What is "fake scarcity?"

The fact that three weeks later the same "last 9 copies" are still remaining (even though you bought one of them yourself and know someone else who did the same).

I won't become an affiliate for a Clickbank product whose sales page announces that "only 9 copies are left" (and surprisingly many do) because ... call me a skepchick ... I assume that the vendor's a liar.

Yes, absolutely.

And if Steven Wagenheim announces (as he sometimes does) that he's selling 20/30 copies only of a WSO, then he's selling 20/30 copies only. But that's because I know him, and I know he's not a liar.

Yes. You do have a right to do that.

The fake part comes in when you actually do continue to sell past the point you said you where going to stop because supply is gone or time limit is gone.

Its like those scam websites with a timer on it saying 'this discount is only available until 9pm tonight'. You go to the site the next day and the message has auto generated the same text again...

Personally i dont believe that setting a limit to create scarcity is 'fake'. I could be wrong. As long as you keep to that limit. If you say you only have 100 units to sell, then only sell 100 units.

As Alexa says, it's hyping your limited remaining copies dishonestly.

If you're going to take as many orders as arrive, don't claim there's only 2 left.

The worst examples of recent time are found in the clickbank marketplace.

Salespage says limited to 300 customers, but the JV pages talks about the bonus a single affiliate could get for selling 500 copies. Basically fake scarcity is just under pressure tactics to try and close the sale.

It's the same as carsalesmen who tell you a discount won't apply next month to make you buy today something that you don't need.

This is one of those subjective words that can have a myriad of meanings, especially depending on the context that it's used in (hey, waitaminute, I think that's most of our language! ).

To me, "fake scarcity", is anytime a marketer promises that they will only sell 500 or 1,000 or whatever copies. The reason that is usually cited is that they don't want too many to have their "information". Usually I find that reason disingenuous.

Of course business people have the right to limit whatever they want, it's a somewhat free market society, and yes, I'll go so far as to say they have a right to change their mind, but just because you CAN do something doesn't make it right. To me it's about INTENT, which is nearly impossible to prove (unless you catch them in an outright lie or contradiction, which I have done on more than one occasion).

There was a WSO a year and a half ago where the seller swore they would not sell anymore PLR rights to their infoproduct. Then a few days later, they began selling more PLR rights to their infoproduct which directly went against their sales copy and the comments made within the WSO thread. To me that's "fake scarcity". In reality, it's just outright lying.

I'm only in evergreen niches, so I might use scarcity when it comes to price, but have yet to do it with any of the products that we offer. The one exception was discontinuing a very specific infoproduct.

RoD

There are two kinds of "fake scarcity."

There is FALSE scarcity: "I said I would only sell fifty of them, but I actually sold several hundred." This is essentially lying, fraud, and all those other unethical things.

Then there is ARTIFICIAL scarcity: "I have several hundred of these, but I am only selling fifty of them." This is a perfectly legitimate business decision which drives a higher perceived value.

The problem is that most people don't understand the difference between these two things.

A lot of people complain that artificial scarcity is a lie, too, because you COULD sell several hundred. And that's as may be, but it's not unethical until you DO sell several hundred after you SAID you'd only sell fifty. If you honour your word and do what you said you would do, nobody has any bitch coming. Just because you have it does not mean you MUST sell it.

It's quite funny sometimes.

Occasionally I search through some WSO and manage to find a title such as this:

"Make x,xxx in xx days - HURRY - IT ENDS ON FEBRUARY 7TH"

....7 days later, it's still running strong.

In my opinion, if someone doesn't stick to their plan... They won't be taken seriously with future products they may launch.

Someone making some personal claims there Ron? LOL

Here is the way I look at two different types of a "deadline" in copy writing...

There is "scarcity" where you limit a number of quantity... and "urgency" where you limit the time they have to order.

If you sell over the amount of product you said you would OR sell past a deadline ("next 24 hours only") than this is obviously fake and you wont get away with it when selling to an internet marketing crowed...

Now there is an ethical way to do both and that is simply by eliminating any specifics such as date and quantity.

For example you can say:

"Because I don't want this powerful information to become diluted over time and want you to have the same impact in your business as it has had with mine, I'm going to eventually close the doors and take this product off the market forever...

Invest today because this product could be taken off the market at any time... If you don't invest today and i take this product off the market tomorrow, you're out of luck and don't say I didn't warn you"

Thats a quick unpolished example of the copy i might use to keep thing legit and ethical.

Fake scarcity is when a product that isn't really limited, e.g. an ebook or software license is shown as only 50 copies left.

