One key way to get instant jewellery sales

August 29, 2009 by  
Filed under Articles

The fear of loss or losing out on something is a very powerful psychological tool. It is so powerful that some business models (and in particular some jewellery selling models) are based upon it.

Think about home shopping channels and their “one time only price” or their “today’s special value price..” The top selling product at QVC is jewellery and they use these techniques to sell lots of it.

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Psychologically it’s called the scarcity principle. Create scarcity with your products and the fear of loss kicks in and increases a product’s desirability. Psychologically we are programmed to associate things which are a rare commodity as being more valuable. So a flawed stamp or coins with a missing date, even though incomplete or not perfect, become collector’s items because they are not freely available.

To create jewellery that is desirable which can be sold for a higher price (and therefore a larger profit), you need to interject the scarcity principle into your jewellery range and sales.

Human beings are motivated by the thought of losing something, more that the thought of gaining something.

Limited Availability

As people are motivated more by the thought of loss than the thought of gain, many large organizations (like the home shopping channels) use the tactic to inform customers that an item is in short supply or has limited availability.

Here is an example few example of the principal in action.

You see a pair of shoes you  like in sale, they are not the best shoes you have ever seen but you think that they may go well with a new outfit that you have bought, and there is only one pair left in you size in the shop. You um and aah for a while and then you decide to buy them. As you are taking the shoes to the pay desk you find a sign which says that says the shop will only accept cash during the sale. You return the shoes to the shelf, and find an ATM machine and return to the shop just in time to see another shopper handing over cash to the sales assistant for “YOUR SHOES!”

Instantly you are hit with a pang of regret, if only you had made up your mind earlier and had not spent time procrastinating those shoes would have been yours. You feel a terrible sense of loss as you had decided to buy the shoes, emotionally you had already made a connection with the shoes and the outfit you were going to pair them with, and now someone else has them.

Within a few minutes, the shoes have gone from something that might work OK with an outfit at home, to the best shoes ever and you suffer a feeling of loss. That feeling remains with you for a good part of the day, and will return to haunt you every time you see something rare, in limited number or not freely available. Next time you see something you want that is limited in supply you make an instant decision not to miss out.

Everyone has a story like this somewhere in their history. It may not be shoes. It may be an opportunity that wasn’t’ taken and you regret not taking action. These little events reinforce the scarcity principle and make us take action next item we come up against something which is short supply that we may want.

So use this information to your advantage. Create a limited availability line, whether that is colour, or a certain type of bead or design. Make sure you reinforce the scarcity message to the customer and you will find that in the vast majority of cases they buy.
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