Scarcity promotions, whether due to product limitations or merchant-created urgency, boost consumer purchases. While researches exist on the impact of such strategies and their variation by product type, there’s a gap in understanding how time distance to major sales events and the reference price influences consumer behavior during scarcity promotions. This study, through two experiments, investigates factors mentioned above alongside fear of missing out (FoMO). The findings indicate that: (1) Time distance doesn’t play a moderating role in the influence of product scarcity on purchase intention, but both time distance and product scarcity have a significant impact on consumers’ purchase decisions. (2) Reference price moderates the relationship between product scarcity and purchase intention, it also has a positive effect on the purchase time. (3) Fear of missing out (FoMO) can significantly promote the generation of consumers’ purchase motivation.