Clever Tactics That Boost Conversions (and Why)

Should discounts be easy to redeem?

Generally, yes — but you can increase redemptions by enforcing a trivial step (Zhang et al., 2025).

• Enter a promo code
• Fill out a CAPTCHA
• Answer a single question

It worked in various contexts:

• Products: clothes, coffee, earbuds, vitamins
• Channels: email, Facebook, Instagram
• Prices: $16 to $200
• Cultures: USA, UK, Singapore

Why It Works

• Self-Responsibility. Customers feel entitled to these discounts.
• Behavioral ROI. Customers feel smart if they expend little effort for big savings.

How to Apply

• Pseudo-Loading. Try a loading animation (e.g., Reducing Price…) even if you don’t need it. Your discount is so big that it requires computational effort.
• Hold to Receive. Perhaps mobile users should hold a button for a few seconds (vs. a mere click) to redeem a discount. In one study, interactions on iPhones seemed more desirable when they required more haptic pressure (Liu et al., 2023).
• Promo Codes. Generally, 15% off is more effective when you give customers a code to enter in the checkout instead of showing the reduced price on the product page. Customers who see the final price while shopping often fixate on how much they’re paying, wheres customers with a promo code fixate on how much they're saving while shopping (Jia et al., 2024).

Requirements

• Trivial Effort. It’s tempting to assume that effort implies value: Hmm, this discount must be high if I need to work for it. But this explanation didn’t occur in the study: Discounts were less appealing with significant effort because it lowered the behavioral ROI.

• Jia, H., Huang, Y., Zhang, Q., Shi, Z., & Zhang, K. (2024). Final price neglect in multi-product promotions: How non-integrated price reductions promote higher-priced products. Journal of Consumer Research, 50(6), 1097-1116.
• Liu, Y., Jiang, Z., & Choi, B. C. (2023). Pushing yourself harder: The effects of mobile touch modes on users’ self-regulation. Information Systems Research, 34(3), 996-1016.
• Zhang, K., Allard, T., Agrawal, N., & Bagchi, R. (in press). The token-effort effect: Trivial redemption effort increases price promotion effectiveness. Journal of Marketing Research.

How should you arrange products on shelves?

Ideally, match the typical usage:

• Shampoo then conditioner.
• Toothpaste then floss.
• Detergent then dryer sheets.

Customers encounter these sequences in daily life, so these arrangements "feel right."

But what if your products don't follow a sequence of usage?

Just add any visual pattern, such as color saturation (e.g., from dull to bright). A recent study confirmed this effect with hats, shirts, and lipstick (Huang et al., 2022).

But any pattern can work. Even slogans are preferred in alphabetical order (e.g., Bufferil Eases Pain; King & Auschaitrakul, 2020).

Why It Works

• Something Feels Right. Customers blame the product instead of the pattern.
• Gestalt Grouping. Humans group stimuli that look similar to each other. A row of sequenced colors will seem like one large unit (which grabs attention).

How to Apply

• Get Brighter From Left to Right. Especially if customers read from left to right (Huang et al., 2022).
• Get Darker From Top to Bottom. Dark stimuli look heavy, so they should sink to the bottom (Huang et al., 2022).
• Splice Images. Kashi designed their cereal packaging so that spliced images would merge with adjacent packages.

I captured the following photo in 2019, but I noticed that Kashi stopped this strategy. Maybe it backfired in ecommerce. Or maybe the reason was unrelated.

• Huang, Y., Yang, L., & Liu, M. (2022). How to display products available in multiple color saturation: Fit between saturation and position. Psychology & Marketing, 39(4), 809-819.
• King, D., & Auschaitrakul, S. (2020). Symbolic sequence effects on consumers’ judgments of truth for brand claims. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 30(2), 304-313.

Charities often depict small costs.

• $1 can provide a meal
• $2 can provide a mosquito net
• $3 can provide a book for a child

Intuitively, people should donate more. A $1 meal? Why not donate 10 meals?

But in reality, the opposite can happen. Instead of seeing these costs as an economic multiplier, donors can perceive these costs as a target.

In one study, people donated whichever amount matched the cost of a mosquito net:

• $3 net? They donated $3.
• $7 net? They donated $7.

Indeed, small costs can lower donations (Lewis & Small, 2024).

But anchors can't be too high either. In a follow-up study, the same researchers mailed a letter to 190k+ donors:

• If donors previously gave $10 to $50: A $10 request worked better than $50.
• If donors previously gave $50 to $100: A $50 request worked better than $100.

