Such advertising terms as “Limited Offer Today Only,” “The First Hundred People Receive,” or “Only While Stocks Last!” are a strategy to promote consumer confidence. The fact that there’s limited time to purchase assigns scarcity, and people think getting rare things is special. If scarcity is used as a sales tool, errors may occur.
To a customer who is hesitating to choose his clothes, if the shop clerk says, “Another customer has looked at it and liked it a lot. What about you?” the customer is likely to purchase it. But actually the value of the clothes has nothing to do with the previous customer.
Rolf Dobelli, the author of The Art of Thinking Clearly, says, “The typical response to scarcity is a lapse in clear thinking. Assess products and services solely on the basis of their price and benefits.” So, before you purchase anything, think whether you really need it or not, instead of just paying your money for a sale; when you do so, you will avoid scarcity error.