The Scarcity Playbook: How To Use Limited Drops & Urgency Without Losing Credibility
Do you want to sell more products while generating a lot of buzz for your brand?
Ecommerce and digital marketing have made a lot of changes to the retail industry. Most importantly, it’s changed what’s attainable, even for smaller brands.
In this post, we examine an ecommerce sales technique that involves generating a lot of buzz with a limited supply of products.
We’ve included examples at the end of the post. Some of these stores sell out thousands of products in days using this technique.
What are limited drops?
“Drops” are product launches that are typically part of a set of a known product line.
They’re usually used for highly-anticipated products that are different from a brand’s usual products.
When we use the term “limited drops,” we’re referring to a drop that will only be available for a limited amount of time or a drop that will only be available while supplies last.
Whatever the case may be, drops are one of the most effective marketing strategies that give consumers access to better products while also earning publicity for the brand offering the drop.
Why are limited drops so effective?
Limited drops are popular among modern ecommerce brands for a number of different reasons.
Here are the main reasons why brands would want to offer limited drops:
- Social media marketing – Social media has made it incredibly easy for brands to deliver marketing messages to consumers on the fly wherever they might be. This makes it easier to generate buzz for a particular product
- They get consumers talking – If the drop is for a truly captivating product, consumers will share it with others as soon as they hear about it. This raises the general consumer’s awareness of your brand
- FOMO (fear of missing out) – Limited drops thrive on scarcity. If customers want a product being offered as a drop, they need to buy it before it runs out. This makes them more likely to buy the product than if you had promoted it in other ways
- Collector hobby – Some consumers are collectors. When you create a limited stock of a particular product, you sometimes attract the attention of collectors who want to get their hands on each item in a limited edition set
How can limited drops benefit your business?
You know what the primary benefits of offering limited drops are, such as being able to tap into the FOMO phenomenon to increase sales.
In fact, increased sales are a big reason why limited drops are so beneficial for customers. They increase the number of sales your business generates for a short period of time.
One of the biggest benefits is how much publicity drops offer to your brand. If there’s something about your product that catches your audience’s attention, they’ll be more likely to share it with other people in their lives.
This can create a lot of hype for your brand that has the potential to extend to the next drop you offer.
Limited drops can also help you manage your inventory and keep track of supply limitations, especially if you manufacture your own products.
You can choose to use a special style of drop in which the drop remains live until the last unit is sold. This can help you keep up with demand since the drop is only meant to be around for a limited amount of time.
Finally, limited drops present challenges and competitiveness to your customers.
They gamify ecommerce and lead to consumers doing all that they can to get their hands on a particular product.
How can limited drops cause you to lose credibility?
Offering high-quality products for a limited amount of time might be seen as one of the most clever marketing techniques of the digital age, but it still can get you into trouble.
For starters, some consumers are less likely to purchase products from a brand who engages in a sales tactic that’s designed to artificially limit stock so that only the most dedicated fans of a brand can acquire items from that stock.
Some brands lose credibility due to the way they promote drops. I’m particularly talking about countdown timers on websites that promote drops and let you know how long you have to order them.
The problem with this strategy is that some brands lie about the scarcity of their products. They use countdown timers that reset as soon as you clear your browser’s cache so they never truly hit zero.
So, instead of a product only being available for a limited amount of time, it’s actually available year round and is not scarce whatsoever.
Just like consumers share your limited drop with each other, they’ll share grievances they experience with your product as soon as they can. This can lead to your brand becoming more known for using cheap sales tactics and less known for creating unique products.
How to create urgency for products without losing credibility
1. Create an irresistible product
The most important part of the drop strategy is the product itself.
If your product is something consumers hardly want with or without time constraints, it’s not something they’re going to want under pressure.
Do a bit of research on your past sales as well as research on your audience.
Which products have they purchased the most? Are there any products you don’t offer, yet, but know your customers would really want? Do you have a product idea that solves a problem in your niche, but you haven’t gotten around to making it, yet?
These are the types of products that make great candidates for limited drops.
What you need to do now is find ways to enhance this product. Use better materials. Give it a unique, luxurious design. Enhance the mechanics it offers. Offer more in the box your product comes in.