How to Apply

• Ask For 10% Below a Previous Donation. Revenue was highest in this condition (vs. 50% below, 25% above).
• Multiply a Small Anchor. Mention that $10 can provide five nets.
• Compare Donations to a Petty Expense. Customers feel guilty if they see an emotional comparison (e.g., for the cost of a latte).

• Lewis, J., & Small, D. (2024). Hitting the Target but Missing the Point: How Donors Use Cost Information. Journal of Consumer Research, ucae061.

Attention is persuasive.

Users often blame their attention on desire: Hmm, why do I keep staring at this button? I must want to click it.

That means you can persuade users by increasing the saliency of a call to action. Even a simple tweak, like adding line breaks to a final sentence:

Try capturing 100% of attention instead of a mere fraction.

How to Apply

• Visual Contrast. Desaturate nearby images.
• Single Action. Secondary actions should be less salient (e.g., transparent button).
• Arrows. Be careful with images of people. Humans instinctively grab attention, so they can steal attention away from a CTA even if you orient the body and eye gaze toward it. Arrows might be more effective because they don't harbor attention on themselves (Ristic & Kingstone, 2006).
• Hide Exit Links. Remove header and footer links in a funnel sequence.
• Animations. Cluttered interfaces need to pull attention more forcefully (e.g., button shimmer).
• CTAs on the Right. Most people are right-handed, so they prefer interacting with elements on the right (Casasanto & Chrysikou, 2011). And I confirmed this effect in a study: Right-handed people were more likely to click a button on the right.
• Right-Facing Images. Did you notice that I flipped the musician to face right? Time is a horizontal spectrum that unfolds from left to right (assuming you read from left to right). Therefore, right-facing images nudge people toward future actions, whereas left-facing images can fixate their attention toward the past (Zhang et al., 2019).

• Casasanto, D., & Chrysikou, E. G. (2011). When left is “right” motor fluency shapes abstract concepts. Psychological science, 22(4), 419-422.
• Ristic, J., & Kingstone, A. (2006). Attention to arrows: Pointing to a new direction. Quarterly journal of experimental psychology, 59(11), 1921-1930.
• Zhang, Y., Kwak, H., Jeong, H., & Puzakova, M. (2019). Facing the “right” side? The effect of product facing direction. Journal of Advertising, 48(2), 153-166.

Try enlarging the digits in numerical features.

Bigger digits enhanced the persuasiveness of various messages (Huang, 2025).

Why It Works

• Size Conflation. Big fonts imply largeness: Hmm, something feels big. Must be a high number.
• Confidence Attribution. Big fonts imply a strong message: Hmm, why are these numbers emphasized? Must be better than competitors.

How to Apply

• Add Any Emphasis. Bolding can also imply confidence.
• Show More Units. In addition to the physical size of fonts, you could also increase quantity. Food packages seem larger when they display more units of food (Madzharov & Block, 2010).
• List More Attributes. While drafting an agreement, you might say: The project will be completed under budget by May 3. Try separating this single benefit into multiple benefits: The project will meet all quality requirements. The project will be completed under budget. The project will be completed by May 3.
• Polarize Font Sizes of Prices. I've seen A/B tests in which sales have increased by changing the font size of a price to be smaller or larger. Small fonts can imply a smaller size, while large fonts can imply confidence in the price. Only use a large font if your price is considered a good deal (Huang, 2025).
• Maintain Full Shapes. Detergent bottles seem smaller if they leave an empty gap for a handle (Sevilla & Kahn, 2014). Don't remove too much of your packaging or product.
• Enlarge Product Images. Especially when bigger is better (e.g., vitamins, TV, storage).

Stronger For

• New Brands. Customers must attribute a large font to confidence. This effect didn't happen for well-known companies because customers skipped this attribution; they could already judge quality (Huang, 2025).

• Huang, Y. (2025). Numbers Speak Louder When They Are Larger: The Impact of Font Size on the Persuasiveness of Numerical Stimuli in Advertising. Journal of Consumer Behaviour.
• Madzharov, A. V., & Block, L. G. (2010). Effects of product unit image on consumption of snack foods. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 20(4), 398-409.
• Sevilla, J., & Kahn, B. E. (2014). The completeness heuristic: Product shape completeness influences size perceptions, preference, and consumption. Journal of Marketing Research, 51(1), 57-68.