NUDGES IN THE WILD: FARADAY SCIENCE SHOP
How many nudges can you fit onto one webpage?!
To answer this, I recommend checking out Faraday Science Shop. If there’s one website which I notice trying to nudge me more than any other, it’s this one.
Let me take you through a typical page…
Salience — Highlighting the ‘ sale’ and ‘ add to cart’ messages in bright green so they stand out visually.
Anchoring — Displaying the previous full price, crossed out, to make the current price seem like a bargain.
Risk and loss aversion — ‘ 100% satisfaction guarantee’, ‘ free worldwide shipping’ and ‘ 100% money-back guarantee’ all act to reassure us that this won’t be a bad decision and we won’t lose out even if we change our mind.
Scarcity bias — A salient countdown clock and a visual bar above it indicating the amount of time left (also appealing to our quick-thinking System 1). ‘ Hurry! Only 2 left in stock’ again helps to reinforce that this is about to sell out and we need to act now (the number also flashes red every time it decreases!)
Social proof — Every few seconds a pop-up appears in the corner, showing us a product another user has just purchased. There’s also the default pre-ticked option to share our purchase on Facebook, again helping to boost its social reach. And at the bottom of the page (not on the screenshot) it shows some 5* product reviews from other users.
Framing — ‘ Extremely high demand: allow 10–15 business days for it to arrive’ cleverly helps to turn a negative reality (the long wait for the item to be shipped from China) into a positive perception (‘I’m waiting because it’s such a popular product!’)
If that wasn’t enough this popup then appears, using a proximal, active, concrete description of behaviour to encourage action; leveraging scarcity bias to make the deal more motivating; and using choice architecture to make it more attractive (clicking ‘ No thanks, I don’t like getting free stuff’ creates clicking cognitive dissonance as everyone likes getting free stuff!)
I’d love to say that these nudges had no effect on me and that I could see right through them… But in reality the first time I saw this website I made sure I bought the item before the countdown got to zero. I was almost certain the countdown wasn’t real, but still ended up buying just in case it sold out or the deal ended (definite regret avoidance!)
Personally I love seeing all these little nudges being used, even on me. But for the general public, perhaps this is a nudge too far?
P.S. For those wondering what actually happens… The ‘number of items remaining’ decreases until it gets to 2, then stays on 2; and when the countdown finishes, it disappears and the rest of the page remains unchanged. No need to rush after all! [Disclaimer: It wasn’t the Apogee Moon Nightlight that I bought, although it does look lovely]
Written by: Jordan Buck, Consultant at Ogilvy Consulting Behavioural Science Practice
