Giving customers too many choices will grab their attention.
Just like it did mine when a famous ice cream and sorbet outlet first opened up close to where I live on the Gold Coast In Queensland.
Looking through the shop window I was captivated.
By all the colours, flavours and textures in the showcases.
The stacks of different crispy sugar and waffle cones.
And the variety of toppings like lollies, sprinkles, nuts and chocolates contained in oversized glass jars that filled the countertops.
It was an easy decision to go inside.
Dragging my health-conscious and dairy intolerant daughter with me.
Giving customers too many choices is actually harder than a defined few
But when it came time to choose my scoop I just couldn’t make my mind up.
I looked over my shoulder at Christine.
“Should I get a single, double or a triple cone?”
“Seriously Mum? Think of your a*se!”
My mind was frozen with choice overload.
Her words kept ringing in my ears.
In the end (pardon the pun) my conscience got the better of me.
Perhaps I didn’t need an ice-cream after all.
So I turned and walked out of the shop without buying a thing.
Are you losing sales by giving customers too many choices?
Piling on your add-ons, upsells and the like.
But really all you’re doing is confusing the heck out of them.
Trouble is a confused mind finds it difficult to make a decision.
A confused mind starts to question their judgement.
They begin to doubt whether or not they are capable of making the right choice.
Often they’ll err on the side of caution.
They could decide that no decision is the best decision.
The Famous Marketing Study by 2 Psychologists from Columbia University
One day in an upscale grocery store in Menlo Park, California, a display table was set up with 24 varieties of gourmet jam.
Customers were invited to sample the delicious variety of spreads.
And offered a coupon for $1 off any jar of jam they liked.
On another day a similar table was set up.
With only six varieties of tasty jam on display.
To be expected, the larger display attracted more interest.
But when it came time to purchase, of the people who sampled the large display, only 3% bought a jar of jam.
Whereas those who sampled the six varieties of jam, 30% of them made a purchase.
So, as you can see, too many choices can be bad for sales!
Customers can be attracted by a large number of choices.
But when it comes to making a purchase, giving customers too many choices can cripple their decision-making ability.
Whether you operate a shopfront or a service-based business, too much of a good thing is a bad thing.
Don’t overburden your customers with too many choices and leave them in a quandary.
Take all those extras off the shelves.
Reduce your multitude of service offerings down to a minimum.
It’s a well-known fact that scarcity sells.
If you found this article interesting, here’s another you might like to check out: WHAT CUSTOMERS REALLY WANT