Decision Making by Comparison and The Power of FREE
Today I and my family went to Johor Bahru, Malaysia. We wanted to have a buffet lunch at a Korean Restaurant. The same restaurant chain in Singapore would cost at least 2–3 times the price. It’s relatively cheap. We say it’s relatively cheap, because we compared it to the same service that would’ve cost us more. And this was where the challenge came. My son saw a t-shirt at one of the store, it costs $65 in Singapore, and it costs ‘only’ $45 in Johor Bahru. He started to persuade me to buy him the t-shirt. When the staff told him that if he buys another t-shirt, he would get another one for FREE, it was getting worse. He couldn’t resist the urge to get the offer. Imagine: cheaper price and FREE stuff! In the end, he got the t-shirts.
Lessons learned:
- Help users in making a decision by providing comparison. Don’t just show one option, but don’t overwhelm users with so many options. Usually 3 is the magic number.
- Find a way to use FREE in your offer. Instead of saying ‘Buy 2 get 50% discount,” you should use “Buy 1 get 1 FREE”.
- Always put extra budget when you’re visiting a relatively cheaper place.
