Shopping online on Black Friday? Watch out for these 4 tricks you might not know retailers use to make you spend more
Millions of Americans will shop online this Black Friday weekend. Watch out for these 5 tricks retailers use, or you might spend more than you need to.
Once the Thanksgiving turkey has been shared, one of the biggest shopping weekends of the year begins: Black Friday weekend. According to an estimate from the National Retail Federation (NRF), 183.4 million people plan to shop between now and the end of the weekend.
As one of the most significant times of the year for retailers, major stores roll out deals and discounts to attract shoppers. But price cuts aren’t the only tools they use. There are several other tactics designed to get consumers to spend more than they originally intended.
The U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), a consumer advocacy organization, has released a statement highlighting tricks that retailers use to encourage shoppers to spend more than planned. Here are some of them.
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Tricks with product pricing
Retailers have many ways to manipulate shoppers' perceptions of prices. The most classic tactics include rounding down to create the illusion of lower prices ($4.99 instead of $5) or removing commas in large figures ($1600 looks less intimidating than $1,600). These are old tricks, but they’re still widely used today.
Another common strategy is inflating the original price of a product to make the discount look bigger. Last year, Consumer Checkbook investigated 24 major retailers and found that, “most stores’ sale prices—even those that advertise big savings—are bogus discounts, with retailers offering the same ‘sale price’ more than half the time.”
Creating a false sense of urgency
Limited-time offers have been around for a long time. In addition, new shopping periods like Black Friday or Cyber Monday reinforce the idea that consumers not only need to buy a product but must do so quickly.
With online shopping, many retailers have added countdown timers next to their deals. According to a study by PIRG, some of these timers are meaningless. The deal remains available even when the timer hits zero, simply resetting to maintain the same price. In some cases, PIRG even found examples where the price dropped further once the timer expired.
Making products seem scarce
Similar to time-limited deals, the perception that a product is running out can make shoppers act faster. In physical stores, you can see how many items are left on the shelf (although what’s in the stockroom remains a mystery).
With online shopping, there’s no way to know the actual stock level. Messages like “Only 5 left in stock—order now” or “Sold 50 times in the last 24 hours” can create urgency, but often these claims are exaggerated or false.
Questionable customer reviews
When shopping online, reading customer reviews is a good way to evaluate a product. While this is a smart practice, shoppers should be cautious. According to PIRG, many brands pay for fake positive reviews or post fraudulent ones themselves.
When looking at reviews, it’s wise to focus on those that seem authentic—reviews with photos of the product or detailed descriptions of its specific features. Be wary of overly generic comments like “Fantastic product!” or “Love it!” which may be fake.
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*This article was written in Spanish and translated with the help of AI.
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