Smart Inventory Strategy

Use the Scarcity Principle

What do we mean by that, and how does it apply to your Etsy shop?

The scarcity principle states that people value something more when it is scarce. Does 'Gold' ring a bell? Well, the same goes with other commodities, and your shop items are no different.

When you go to the mall and see a 'limited edition' pair of sneakers, you immediately feel it is more valuable than last years' mainstream sneakers. The same feeling arises when you go shopping for other products only to see that just one or two items are left and that almost the entire inventory was sold out.

Online retailers and in-store sales personnel make use of these tactics quite often. There are many other examples, but in short, the scarcity principle simplifies our decision-making process and pushes us towards making a purchase.

Etsy is well aware of this selling principle/tactics and have incorporated it into their system. How do they do that? Simple. When you offer a product where the quantity is set to '1' or '2', they show it to customers with the wording 'low in stock' or 'only 1 available'. In addition, sometimes they display a pop-up window showing that the item is soon to run out, or that the item is in other customers' shopping cart. This is a great tactic to persuade potential customers to make the buying decision!

As a shop owner on Etsy, you too, can make use of this principle. With SellerMarketingTool's inventory management tool, you can bulk-update all (or most of) your items to a quantity of 1. In conjunction, use the Renew Sold Items tool to set your items to renew when they are sold.

Using this strategy, you too can make use of the scarcity principle while ensuring that even when the item sell, our system will re-list it so it is still available for the next buyer to purchase.

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