Online stores know them all. They are the first interested in that you spend more money on your order, and they use all kinds of strategies so that you do it without realizing it.

It sure has happened to you on more than one occasion. You go to buy some batteries from Amazon and end up with a micro SD card, some socks and orange juice in the cart. Alternatively, you have gone to buy a cheap drone on AliExpress, they have given you discount coupons and in the end you also have an activity bracelet, and a Xiaomi heated jacket. Do not feel guilty (or yes …): you have fallen under the influence of online store marketing.

Like all businesses, online stores also use a series of psychological traps to make you spend more money. Some are similar to physical stores, but others take advantage of the peculiarities of online stores.

Let us look at the marketing tricks online stores kanye west wyoming merch use to get us to put more things in the bandwagon than we had planned when we entered the web. They will help you not overspend on key appointments with Amazon Prime Day, sales, or Black Friday.

One of the tricks most used by online stores to attract sales and customers are coupons. The stores offer us discount coupons under certain conditions that seem like a bargain to us. However, the marketing department has already studied to the millimeter the discount offered by these coupons and under what conditions, so that it compensates them. It is the fair amount that they will cover, with benefits,  with the sales that they will attract.

One of the stores that uses the most coupons is AliExpress. It offers direct discount coupons of 1 or 2 € and also coupons for buying, or if you spend a certain amount of money.

It usually offers many coupons, but in small amounts. It may seem like a bargain to you because it also sells very cheap products that are almost free with the coupon, but its goal is that when you go to buy that product for almost free, you will see many others, and buy some more. That is why on the product page or when you go to pay, dozens of related or very popular articles appear on the edges of the screen. Surely, you have bitten more than once…

Only two products left in stock

Almost all stores already indicate the number of units in stock of each product, on their file.

It seems like a favor done to the client, but it is just the opposite. When we see that, there are only one or 2 left on offer, anxiety enters us, what in marketing is called FOMO (Fear of Loss if we do nothing). If we do not buy it, we run out of it, so we feel the urge to buy it, before it runs out.

The old free shipping trick

It seems like an eternity ago, but just eight years ago, any order you made to an online store had shipping costs of between 3 and 12 euros. This was so because the stores of the time were specialized in a few products, and it did not compensate them to send cheaper, or free.

Then Amazon came along, offering free shipping for a subscription that barely cost € 20 a year. The amount of three or four orders in any other store like Travis Scott Merch.

Like AliExpress with coupons, when you enter Amazon there are so many products that appear while you buy, that there is a good chance that you will buy something more than you had planned.

We are always in a rush, so the one-click purchase option seems like a favor from the store. We have already entered our data and payment method, so we will only have to press a button to buy instantly.

It is a double-edged sword. The fact that it is so easy to pay makes us buy more than necessary, including whims and compulsive purchases.

By Leonel Thompson

Anna Thompson: Anna, a former fashion editor, offers readers a curated look into the world of high fashion. Her blog features runway analysis, designer profiles, and style tips.