How To Create Urgency In Sales (6 Effective Ways)

Understanding how to create urgency in sales can dramatically increase your store’s conversion rates. It’s a psychological trigger: when customers perceive something as limited or exclusive, they’re more likely to act. However, the challenge lies in striking the right balance. That’s exactly what we’ll explore today. 

Save this guide, for we’ll be sharing practical tips on how to create urgency without sounding pushy. When done effectively, these tactics will inspire your shoppers to make more confident buying decisions. Let’s get straight into it!

What Is Urgency In Sales? 

Marketing professionals use urgency in sales to encourage customers to make quicker buying decisions. This can be done through presenting a limited-time offer, alerting shoppers of low stock levels, or launching exclusive deals. It’s so effective because it taps into our fear of missing out (FOMO). In fact, according to industry insights, FOMO drives 60% of sales!

Urgency is usually created by introducing a sense of scarcity (such as limited stock) or time pressure. When implemented strategically, it can help reduce buyer hesitation and prevent cart abandonment. 

How To Create Urgency In Sales (6 Actionable Ways)

There are a lot of creative ways to spark urgency in your marketing and promotions without sounding pushy. Below, we’ll explore some intentional strategies to help guide your buyers toward more confident buying decisions. 

Along the way, we’ll also share tools we’ve tried ourselves to help you easily implement these ideas with ease. 

1. Highlight social proof

Apart from helping you build trust and credibility among customers, social proof is also a powerful urgency tactic. When customers see that other people are buying, reviewing, or engaging with your offers, they’re more likely to act sooner to avoid missing out. 

In fact, you’ll often see ecommerce brands display real-time notifications like the number of product viewers or messages like, “John from California just purchased this item!” Popular platforms like Booking.com also do something similar, showcasing messages like “Only 2 rooms left!” to spark urgency. Here’s another great example from the brand Lily & Fox:

You can recreate this strategy in many different ways, including: 

• Displaying customer reviews on product pages
• Highlighting best-sellers or popular products
• Adding recent sales notifications
• Showing “only X left in stock” banners

These subtle messages let customers know your products are in demand, helping guide faster purchase decisions.

🎯 POWER TIP: Want to encourage more customer reviews on your WooCommerce store? Use the WooCommerce Loyalty Program plugin to reward customers with points every time they leave a product review! 

2. Create true urgency with a time limit 

If we’re talking about how to create urgency in sales, we can’t miss mentioning deadlines. Think time-sensitive offers, flash sales, or exclusive “deal of the day” offers. Since these promotions have a limited time window, shoppers are more likely to act quickly. 

The key is making the deadline visible and real—communicate it clearly and give shoppers a compelling reason to buy now, rather than later. 

Plugins like Advanced Coupons make these offers easier to set up in WooCommerce. Many of the store owners we work with use the advanced scheduler feature to set the exact start and end times of their campaigns. Here are just a few examples of what’s possible: 

• Schedule weekly promos (e.g., every Thursday or Friday) 
• Launch limited-time BOGO deals during special occasions or holidays
• Combine a limited-time discount with an auto-apply coupon for easier checkout

3. Utilize countdown timers 

Sometimes, the best way to showcase urgency is through a visual. Countdown timers are one of the most effective tools for this! By adding a ticking clock to your website, promotional emails, or product pages, you nudge customers to faster buying decisions. 

At Advanced Coupons, for instance, we use tools like OptinMonster to set up countdown timers during our biggest sales. The visual adds just the right amount of urgency to encourage action without feeling pushy or overwhelming.

Countdown timers are especially effective when placed on high-intent pages, such as your product, cart, or checkout page. These are pages where most buying decisions happen—a well-placed timer can be the nudge they need to check out. 

4. Send out push notifications for time-sensitive offers

Timing is essential to building urgency. Push notifications provide store owners a fast and direct way to reach shoppers and inform them of their limited-time offers. Unlike emails or social media posts that can get missed, these messages get delivered directly to shoppers’ devices or browsers. They’re especially effective for: 

• Flash sales or surprise offers
• Last-day reminders for ongoing promos
• Countdown-based nudges (e.g., “Only 2 hours left to claim 20% off!”)

💡 GOOD TO KNOW: Advanced Coupons integrates seamlessly with PushEngage so you can send coupons as push notifications right within your WordPress dashboard. Learn more here.

5. Display low stock warnings in product pages

If you’re wondering how to create urgency in sales in a way that feels “natural”, consider displaying low stock alerts in your product pages. This strategy works well because it introduces the element of scarcity in the decision-making process. Seeing a message like “Only 3 left in stock!” induces a FOMO effect that encourages customers to act before the item sells out.

Most ecommerce platforms, including WooCommerce, allow you to set low stock thresholds that automatically trigger these notices. Some brands take it a step further by sending automated email campaigns for products that are selling out fast. Take a look at this email example from Uniqlo: 

You can explore tools like Drip, Mailchimp, or Klaviyo to build automated campaigns based on inventory levels. 

6. Offer flexible payment terms

Some customers hesitate to complete their purchase, not because they don’t want the product, but because they’re working on a tight budget. Offering flexible payment terms helps remove this common barrier to purchase. 

This is especially important if you cater to B2B buyers or wholesale customers. These buyers are often fellow businesses that base their purchasing decisions on their cash flow cycles. In these cases, payment flexibility can be the deciding factor between acting now or putting the purchase off entirely.

Consider offering options like Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) or net payment terms (such as Net 15/30/60) to allow customers to place their orders today. Having these options at checkout can also help them take advantage of limited-time offers. 

Conclusion 

Understanding how to create urgency in sales can help guide shoppers to more confident buying decisions and improve conversions. It’s not about pressuring them to take action, but more about helping them recognize limited opportunities to save and make timely purchase decisions. In this guide, we walked you through actionable strategies to build urgency in your marketing strategy.

To recap, here are the strategies we covered:

1. Highlight social proof
2. Create true urgency with a time limit
3. Utilize countdown timers
4. Send out push notifications for time-sensitive offers
5. Display low stock warnings on product pages
6. Offer flexible payment terms 

WooCommerce store owners can use tools like Advanced Coupons to easily implement these strategies. Our plugin allows you to launch limited-time coupon promotions, schedule flash sales, and send coupon push notifications right within WordPress.

Do you have any questions about how to create urgency in sales? Let us know in the comments!