They advertise coupons that won’t save you money
This is a tip that you probably guessed a long time ago. Some retailers out there (wink, wink) use this strategy: they raise the price of a product right before releasing a magical coupon to the general public. In reality, this cheap trick makes the coupon completely useless.
For instance, a storewide sale might give you the same discount as a coupon would when the prices are higher. Some of your favorite retailers, like Eddie Bauer, Ann Taylor, Gap, and American Eagle, use this technique. If you still want to shop there and you have a coupon, make sure you use it.
Otherwise, there’s no deal for you. But wait, there’s more! There’s also the “high-low” pricing trick when retailers with high prices decide to suddenly lower their prices, and you can access these discounts only with their coupons.
The reality is completely different: they are fully aware of the fact that they won’t sell too much at full retail, so they give consumers the feeling that they stumbled upon a wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime-chance kind of deal.
They use a decoy pricing scheme
If you ever shopped for running shoes, then you know that they deliberately display the more expensive models right in the front. Do you know why? Just imagine: how did you feel finding a pair of running shoes that were much cheaper than what you’d seen on display?
You feel really lucky, as if that pair was meant to be yours. In reality, it’s their strategy to make you feel this way: they put on display some of their most expensive products so you can impulse shop for that running pair you found at a better price.
Most of these stores are fully aware that they won’t sell those expensive pairs, and it doesn’t even matter; what matters are the cheaper products that you usually lay your eyes on.
If you’re glad you found so many insights on retail strategies, then we have more for you! Try this, too: 6 Money Saving Tricks for Amazon Shoppers
