Project Summary

When a certain item sells out, you have two main options for dealing with the problem: hide it from store visitors or leave it in place. If you don’t plan to restock that particular item, you should choose the latter option, and there are several reasons for that.

For store visitors browsing through merchandise, “phantom options”-those that are displayed but can’t be ordered at the moment-can influence their purchasing decisions. Such options are triggered by the psychology of social proof: people tend to believe that something is quality if many other people show an interest in it.