There’s a lot you can do to make a popular product irresistible. You can even launch a monthly subscription box for your niche and have its contents be a mystery each month.
2. Decide on a time or supply limit
There are two methods you can use to implement the limited drop strategy: a time limit or a supply limit.
A time limit is a window your customers must purchase the drop within in order to receive it.
A supply limit is a set number of units you manufacture. The drop lasts until you sell your last unit within the supply.
You can even use a hybrid limit: create a set number of units but only offer them for a small period of time. Then, use the excess supply for giveaways or PR packages you send to influencers.
As for how long that time window should be or how many units you should manufacture, that’s up to you.
You can make the drop available for one week, two weeks or one month. However, shorter is better. It creates more urgency.
Supply limits are trickier since you don’t know how much demand your drop will generate.
You can go for ultimate scarcity by deliberately only creating a set number of units, such as 10 or 100. That way, there will only ever be 10 or 100 units of that product out in the world. This strategy should only be used for products that are truly luxurious and high end.
If you need a set number, see how many products you sell on a monthly basis on average. Then, double that number to compensate for the increased demand.
3. Generate buzz for your drop
Your drop will be much more successful if your customer base and the general population within your niche know it’s coming.
This is why it’s important that you market your drop before you launch it. It’ll generate buzz, and consumers who have never even heard of you will be just as eager to get their hands on the drop as your regular customers are.
There are a few different ways you can generate buzz before your launch:
- Influencer marketing
- Popups and ads on your website
- Email marketing
- Social media marketing
Influencer marketing and ads on your website will be most effective.
For influencer marketing, consider sending PR packages to influencers you’ve worked with in the past and influencers you feel have the same audience as you.
Personalize each PR package, and include a card that emphasizes the product(s) inside will be part of an upcoming limited drop.
Use an email marketing tool like MailerLite to create an automated email series that promotes the drop to your subscribers before you announce its release.
For social media, create teasers before launch. You might even consider paying influencers to include the drop in their videos.
4. Launch
Now, it’s time for launch.
Add a hero image to your homepage that promotes the drop with a call to action (CTA).
Use a tool like ConvertBox to create countdown timers and time-sensitive popups that will create a sense of urgency among your website visitors.
Send an email to your subscribers announcing the launch and how much time customers have to place an order.
Use a social media scheduling tool like SocialBee to announce the launch as soon as it’s live, and schedule emails that promote it throughout the campaign.
Finally, let the influencers you’ve worked with know the drop is live. Consider giving a few of them a special commission rate to reward them for promoting your drop more.
5. Gather feedback
Some consumers will be hesitant to buy your drop. Others will buy it but won’t feel completely satisfied with it.
Gather feedback from these consumers so you can improve the next drop.
While it’s certainly okay to defend yourself against rude comments, don’t be so quick to go on offense when consumers complain.
Ask them follow-up questions to learn more about why they aren’t interested in your drop or why they didn’t like it.
Use a tool like Brand24 to monitor social media mentions of your drop.
Use Woorise to set up after-sale surveys on your website. Pay attention to product reviews as well.
6. Prepare for the next drop
The feedback you receive and sales data you collect should give you enough data to analyze to improve the next drop you offer.
It should be the same product type as your last drop, but it should offer something different, such as a different style or mechanic.
Don’t launch your next drop too close to your first one, but don’t launch them too far away from each other, either.
Wait at least two weeks before you start promoting the next drop, though a month may be better.
This ensures consumers and the influencers you work with don’t become disinterested from drop fatigue, a phenomenon in which consumers become less interested in partaking in drops due to the sheer volume of them.
Examples of limited drops
Before we wrap up, let’s cover some examples.
Some of these examples are very specific brands. Others are types of products you can offer.
Even if none of these examples are a good fit for your brand, I’d highly recommend studying them and seeing what other lessons you can incorporate into your own strategy.
1. Reeves Electro
Reeves Electro is a guitar pedal company based in the UK who specialize in offering fuzz and drive pedals.
Because each pedal is made by a small team, specifically father and daughter Markus and Izzy Reeves, each pedal is part of small batches of drops featuring between 10 and 20 pedals.
Even so, the pedals receive rave reviews, and with such a limited supply, customers can’t wait to get their hands on one.
