Costco’s Surprising Psychological Strategies

And how you can steal some of its secrets…

Source: Adobe Stock

What if I told you that the world’s third-largest retailer was a members-only bulk buy warehouse?

According to Deloitte’s 2021 Global Powers of Retailing report, Costco is the third-largest retailer in the world, behind only Walmart and Amazon. The brand brings in an incredible $152.7 billion every year.

That’s pretty impressive given how counter-intuitive Costco’s business model is:

• It charges people to shop.
• The store experience is best described as “bare bones.”
• Most products are sold in laughably large amounts.

So how did Costco become the world’s third-largest retailer? It’s partly down to the brand’s use of behavioral science and psychology through principles like Scarcity, Sunk Cost, Salience, and more.

Prefer to watch these insights? Check out the video here:

1. Scarcity: The psychology principle that powers…