How to spot the sinister tricks retailers use to manipulate your spending

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The only financial game in town right now is cutting your costs. But you will never do so effectively if you’re not across the “dark patterns” that subtly influence your spending.

Forget straight-up digital marketing and targeting; dark patterns are sinister techniques online retailers use to manipulate consumers into parting with money they didn’t intend. Beneath the broad term lies a bunch of powerful psychological strategies designed to entice, coerce and even panic you into purchasing.

Indeed, they have become so pervasive online, even from reputable companies, that there is a current bill to amend Competition and Consumer Law to make it clear that businesses “must not manipulate consumers or unreasonably distort the environment in which consumers make or are likely to make decisions and in ways that are going to try and cause those consumers detriment”.

Because while there are some protections in place under the law in terms of misleading and deceptive conduct, there is nothing to prevent more insidious techniques. You will no doubt recognise strategies such as this:

“Huge never-before-seen discounts” – bagging a bargain gives us a hit of a brain hormone called dopamine, which is seductive and also addictive.

“Only two left”, when there are likely thousands. This is usually layered on top of a discount to pressure you into making an immediate purchase rather than giving you the chance to wait and think better of it.

The countdown at the top........

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