"Fear of missing out" or FOMO as it's commonly known is a powerful conversion technique to be used in eCommerce and one used with great success of by the world's youngest billionaire, Kylie Jenner. Whilst we're not all able to leverage a staggering 129 million followers on Instagram, there are a number of lessons we can learn from her website, not least the brilliantly executed FOMO techniques which I'll explore below.
Website visitors may or may not believe an item may sell out, but showing a "back in stock" label on chosen products certainly reenforces the message that the item has been unavailable previously and that, unless purchasing soon, they might miss out.
This is not something I've seen on other eCommerce sites, but it ties in brilliantly with the rest of the site messaging. Nothing says these items are in demand more, than the fact they'd sold out previously.
Instead of choosing to hide out of stock products from categories and search results, the site deliberately lists out of stock products, both in categories and as related items on product pages. In doing so this re-enforces the possibility that items fly off the shelves, leave it too long as the item won't be yours. They have a really clear "Sold Out" message so there's no ambiguity about their availability.
A large typeface really drives home the message here - sign up for the newsletter so you don't miss out. No discount, no freebies, just the reassurance you can get the product before someone else does.
Whilst it would be unlikely that most eCommerce sites would be able to replicate all of these techniques, I think we should all admire the execution of great FOMO sales messaging from social media through to the site.
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