to get technical about it, the value is determined by the market, by the forces of supply and demand. Advertising with a fake discount suggests that the market was willing to pay more for the product than it actually was. Most products are actually sold with a one size fits all price. People don't haggle over every single item they buy in a shop.

The market does not pay for anything. Individual buyers pay for things, and individual buyers and sellers determine the value of items, at a certain place, at a certain time. Most everyday items are sold “one size fits all” (but not in large quantities) in developed countries (since the seller's time is valuable enough to offset the extra revenue (or loss) from price discrimination), but there are quite a few places…

Do we really need to deconstruct all of economics here? The market consists of those individual buyers and sellers. But they set the value together. No single buyer can set the value of the items they want to buy in the supermarket. They buy them or they don't buy them. In response to that, the seller adjusts the price. If not enough people buy it, the seller lowers the price, if he runs out too fast, he raises the price. That is "the market" determining the price in a free market.

So if a potential buyer sees something 70% discounted, that implies that originally, the market determined that higher price as a fair price: a price that at least some buyers would pay for this item. The buyer trusts the market that that is apparently a fair price, but today the buyer is in luck, because it's been discounted to below the usual market price!

If the seller advertises with a fake discount, he's betraying the buyer's trust in the free market by intentionally lying about what the market is willing to pay for this item.

Re: How e-commerce sites manipulate people into buying things

#57

Post by readbeard »

Not just e-commerce sites—change.org shows "### have signed," where the number is programmed to tick upwards at a somewhat randomized rate. This is simply dishonest—a lie designed to make you feel like you'll be missing out unless you sign.

Example: https://www.change.org/p/target-stop-filling-the-world-with-...

Re: How e-commerce sites manipulate people into buying things

#58

Post by i_am_nomad »

RandomInteger4 wrote: post #52

There goes that nasty evil capitalism, "It wasn't my lack of will power and cognitive short falls that caused me to buy these things ... it was capitalism's fault. I'm completely innocent and would never make bad decisions of my own accord ..."

That is somewhat unfair. Most of the time, it’s a naive consumer on one side, and an army of UI experts and behavioral scientists on the other. That consumer is hopelessly outmatched, and the company will absolutely find a way to hack his or her psychology.

Re: How e-commerce sites manipulate people into buying things

#59

Post by mrhappyunhappy »

draugadrotten wrote: post #8
vmurthy wrote: post #6

An 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...

Udemy business model, fake 90% discounts https://www.google.com/search?q=udemy+discount

I was just thinking about this. Also their deals “end” within x hours. The number of sites doing dark patterns is disturbing and the way marketing professionals openly brag about manipulating people is disgusting. People are so wrapped up around the masters finger that they convince themselves their work is meaningful. Sorry, but we are all just cogs in the misery machine.

Re: How e-commerce sites manipulate people into buying things

#60

Post by mrhappyunhappy »

i_am_nomad wrote: post #58
RandomInteger4 wrote: post #52

There goes that nasty evil capitalism, "It wasn't my lack of will power and cognitive short falls that caused me to buy these things ... it was capitalism's fault. I'm completely innocent and would never make bad decisions of my own accord ..."

That is somewhat unfair. Most of the time, it’s a naive consumer on one side, and an army of UI experts and behavioral scientists on the other. That consumer is hopelessly outmatched, and the company will absolutely find a way to hack his or her psychology.

Yep. I read behavioral studies by scientists so I can use this info to manipulate others. This is my job and I am good at it or I wouldn’t be doing it. There are hundreds of behavioral tricks to make people buy. Even when one is aware of them. It’s funny when people say sales don’t work on them. Those are EXACTLY the people sales work best on.
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