2. Chase Bliss
Chase Bliss is another guitar pedal company who offers drops.
While the company offers some pedals you can buy whenever, some models are only available for a limited time with no guarantee they’ll return once supplies sell out.
Many of the company’s limited-time drops are made in collaboration with other instrument brands.
Note from Adam: Collaborating with other brands and influential people in your vertical is an extremely effective strategy. Chase Bliss does this extremely well. They recently collaborated with Mike Piera of Analogman to recreate his elusive King of Tone pedal. A pedal which has a 7+ year wait list. When Chase Bliss released their version, the Brothers AM, it sold out within a day.
3. G Fuel
G Fuel is an energy drink company who sponsors a lot of streamers and targets the gaming niche.
While many of their flavors are available year round, the company does a lot of collaborations that are only available for a limited time.
Some limited-time drops are made in collaboration with streamers while others are made in collaboration with major franchises, including Shrek, Mortal Kombat, Elden Ring, Dragonball Z and more.
G Fuel has a lot of different products, but most of its flavors come in powder form. As such, drops usually contain a limited-edition shaker cup in the style of the collaboration, a limited-time flavor that’s, again, in the style of the collaboration, and a collector’s box to package it all in.
The drop usually continues while supplies last.
4. Revive Skateboards
Revive Skateboards is a skateboard deck company and a popular YouTube channel owned and operated by Andrew Shrock.
Skateboards are designed to get beat up. Missed tricks cause boards to hit the ground repeatedly, and even successful tricks lead to grinds and repeated jumps that only wear boards down even more.
As such, Revive Skateboards, like many skateboard brands, thrive on limited-supply drops, which skateboarders who are often in need of new boards are more than happy to purchase.
Revive Skateboards releases new designs featuring the brand’s “Revive” logo a few times a year. They also include new designs inspired by the skaters they sponsor.
5. Trading Card Games
Trading card games like Pokémon and Magic: The Gathering thrive on limited-supply drops.
Each company releases new collections several times a year, each one featuring dozens of new cards for players to feature in decks and collectors to add to their collections.
They even deliberately print fewer copies of certain cards to make some more scarce than others.
Pokémon, though, is a good example of a franchise whose reliance on limited-supply drops and the way the company distributes them is having a negative impact on the company’s credibility as scalpers disrupt distribution and buy up pallets of drops, selling each at high markups.
6. Subscription Boxes
Some companies keep drops a secret by offering them in subscription boxes.
Subscription boxes can be filled with one product or multiple products. They can feature products you sell yourself or products from several different brands.
You can ship them out monthly or quarterly.
The success behind subscription boxes comes from the mystery behind them, but it’s also about the scarcity of the products within boxes.
It’s definitely best to avoid featuring repeat products in future boxes.
7. Influencer Merch
Most influencers offer some form of merch. Even smaller creators can set up a merch store easily thanks to print-on-demand platforms and dropshipping.
To keep followers interested, many influencers offer new designs regularly.
Some influencers only offer certain designs for a limited time while others offer them while supplies last.
If an influencer uses a print-on-demand service, they’ll need to stick to time limits as they won’t have access to their own inventory enough to continue sales “until supplies last.”
8. Video Game Companies
Video game companies earn a lot of their income these days from what are known as “microtransactions.”
These are transactions for in-game items, such as new weapons, designs for weapons and vehicles, new characters, and more.
Some in-game items are only available for a limited amount of time. This encourages players to buy them while they can.
Some larger companies are able to form partnerships with some of the biggest franchises and artists in the world. Fortnite is the greatest example of this, who have done collaborations with Billie Eilish, Eminem, Star Wars, Batman and more.
Final thoughts
Scarcity sells and so does urgency.
They’re the reasons why limited drops are so effective.
But you’ve got to be smart with your approach.
Get it wrong and your drops will fall flat and/or cost your brand credibility.
You need to generate buzz for your drop without doing it in a way that annoys people.
One of the best ways I’ve seen this done is by Chase Bliss. They collaborate with influential people in their vertical and it helps to create a lot of extra hype.
Regardless of how things go, it’s important to gather feedback. Or at least pay attention to what your customers are saying on social media.
You can then use this data to improve your next drop.
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