27. November 2024, 13:00
Hot deals, cool prices, super special offers: The supposed bargain days have begun, attracting discounts and promotions and culminating in Black Friday and Cyber Monday. With discounts of up to 90% and unrivaled prices, Chinese providers such as Temu and Shein are winning new customers all year round, but they are being massively criticized internationally for their manipulative marketing and business practices.
It’s high time to ask: What influences and controls our shopping behavior? How do we make purchasing decisions; how easily can we be manipulated? And what should you know about the new business models before you jump on the “lightning offer”?
Light, scent and color, the placement of goods on the shelf, limited editions and members-only offers: shopping has long been left as little as possible to chance. But online retail offers a variety of new opportunities to entice users to behave in a certain way and to substantially influence their decision-making. There has been a specific technical term for this for about 15 years: Dark Patterns. Dark patterns.
“Many of the mechanisms discussed here are so deeply anchored in us that we cannot simply put them aside,” says Matthias Stefan, assistant professor at the University of Innsbruck, where he researches behavioral and methodological questions in economics and finance teaches. Anyone who has ever shopped online, booked a hotel or booked a flight knows such dark patterns: “only 1 room available, inventory low, I don’t want to be insured”. People are tricked into making unfavorable purchasing decisions, disclosing their details or taking out paid subscriptions. And online providers like Temu and Shein have perfected this modern marketing, criticize consumer protection organizations. But what is pushing customers? Time pressure, the fear of missing out or an unbeatable offer?
“Shop like billionaires”: this is the slogan of the shopping platform Temu, which delivers around 30,000 packages to Austria every day. The online textile retailer Shein, which stands for the term ultra fast fashion like no other, is currently advertising “enormous price drops”: it can produce clothing within a few days using data-based real-time production. The well-known online providers from China are conquering the market with new business models, AI and customer data: Dropshipping requires no warehouses, no wholesalers or middlemen.
“The difficulties for consumers often begin when there are problems with a product,” says Jakob Zarari, lawyer at the European Consumer Center. “If the quality is not right, if the product smells or looks different and if you then want to send it back and get the purchase price refunded.”
However, there are major difficulties for retailers: 6 out of 10 domestic euros spent in online shops go abroad (JKU study); Floor trading is losing billions across Europe. European politicians are alarmed, fear for the internal market and fair competition and are gradually tightening the regulations; It was only at the end of October that the EU Commission initiated proceedings against the online retailer Temu – among other things, it concerns the threat to safety and consumer health. Numerous politicians are calling for customs reform to be brought forward; Many people see the duty-free limit of 150 euros as problematic. Environmental protection and sustainability, precarious working conditions and the ignorance of human rights as well as data protection violations are among other criticisms of the providers. Sustainability researchers criticize that such consumer behavior contradicts all goals of a more sustainable lifestyle.
Matthias Stefan and Jakob Zarari, guests of Barbara Zeithammer, will talk to you about the many concerns that these new business models and modern marketing bring with them, the legal situation when shopping online, the types of dark patterns and how you can recognize them , our listeners.
Call us and discuss, ask your questions and tell us about your experiences on 0800 22 69 79 or at punktins(at)orf.at
Service
European Consumer Center Austria
EVZ: Dark Patterns
Onlinesicherheit.at Dark Patterns: Avoiding manipulation in everyday online life
AND Study: Lost time, lost money. Dark patterns in the everyday lives of consumers
University of Innsbruck, Institute of Banking and Finance: Blog Economy and Responsibility
VKI
Consumer questions: Beware of dark patterns on the Internet
JKU: Institute for Commerce, Sales and Marketing: Trend lines & dynamics in online shopping
Environmental advice – Information about second hand, exchange and sharing
Initiative Less crap, of course
The Austrian e-commerce quality mark
Onlinesicherheit.at – ÖIAT: TEMU Shopping App and temu.com
series
Design
Playlist
Author: Jessica Cornish, Jessie J, Lukasz Gottwald, C. Kelly & Bobby Ray Simmons, Jr.
Title: Price Tag (feat. BoB); partly. underlined
Performer/performer: Jessie J
Length: 03:43 min
Label: Universal Music
Author: Lukas Strobel
Title: Where can you buy this; partly. underlined
Performer/performer: Alligatoah
Length: 03:45 min
Label: Trailerpark
Author: Peter Brown & Robert Rans
Title: Material Girl; partly. underlined
Performer(s): Madonna
Length: 03:54 min
Label: Sire
