PHOTOS: COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION OF SINGAPORE
SINGAPORE – Three online retailers have been caught using misleading features to influence shoppers by Singapore’s consumer and competition regulator.
The companies were found to have used misleading features such as displaying fake visitor counts, fabricated countdown timers and false discount claims to create fake urgency and demand around their products, said the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCS) in a statement on May 18.
All three - Seager (which operates lifestyle travel store Boarding Gate), mattress store Origin Sleep and clothing company Light In The Box - have stopped these practices and provided formal undertakings to CCS.
On Boarding Gate’s website, a message stating the number of people looking at a certain product gave shoppers the illusion of real-time visitor activity and high demand, said CCS.
Upon examination of the website’s source code, the regulator found that the numbers were randomly generated.
The site also had a message showing the number of people who had added an item to their carts, without any evidence to support these assertions.
Origin Sleep’s website also featured similar statements claiming to show real-time visitor activity.
Additionally, its checkout pages featured countdown timers urging consumers to hurry, saying that their orders were reserved only for a period of time.
CCS said this implied that...
PHOTOS: COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION OF SINGAPORE SINGAPORE – Three online retailers have been caught using misleading features to influence shoppers by Singapore’s consumer and competition...