Yes - The vendor has a right to do this.

If he lies and sells 1000 copies when he says only 50 this in unethical.

Especially if it is a product where that scarcity matters. E.g. a special money making technique that will fail if too many people know it.

Ron,

My definition is pretty much what Caliban described. But, obviously, the scarcity tactic only works if the buyer believes the vendor. The fact that so many MMO sales pages (especially those on Clickbank) are clearly misleading in that respect, encourages a general skepticism of all such claims, legitimate or otherwise.

dawnday,

This 'damaged goods' ploy is well known in certain physical products markets. I remember once talking with an employee whose task it was to 'batter' the boxes a little before dispatch. :rolleyes:

Hi Roger,

Must admit, I've had to fake one or two. Just out of chivalry, you understand...


Frank

That should be fairly obvious. Buying one of ONLY 50 is more valuable than buying one of INFINITE quantity. If I'm paying for exclusivity and not getting that, then it is fraud. Plain and simple.

I think what they mean by when they say "fake scarcity?" is when they say that the offer is limited but they keep selling the product they say it was limited to only a certain number of copies but sell it at that price indefinitely.

Thus creating fake scarcity and making the person think that the price is going up when it really isn't. That is what I think it is but I could be wrong..

Jay


:O)

I use fake scarcity all of the time on eBay. My old method was to list all of my inventory up, say 100 of something, and if you have more than 10 of something on eBay it shows up as "More than 10" ( so, eBay uses scarcity themselves ) so people would go back and look for things selling as an auction but sometimes would end up spending more money.

So, what I started doing was only listing 3 items, when 2 would sell, I would edit the inventory to 3 again. This kept scarcity, and to make it a little better, eBay has a section that says "26 Sold" - so people really felt like they were going to be missing out on a deal if they didn't buy soon. This takes a lot of effort, because if you list 3, and then all 3 sell, then you have to start a new listing and you lose the "26 Sold" part. Totally worth it though.

I myself am so tired of seeing this concept overdone. Every single sales page or WSO seems to use this technique. I think people use it as it is supposed to be a sales method that converts lookers to buyers. I think it is really annoying myself.

Because I don't want to associate myself professionally with a liar.

Which means ad swaps, media buys, affiliate promotions, JVs, guest spots, interviews, and various other things are out of the question.

Every two weeks I get limited-time 25% off coupons in the mail from Macy's department store. When you go into the store a couple of days after the coupon expiration date, they usually still honor the coupon.

Would you consider that fake scarcity?

If you look at it, they could easily give you the reduced price everyday of the week because they send out the same coupons again each time the previous ones expire. And their deadlines and reasons given are not really believable.

I know it's all a marketing ploy. However, when I get my coupons I'm still happy to use them.

I also believe that fake scarcity can happen with time limits.

I bought a WSO once because it said "24 Hours Left, Never to Be Opened Again". 1 week later, it was back open with a new headline. I felt ashamed to have left the guy a review and wanted to call him out as a liar.

I also love the countdown timers that start at 59:59 when the page opens. I always exit immediately without reading the sales page.

That was about 8 months ago and this same WSO is running on a weekly basis.

Real scarcity is when you just can't get more than a fixed number. If you hold a dozen copies of an original book printed in 1923, and there are only a few hundred copies known to exist, that's one level of scarcity. Holding one of the only three or four copies of something known to exist is an even higher level of scarcity.

However, claiming you only have "9 copies left" of an ebook (which obviously has unlimited number of cownloadable copies if you wish) is at least pushing the limit of what shoudl be called "fake" scarcity. If, a week later, there are still "9 copies left" then it's obviously fake, unless you only had 10 copies to begin with and there haven't been any real sales...

Fake scarcity is merely a marketing technique that is used to get the gullible to purchase today, and not wait for later. "Gee, there are only 9 left, I better buy now, there might not be any left tomorrow" is what the seller is wanting the potential buyer to say. Given the typical high hype product launch these days, I'd personally be really surprised if the seller cut off a product at a thousand or even ten thousand sales. You just can't make a half million dollars on a product launch if you don't have nearly unlimited number of copies to sell...

The whole issue of (rather) misleading marketing statements is (unfortunately) looked at by many vendors as a "game" where the goal is to sell as many units as possible, no matter what techniques are required. Blind advertising, false promises and fake scarcity are all fair game to these folks. It casts a blight on all of us, and until it changes we are all painted with the same brush, unless we can prove otherwise.

