This is urgent! Read this quick!

Adding urgency to your offers is a sensational way to improve conversions. Very few online retailers here in Australia use any form of urgency with their online offers.

There are some notable exceptions, Ruslan Kogan being one. Kogan uses a cool feature called “LivePrice” which puts quite a bit of urgency around the sale.

Here’s how they describe how it works:

LivePrice allows you to purchase a product while we are in the process of manufacturing or shipping. The price of the product gradually increases at a rate that depends on a number of key factors until we sell out, reach our expected dispatch date, or reach our everyday best value price. Customers who get in earliest will receive the best prices, so be quick!

Now, I’m not sure what the line “depends on a number of key factors” actually means, but with the price clock ticking higher every second, who cares?

You’d better just hurry up and buy the thing before it gets even more expensive!

Another really good homegrown example is Harris Scarfe, who offer a Deal of Week to push the urgency buttons really well.

Scarcity is another really important tactic. If visitors think they’re about to miss out on an item or a bargain, they tend to respond pretty quickly!

Harris Scarfe use all the urgency triggers – time, scarcity and exclusivity. I love all the messages, “Running Out!”, a countdown timer, exclusivity and all backed up with a seriously good deal to boot.

I might just go and buy one of those cookwear packs myself.

Harris Scarfe really do regularly sell out, so the backup email sign up Call To Action must come in very handy for building the email data base. The whole thing just feeds on itself.

Catch of the Day, Daily Deals and the rest all use these sorts of tactics to excellent effect.

Then there’s the group buying phenomenon.

Scoopon uses great visuals to encourage people to buy.

I really like the deal-a-rometer needle which encourages people to sign up en masse so they can all get the offer. There’s a heading which reads “Today’s Deal” which in itself creates urgency – I’m no rocket scientist, but I’m pretty sure the deal won’t be there tomorrow. Better get it now.

Of course, like Harris Scarfe, Scoopon also use the trusty timer to good effect.

If you can’t afford the bells and whistles, you can install really simple messages on your site like this:

It’s a matter of urgency that you get cracking and add more “urgency copy” to your website before your competitors do.

Be quick, time is running out.

For more Online Sales expert advice, click here.

Chris Thomas heads up Reseo, a search engine optimisation  company which specialises in creating and maintaining Google AdWords campaigns and Search Engine Optimisation campaigns for a range of corporate clients.