- Click to share on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
- Click to share on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
- Click here to share on LinkedIn (Opens in a new window)
- Click to email a friend (Opens in a new window)
(CNN) - There is a reason why you fall into the bottomless pit of online shopping. A new study breaks down some of the cunning ways in which digital retailers trick buyers into spending more and accepting hidden costs.
The websites, it seems, employ a series of "dark patterns" intended to trick or force online shoppers to make a decision that is not always beneficial to them, the study says.
You may not know that term, but you have certainly found them online: surprise rates at the time of payment, false shortages, click on that pop-up window to say no, you do not want that great discount.
These patterns can cause headaches in users' inboxes and dents in their wallets. But in its most harmful versions, these deceptive tactics could make users deliver personal data in the guise of something good.
In an analysis of 53,000 pages of products in 11,000 online stores, researchers from Princeton University and the University of Chicago found at least one example in 11% of the most popular websites. Most of them were deceptive, undercover or concealed information.
The researchers disaggregated dark patterns into seven categories. Anyone who has bought online will be familiar.
Sneaking or sneaking messages
These are the messages that hide certain information that, if you had known in advance, you probably would not agree.
For example, those 15 additional dollars that suddenly landed in your shopping bag? That is the furtive method of hidden costs. Many online retailers delay the flood of additional charges, such as taxes and shipping costs, to the last step of the payment process, so they land as an unwanted surprise.
In that step of the process, most users have already committed to buying the item. Hidden costs, for some, are not a decisive factor, but an additional fee that they have resigned to pay.
Urgency
Have you ever entered a website for an informal review just to find yourself an ominous countdown clock, marking the remaining seconds of a seemingly unique offer in life?
Sometimes they are false, the researchers said.
A false sense of urgency is a misleading way of pushing shoppers to buy something so that lower prices are not lost for "limited time." But, as researchers point out, these countdowns are often restarted when users refresh the page. Even after a few days or weeks, those same offers are still available.
Wrong address
These methods direct users to or away from a certain option with coded language or obstructive visuals.
Take for example the dreaded pop-up subscription offer: if the option "Yes, I would LOVE to subscribe" is contrasted with a smaller text that says "No, thank you, I don't like gourmet cooking tips directly in my inbox" or "I don't like big deals on luxury fashion," you have found what researchers call "confirmshaming" (shameful confirmation).
If the same pop-up offer appears and you can't even find the exit button because it is very small and practically invisible, visual interference has tricked you.
Social proof
Some websites share a constant stream of recent purchases from their customers while users scan the site, in an attempt to convince the current buyer to join their peers and buy.
The details in these notifications are quite vague: "Ashley, from Tampa, Florida, just bought some small-sized worn pants," and they blink constantly to make it appear that purchases occur incessantly while you, the buyer, are simply watching .
Websites manipulate reviews with the same effect: researchers found the same positive testimony for a product in two different sites, although the name of the reviewer has changed.
Shortage
Another misleading tool to attract buyers to your product. Websites may show that certain items have limited availability or high demand: "Another 250 users are looking at this product!" Or "Added to 500-person cars", so users think that if they don't buy a product Now, it could run out soon.
The accuracy of these limited assortment counters is questionable, but they can trigger an impulse buying response in customers, according to the study.
Obstruction
Have you ever signed up for a recurring subscription (or you were tricked into doing so) that seemed impossible to cancel? That is also on purpose.
The obstruction methods make it more difficult to cancel those decisions that seemed so easy to make. Websites often do not reveal that canceling a subscription or membership is not so simple, even if they are offered as possible to cancel at any time.
Forced action
Some websites block users unless they accept the terms and conditions or register to access. This is what the team calls "forced action," when buyers cannot complete an action without delivering any personal information. In this way, websites know more about buyers than they would have consented.
What to do?
Marshini Chetty, co-author of the article and assistant professor of computer science at the University of Chicago, said the team discussed their findings with the Federal Trade Commission and the sponsors of the bipartisan Bill to Reduce Misleading Experiences for Online Users (known as DETOUR), proposed to ban dark patterns online.
“Often, they are trying to make the user make a decision that they might not have made if they were fully informed. On the Internet, they could be affecting thousands or millions of people, and we really don't fully understand their impact on decision making, ”said Chetty.
As for buyers, knowledge is power. And if you see a countdown clock or additional fees in your shopping cart, you might think twice before buying.
Online purchases
