In a world where shopping happens from the comfort of your sofa, websites and apps are often loaded with too many choices believing that the more the merrier. However, research and previous experiments might say otherwise.
How often have you browsed through multiple movies and series on Netflix and then ended up watching nothing? How many times did you browse through an online web store, yet you have added nothing to your cart or browsed through multiple meals options on a delivery app yet ended up ordering your classic order?
Consumers often demand choices, but multiple experiments and researches have proved that the availability of too many choices can initially attract customers, yet leave them clueless. In the year 2000, Iyengar and Lepper from Columbia and Stanford University published the so-called ‘Jam Experiment’. During the experiment, store employees offered 6 jam flavors to some shoppers and 24 choices to others; 30% of the shoppers were more attracted to taste when all 24 were displayed yet only 3% of those offered 24 flavors actually purchased while 30% of shoppers who were offered 6 flavors actually purchased a jam jar. This ‘Choice Paradox’ highlights the importance of offering the right number of choices to suit different tastes before crossing the line of too many.
This could justify the rise in boutiques globally while department stores are struggling to survive. During the last few years, multiple department stores and big category killers such as JC Penny, Debenhams and Toys R Us announced their downsizing plans or even liquidation, while specialized boutiques, cafes, and gyms continue to grow at a quicker rate, proving that bigger stores with more choices result in higher footfall but not necessarily sales.
In a digital world, lower costs associated with e-commerce enabled retailers to offer too many choices to fulfill a simple product need, leading the shopper to scroll through tens of pages to fulfill a simple need. This choice overload creates a sense of confusion that often leads shoppers to visit stores physically to try the different options for themselves, they then make a choice to buy online if there is a price difference. Similarly, apps focusing on a specific product line are also experiencing high growth, such as flower shops and bike shops. Apps focusing on a specific service are widely used as they fulfill a need in a very straightforward manner. Need a lift? Uber it. Need clean clothing? Laundrapp it.
In addition, e-commerce also led to the ‘hyper-personalization paradox’ where technology and the internet enabled personalization of almost every aspect of their product, requesting the shopper to make too many choices (color of the button, color of the strap, finish, etc), or even in some cases share a lot of details, which ultimately complicate the whole shopping experience leaving the customer hesitant on moving forward.
Therefore, the ‘Choice Paradox’ along with the ‘Hyper-personalization paradox’ all explains the growing usage and interest in technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Chatbots. Many online stores use Artificial Intelligence and machine-based learning to recommend new items based on previous clicking or shopping behavior. While Chatbots are expected to be further adopted as they simplify the whole process via conversational commerce; enabling customers to share their needs (and perhaps emotions in the future; such as I feel this is too pink for me) through a simple messenger chat and the bot will instantly provide recommendations to match their needs.
In a nutshell, success in the world of e-commerce is all about going back to basics, where most successful customer journeys are those that fulfill the specific needs of individuals without confusing them with too many choices.
Sources:
Jam Experiment: https://faculty.washington.edu/jdb/345/
345%20Articles/
Iyengar%20%26%20Lepper%20%282000%29.pdf
On department stores: http://theconversation.com/
history-says-department-stores-will-struggle-in-the-future-85527
AI & Chatbots: https://www.topbots.com/best-
customer-service-automation-enterprise-technology-software/
