This summer while booking a trip to Europe I noticed something I hadn’t seen before across a number of hotel aggregator websites: the use of real-time notifications to instill FOMO (fear of missing out): “someone just booked this hotel.”
I’m not exactly what to think about this tactic as a consumer, but I would imagine it’s effective for sellers. It both creates both a sense of urgency (to purchase) and provides a social proof point that customers can trust the website.
Working in the media space, it’s interesting to see advertising tactics evolve, especially in e-commerce. Real time notifications strike me as a differentiated approach and one that is likely to spread from OTAs to many other verticals soon.
To see the tactic for yourself, surf around on Booking.com and click through several different hotel listings.