There are various psychological triggers you can use to increase sales in your Shopify store. One of the most important is URGENCY. In this article, we will discuss what URGENCY means in marketing, how it affects people’s decision-making, and what you can do to use this effect in your Shopify store.
To understand the concept of urgency, we first need to look more closely at the decision-making process. Suppose you have a Shopify store and out of every 100 visitors, only 2 make a purchase.
If we think of this as an offer, you offered 100 people a chance to buy your products. Only 2 accepted the offer and made a purchase.
Looking at the remaining 98 people, their answer to your offer is definitely NO. They do not want to buy your product at all. However, among these, some—between 19% and 28% depending on research—do not say yes or no. They just think, “I’ll look later.” This is where the concept of urgency comes in.
Especially if you are not selling a product that people urgently need, your biggest competitor is not other stores selling similar products. Your biggest competitor is your customer delaying their purchase decision.
Table of Contents
Urgency marketing gives your customers a reason to decide right away, instead of postponing the decision. This way, you can convert some visitors—who would normally leave your store planning to buy later—into customers now.
The Psychological Foundations of Urgency
Fear of missing out (FOMO) is a very important concept in psychology. There are hundreds of studies about this topic. The most recent one was published on December 8, 2024.
New Psychology Research on FOMO
Many times, fear of missing out meant missing fun, friends, or falling behind peers.
But as the latest research shows, FOMO is no longer limited to friends, fun, or peers.
Today, we also experience FOMO about important opportunities. So, what is the real source of this fear?
Loss Aversion Theory
Hundreds of studies have shown that people react much more strongly to avoiding a loss than to gaining a benefit.
One of the most important sources that trigger FOMO is the fear of loss.
Imagine I gave you $100 today. I tell you that if you don’t decide and spend it today, tomorrow I will take $4 from you. You would then have $96 left, and this will continue every day.
Normally, instead of thinking about the best way to spend $100, just knowing that you will lose $4 might make you decide instantly and spend your money right away.
This desire to avoid loss is one of the most effective ways to stop people from postponing their decision, as mentioned at the beginning.
How to Use Urgency in Shopify
Let’s think about visitors to your Shopify store. You are selling a very nice t-shirt or skirt. You took great photos and ran campaigns on Instagram and TikTok. People saw your products, became interested, and visited your store.
A store visit is an important conversion. No one wants to leave Instagram or TikTok to go to another site, right? If someone clicks your ad and visits your store, they are definitely interested in your products.
Now imagine they looked at your products and really liked them. But they do not urgently need the t-shirt; they just liked it.
In this case, the chance that your visitor will say, “It’s a nice product, but I’ll check it later,” is quite high.
At this point, you need to find a way to create URGENCY for this visitor. Here are two effective methods:
1.We Have a Special Offer Just for You:
When the visitor is most interested in the product, offer them a time-limited discount. For example, tell them that if they buy the product they like within 20 minutes, they will pay $10 less. This means if they don’t purchase within 20 minutes, they will have to pay $10 more. This creates loss aversion, which is very effective. It gives your visitor a real reason to buy immediately instead of saying, “I will buy later.”
2.Only 5 Items Left in Stock:
Another way to create urgency is to remind the visitor that the product is in limited supply. Tell them that if they do not purchase soon, the items may run out and they won’t be able to buy it again for a while. This gives them a reason to decide now rather than later.
Common Pitfalls & How to Avoid Them
Creating urgency touches on people’s most basic emotions, making it a very effective marketing tactic. However, to succeed in these campaigns, you must be careful of common mistakes.
The biggest mistake is lying to your visitors.
Lying is a serious issue. Unfortunately, many Shopify stores try to create urgency by using fake timers, countdowns, and false stock information.
In a study of 100 women who shopped online in the US in the last 3 months, we found that consumers are now very skeptical of the urgency elements they see in many stores. This skepticism is understandable. Endless “Low Stock Alerts” and countdowns that reset with every visit make them feel bad. They do not want to shop at stores that use such tactics.
If you want to use urgency effectively in your marketing, create urgency without lying.
•If you show low stock information, make sure it is real.
•If you say, “I’m giving you a special discount,” then truly give that discount to that person at that moment.
Meet the Most Effective Way to Offer Time-Limited Discounts on Your Shopify Store
We designed Growth Suite for stores that want to create urgency on Shopify without lying and while protecting their brand.
Growth Suite tracks and analyzes each visitor individually. When their interest in your products is highest, it makes a discount offer based on their buying behavior.
It places a timer on your store that all visitors can easily see. This timer works perfectly accurately on all pages, with no differences or errors.
It adds a campaign box to product pages. In the campaign box, the visitor can see how beneficial the campaign is for the product and how long the offer lasts.
A one-time use discount code is created just for that visitor and added to their cart.
Up to this point, you have given your visitor a great experience. But it doesn’t stop there. Growth Suite also creates a great experience for your store.
When the time for the visitor ends, Growth Suite deletes the discount code, making it invalid. If the same visitor returns during the cooldown period you set, they will not receive another offer.
Conclusion
Users who do not shop from your Shopify store don’t leave just because they don’t like your products or brand.
One of the main reasons they leave is postponing their purchase decision.
This is where urgency helps you. If you create urgency for your visitors without lying, you give them a strong reason to decide right then.
On your Shopify store, you need to make an offer that people will not want to miss. The most common and effective solutions are low stock alerts and time-limited discount codes.
Since you should not lie when creating urgency, the method most often and correctly used is time-limited discount codes.
When offering a time-limited discount code, if you want to benefit from these offers without harming your brand, check out the Growth Suite app on the Shopify App Store. Growth Suite lets you set up time-limited discounts on your store without harming your brand, and without a single line of code or theme changes.
Don’t forget to check out the following articles to increase your sales on Shopify and to use discount codes effectively.
Shopify Time Limited Offer Guide
Mastering Percentage Discounts in Shopify for Maximum Impact
Fixed Amount Discounts on Shopify: When and How to Use Them Effectively
Leave a Reply