August 5th, 2023
One of the ways in which you can convince customers to commit to a purchase is by suggesting that the offer won't be around for long.
Using urgency to push decisions for those teetering on the edge can be highly effective. But how far should you go in tempting customers to buy?
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It’s The Last Chance To Buy!
It’s common place to see Last Chance to Buy rails in fashion stores, holding current season stock from the brand or independents. These rails promote the idea, but rarely explicitly say it, that these items will shortly no longer be available. You can also find these sections online on ecommerce fashion sites, separate to the sale or outlet sections.
Using Last Chance to Buy as a marketing tactic is often disingenuous. For one, with so many collections now in the fast fashion industry, rarely is it ever the last chance. Gone are the days when there were only 2 collections per year (Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter), many brands now have a different collection each week.
In reality, many of the garments promoted as Last Chance to Buy are in fact items which are being moved off the shop floor to the stock room or taken temporarily off-line. They more than likely then reappear at a discounted price in the next Sale. This is often known and planned into the retail strategy. As a last chance to secure maximum profit, they continue to appear at full retail price, with an urgent headline – just to squeeze that bit more out of customers’ pockets.
Don’t Miss Out! FOMO.
Last Chance to Buy is clear Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) and a common tactic to prompt a buyer who may be teetering on the edge of a purchase. It promotes the idea that to not take action means missing out on something – usually a sense of belonging. Being within an ‘elite’ group or status of people who hold the coveted item.
From an ethical point of view, promoting urgency through Last Chance To Buy can be a little dubious. It creates a false sense of urgency.
Unless it really is the last opportunity to purchase and there is a benefit beyond the garment that will be missed, its essentially a poor psychological tactic used by marketers. It’s a cheeky way of getting someone to buy something at full price that they may have not really been sure about.
Avoiding Pain vs Gaining Pleasure. Desire and Need.
The reason that Last Chance to Buy and FOMO work so well in advertising comes down to the fact that scientifically, we are programmed to act for two reasons – to avoid pain or to gain pleasure. We are also far more likely to take immediate action to avoid pain then to gain pleasure, it’s just the way our instincts are wired. This is where creating urgency can be very effective.
When a garment is presented with the premise that without it there will be harm, the idea of need is established. The desire to own the item and all the thoughts that go with that desire (weighing up their budget, current wardrobe, where will I wear it vs. I love it, it will make me look and feel amazing) are then transformed into need.
Fulfilling a need (such as avoiding pain) then becomes a thought to act upon far more quickly and urgently than a desire to mull over. Presenting clothes with the headline ‘Last Chance to Buy’ pushes those customers who want the item, to thinking that they need it. They believe it really is the last chance.
This Would Look Better On You Than In Landfill. Hurry!
In the fast fashion industry, Last Chance to Buy is a poor tactic. More often than not, items are repeated for sale with designs adapted and re-sold, to keep up with the constant demand to produce thousands of new garments each week or month. Fast fashion, despite not being sustainably circular, is circular in trends and design. You can find the same black jacket as a repurposed design just with a slight alteration, sold again at full price within a few months with the same brand. Tops, dresses and shoes are rarely never seen again. A current example are cargo trousers, which have been doing a continuous round almost every year since the 90s, but with the slightest of alterations.
Items on the Last Chance to Buy rail at full price often also make it into the store sale in time. Store and online sales, of which were once something which was usually only twice a year to sell-off past season, are also now a regular occurrence so the customer usually does not have to wait very long. The sheer volume of stock means that storage becomes an issue and sales happen frequently to clear space.
Of course, when the sale still doesn’t occur, there is usually only one place the unsold clothing ends up: landfill. Perhaps it would be more honest to promote lines with ‘If you don’t buy this now, we will dump it in a desert’ but unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any brands honest and bold enough to use that tactic yet.
Better Copy - Longevity and Impact
For sustainable and purpose-driven brands who wish to break away from the traditional fast fashion and retail behaviour, creating urgency to drive sales can be done more ethically and honestly through sustainable marketing.
If you are pivoting your brand and growing to operate more sustainably, it is essential that as well as your manufacture and logistics, you also look at your advertising approach.
Instead of Last Chance to Buy, consider hooking in your customers through benefits and impact.
Selling a limited stock range at full price is fine but there should be other ways to convince customers to purchase beyond what is sometimes a blatant lie.
4 More Ethical Ad Tactics That Avoid False Urgency:
Promoting limited stock by justifying the full retail price. Share that the reasons the items are so popular is due to the quality and share those great reviews. Explain that you have limited stock remaining from the run due to demand and success and keep track of customers who wish to be notified when it is back in stock (which is almost certainly will be if its popular).
Using external and independent reviews to strengthen your case for great design and quality. If your items are made well, they will last. Garments which are manufactured professionally can last several years as wardrobe staples so are worth the higher price point. Avoid fast fashion trends which are flash in the pan and go for classic, timeless style.
Developing community benefit. Purpose-driven brands with charitable aims can benefit well from this approach by creating urgency for others. If purchase of your garments fund meals for children or schooling, this is a very real reason to create urgency for purchase. The FOMO then is transferred to an exterior personal benefit with the customer’s desire fulfilling a need of another.
Avoiding excess stock all together. Consider switching to a zero-waste line which manufactures garments only once orders have been placed and which build FOMO on a sense of community and purpose. Unfolded do this really well, producing limited lines only at the point of sale and funding education for children in need, all at affordable prices.
It rarely ever is the Last Chance to Buy so avoid using this approach when marketing your items whether in store or online. It will only attract fickle customers who are easily swayed by your competitors’ similar approach. It is also damaging to the ethics of your brand when it doesn’t ring true.
There are other ways to coax customers to buy that maintain your profit and your purpose – they simply require disrupting the usual fashion marketing techniques by being more sustainable.
As with most truly effective advertising, when you back your copy with strategy and values, you will see your brand flourish with long-term, repeat sales and a loyal community of customers.
What are your thoughts? Drop us a line at hello@goodwordsocial.com or check out the Options page for some of the ways we can tackle this together.