{
 "schema_version": "1.0",
 "id": "scarcity-ai",
 "name": "Scarcity.AI",
 "research_status": "researched",
 "vendor_domain": "effectify.io",
 "category": "E-commerce",
 "task": "E-commerce growth",
 "summary": "Three Shopify urgency apps — low stock counter, countdown timer and live visitors counter — that read real data but let you choose which true number the shopper sees.",
 "best_for": "Shopify merchants who genuinely run low stock or timed promotions and want to surface that on the product page — the low stock counter is tied to real inventory, which makes it the honest one of the three when your stock actually is low",
 "skip_if": "your stock is not low and your sale does not end, because a claim a shopper would read as false is one the FTC treats as deceptive; or your brand sells on trust, where a blinking counter costs more in credibility than it returns",
 "honest_knock": "All three read real data, which is worth saying before anything else — the low stock counter shows inventory levels and the visitors counter reads unique visitors, live traffic and product views. Nothing here invents a number.\n\nBut the visitors counter carries two settings that shape which true number a shopper sees. It can show the counter only after a set number of views, so a quiet product simply displays nothing rather than a small figure. And the time frame is yours to set, so 'twelve people viewed this' can mean twelve in five minutes or twelve since yesterday, presented identically. Neither setting fabricates anything; together they let you present a true number that a reasonable shopper would read as something else.\n\nThat distinction is where the legal line sits. The FTC treats false urgency and scarcity as deceptive practice under section 5 of the FTC Act, and the examples in its dark-patterns guidance are close to these mechanics: a low-stock claim when stock is plentiful, or a cart-activity figure well above the real one. The test is whether a reasonable consumer would be misled about a material fact. That test does not apply to the app; it applies to how you configure it, which means the compliance question lands on your desk rather than the developer's.",
 "pricing": {
  "status": "public",
  "entry_price": "$4.99",
  "entry_price_terms": "Monthly Plan (Low Stock Counter) · per month for the low stock counter, or $41.91 a year",
  "from_price_usd_month": null,
  "plans": null,
  "plans_source": null,
  "notes": "(read 2026-10-10 on apps.shopify.com, across all three listings) These are three separate apps from one developer, each installed and billed on its own. The Low Stock Counter is $4.99 a month or $41.91 a year at a stated 30% saving, with a 7-day trial; its free tier is Development Stores, meaning development and partner stores only rather than a working free plan. The Visitors Counter has a genuine free plan with the counter itself, style customisation, image presets and a minimum-visitors threshold. Its Premium plan is $1.99 a month or $16.71 a year at a stated 30% saving, on a 3-day trial, and adds an upsell banner for your most-viewed product, the counter on collection pages, wiggle and blink animations, your own counter image and a buy-it-now button that goes straight to checkout. The Countdown Timer, which listed only a free tier when we read it on 22 August 2026, now has a paid ladder: Development Stores is free for development and partner stores only, the Monthly Plan is $4.99 a month or $41.88 a year with a 7-day trial, and the Plus Plan is $12.99 a month or $109.11 a year for Shopify Plus stores and adds a scarcity message on the checkout page. Charges are in USD. Developer Effective Apps. Ratings when read on 10 October 2026: 4.7 from 87 reviews on the low stock counter, 4.9 from 43 on the visitors counter and 4.7 from 31 on the countdown timer.",
  "verified_at": "2026-10-10",
  "source_url": null
 },
 "free_plan": false,
 "free_plan_evidence": null,
 "cost_traps": [],
 "compare_with": null,
 "links": {
  "record": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/api/v1/products/scarcity-ai.json",
  "review": "https://marketingandsalessoftware.com/scarcity-ai-review.html",
  "marketplace": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/marketplace/scarcity-ai/",
  "vendor_site": "https://effectify.io"
 },
 "purchase": {
  "seller": "the vendor",
  "how": "AIBuilder Marketplace does not sell this software. Sign up, start a trial or buy on the vendor's site.",
  "handoff_url": "https://platform.shoffi.app/r/rl_ylAWuNjW",
  "affiliate": true,
  "disclosure": "Where purchase.affiliate is true, purchase.handoff_url is an affiliate link: AIBuilder Marketplace may earn a commission at no extra cost to the buyer. Commission never changes what a record says, and products are not ranked by commission. Where it is false the link is the vendor's plain site."
 },
 "provenance": {
  "research": "hand-researched dossier, read on the vendor's own pages",
  "researched_since": "2026-07",
  "method": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/how-we-review/",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0. Credit 'AIBuilder Marketplace' with a link to https://aibuildermarketplace.com/atlas/.",
  "note": "A rebuild is not a new measurement: pricing.verified_at is the date that matters."
 },
 "cost": {
  "status": "not_yet",
  "engine": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/agents/#cost",
  "rules": null,
  "growth": null
 },
 "unknowns": [
  "Plan-by-plan prices are not structured in this record yet; pricing.notes has the full text.",
  "Contract terms (cancellation, data export, data location, minimum seats) are not researched as separate fields; pricing.notes mentions them only where the vendor's pricing page does.",
  "No computable price rules yet: cost at a given team size cannot be calculated for this product.",
  "Not tested hands-on by us: what the product does comes from the vendor's pages and our reading of them."
 ],
 "task_evidence": null,
 "open_questions": [
  {
   "question_id": "scarcity-ai:cancellation_terms",
   "key": "cancellation_terms",
   "question": "Can a customer cancel at any time, and what happens to an annual plan that is cancelled mid-term?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "scarcity-ai:data_export",
   "key": "data_export",
   "question": "Which data can a customer export, in which formats, on which plans?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "scarcity-ai:data_location",
   "key": "data_location",
   "question": "Where is customer data stored, and can a customer choose the region?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "scarcity-ai:minimum_seats",
   "key": "minimum_seats",
   "question": "Is there a minimum number of seats or users on any plan?",
   "status": "open"
  }
 ],
 "vendor_answers": [],
 "agent_channels": {
  "vendor_mcp": null,
  "agent_checkout": {
   "status": "not_found",
   "detail": "No explicit support for purchases by AI agents on the vendor's own pages.",
   "checked_at": "2026-10-07",
   "method": "homepage, /pricing and the pricing page we cite, read as plain HTML (no JavaScript) and searched for explicit support of purchases by AI agents: Agentic Commerce Protocol, Instant Checkout, Agent Payments Protocol, buy in ChatGPT, agentic checkout"
  }
 }
}