To answer your second question, yes, the vendor DOES have the right to limit quantities for any reason. Two viable reasons in my mind are: 1) limits to keep customer service at a sustainable and responsive level. 2) to maintain a price point (not dilute the price because of unlimited supply). Both of these only work if the vendor actually does limit the sales. As above, saying there are only a few left (or only 300 total) and finding out later that ther are still the same number available (or they are offering bonuses for affiliates that exceed reasonable portions of the total) essentially void the premise that is is a limited quantity.

Fake scarcity could be related to "numbers" - "Only 300 will be sold - ever" (and then 600 or 6,000 are sold) or "This ends ABSOLUTELY on ___" (and then doesn't)

Fake scarcity could be related to "product" - "We have only 300 copies in our inventory"... for a DIGITAL EBOOK! :lol:

Fake scarcity cold be related to "reason why" - "I have to raise $X in Y days"

Fake scarcity could be related to "process" - "Because each copy takes so much effort to create, we can only sell..."

And some more I could come up with if I thought for a while.

Interestingly enough, all of these could be reasons for TRUE scarcity.

What makes it 'fake' is when, well, umm... they ARE

All success
Dr.Mani

Hi Ron,

It only becomes fake when you DON'T do as you promised. If you only intend to sell 500 units of a product, sell only 500 of those. If you intend to stop selling on a given schedule do it. When your customers understand that you mean business with your schedules, they'll know that when you make an offer the next time it's FOR REAL and they'll understand why they need to take the opportunity.

Too many marketers with bad ethics muddle this industry, those that have stayed long and at the top were those who did business with integrity. Take for example James Jones of Micro Niche Finder, when he makes an offer and he says he's gonna take it down, he does it and on schedule. No, I don't work for him but I do use MNF and I still do until now. I trust him because when he makes an offer I know he means it.

IM's with integrity, now that's REAL scarcity. Hope this helps.

Hey Ron,

You're a clever guy - are you seriously asking this for your own education? or just to get the issue discussed so others can learn?

You can look at the word 'fake' in several contexts.

Fake = If we're talking about digital products then there really is no actual 'real' limit on how many we can sell.

Therefore saying "only 10 available" can only be true if you've decided to only sell 10 and then refuse to sell any more.

There are reasons why that may make sense - but it's not 'normal'.

Then there's the timing element as you've indicated - maybe you've decided you want feedback on your product and therefore to boost short term sales to get that feedback you offer a time-limited price discount.

When it comes to pricing there are many aspects to consider. For example - in the UK (it may be the same in the US) it is illegal (yes - against the law) to say something is 'reduced' unless it was genuinely on sale for a higher price at a previous time. i.e you can't just release a product and say it's "on sale" and quote "reduced from $197 to only $37" if it was never offered at $197.

I see a lot of IMers doing this.

As someone already said - when you look at WSOs you often see these things stated and many are illegal or just plain lies.

I've run a few WSOs where I've said only 20 will be sold and literally refused to take orders (or refunded) people who tried to buy after that limit was sold. This isn't some cheap trick for me, I literally never sell that stuff again when I do that, so if I say it - I mean it.

There do seem to be a lot of people with the mindset of "you can say whatever you like to get the sale - that's marketing".

Even with digital products you can have real scarcity...

Using WSO Pro I set it up to sell
33 copies at $X
33 copies at $X+Y
33 copies at $X+Y+Y

(because it works like that: you can increase the price only after the same number of sales [33 in this case] and every time with the same amount [$Y])
After the 99 sales the WSO was over - you can buy it now at the full price which, btw, was online from the very beginning.

And yes, there was the sign: ONLY 12 copies left at this price. And it was true = not fake scarcity.

As far as I am concerned, fake scarcity is arbitrary. BESIDES, if you have 50000 rocks to sell, won't you want to sell every one? I mean they take up space! If you have 500 ebooks, eventually a buyer is likely to resell. USUALLY that is no big deal, but if it is using a limited resource, etc... it could mean the difference between something worth millions, and something worth nothing.

BTW clickbank, last I knew, had NO api controlling price or sale. And they charge BEFORE delivery. So the idea of limiting to 9 copies, etc... is just WRONG!

Steve

Using the "fake scarcity" method will catch up with everyone sooner or later. People will always come back to the person with the honest sales pitch.

Fake scarcity should be illegal, and anyone using such techniques needs to be sent to jail.

What makes it "fake" is that a lot of vendors keep on selling their product or service, even after they've reached their supposed ending point. That's why they call it fake scarcity, because if you say you will only sell 500 reports, then you really have to sell, just 500, not 2,000!!, LOL