How to Tell if a Retailer's Promotion or Offer is Legitimate – The Sun …

Sales are everywhere, both online and on the high street. Who hasn’t received a targeted email promising a colossal discount, seen adverts for massive sales during the holidays or special occasions, or had their eye caught by the extravagant language used in bright colors in adverts? These adverts are full of hyped-up language and promises of fantastic deals.

The language always aims to create a sense of urgency that it’ll be lost if the offer is not snapped up soon. These adverts are created by all kinds of businesses, from the corner cafe to large chain stores and many online retailers and entertainment outlets. For instance, it’s common for online casino operators to offer bonuses and promotions to new and existing customers.

Free spins on the 32Red online fruit machine, for instance, would be a common offer. They form an essential component of the online casino landscape. While customers can see whether they are verified by simply going to the operators site, they may find the offer on a comparison site, for instance.

As such, it’s important for customers to know how to know which offers are real. Research shows that these adverts change consumers’ behaviour. Retailers that offer consistently low prices find shoppers ignore these low prices in favor of the deals provided by competitors.

The offer of a sale item creates almost a fear in shoppers that they’ll miss out. Modern slang even has a term for this; FOMO (fear of missing out). The shopper’s puzzle is to try and bypass the hype and determine if the offer is genuine or if you are being blindsided.

Here are a few suggestions to help you decide if the deal is a deal or a dupe.

Words Without End

Train yourself to ignore all the hype words. Ignore fancy phrases like “Limited Offer” or “New Low Prices.” Clever marketing companies design these slogans to trick your brain into feeling a sense of urgency to buy something.

Instead, concentrate on the numbers. Shut out the fluff and look at the actual numbers. If you’re price-wise, you’ll know if this is a good deal, but many of us are not, especially when it comes to an item we don’t buy regularly.

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In this case, load one of the price comparison apps onto your phone.

Scan the barcode, and the app will give you the online price of the item as well as prices from physical stores close to you.

“Open the Wallet” Deals

Everyone has walked into a large store and seen enormous displays of hugely discounted goods stacked near the door. These displays are artfully laid out and often tell a story. For example, barbecues could be alongside pool chairs, bottles of cola, cool boxes, and crisps during summer.

All these are supposedly cheaper as the retailer wants to encourage you to enjoy a barbecue. These displays are known as “Open the Wallet” promotions and are geared towards encouraging the shopper to purchase things they had no intention of buying.

Beware of Coupons and Pulse Promotions

Retailers often raise the price of a product to full price immediately before issuing coupons. This way, you’re duped into believing you’re getting a fantastic deal by using the coupon.

Similarly, retailers maintain a product’s price relatively high, not expecting to sell much at that price. They then either issue a coupon or suddenly reduce the price to a realistic level, encouraging shoppers to buy the item at a price seen as substantially cheaper. This is where their actual sales are intended to come from.

Watch out for Decoys

Retailers often place costly items in the eye-line of the shopper.

For example, very expensive trainers will be in your eye-line, but if you look slightly up or down, there are more reasonably priced shoes. The trick here is that reasonably priced shoes look like excellent bargains against expensive items.