'Complete the look'

A tactic often used by online shopping retailers is providing options to ‘complete the look’ when customers click on a product they are interested. This is an example of the foot-in-the-door technique as through clicking on the product in question the customer is registering their interest in buying it. Once this interest is established the availability of links to other products in order to complete the outfit appeals to the customer. Once they have decided they want the item of the outfit, it is logical to assume that the customer would also like the whole outfit. Thus the original item is the small request, leading into the entire outfit as the large request that follows.

Guéguen and Jacob (2001) asked participants to visit a website for the profit of a humanitarian organisation. Participants in the foot-in-the-door condition were first asked to sign a petition form, and then asked for a donation, whereas participants in the control condition were simply asked for the donation. It was shown that the participants in the foot-in-the-door condition were more likely to comply with the donation. Thus proving that asking for something small increases the chance that an individual will follow through with something larger.

Guéguen, N., & Jacob, C. (2001). Fundraising on the web: The effect of an electronic foot-in-

the-door on donation. Cyber Psychology & Behaviour, 4 (6), 705-709.