The endowment effect is nothing more than we as humans value things we own more than thing we don’t own. You don’t actually have to own the product for this, the idea of ownership is enough. This is called the endowment effect.
How are companies influencing us with this endowment effect?
Almost every commercial website has a virtual shopping cart. When we put items in the cart we see mostly in the right upper corner the amount of items we put in our cart and by adding or removing items this keeps changing. When we see that red number in the cart it makes us prefer those items more and unconsciously we think we own them. We see that more than 30% of the visitors at the end of the website visit actually buys the items left in their cart.
Another example that shows how we are influenced is the very popular test drive while orientating for a new car. In 88,6% of the cases people who take a test drive will buy the car. Why? Because the endowment effect hits in. While driving, they think they own the car and start preferring it. So letting potential buyers, drive the car, live in your home you are selling for a day, letting them try the the jeans you sell or give them a ticket for a free masterclass will make the majority buy it cause they are influenced unconsciously.
If you are not using the endowment effect, start today and suck up more knowledge on our website.
