Can you have too much choice? It would appear you can. A jam producer ran a simple experiment to understand how many varieties should be offered. During one week, a total of 24 different types of jam were available and customers were offered a discount coupon to encourage them to buy – sadly only 3% of customers bought any jams. During the following week, the range was cut to just 6 jams, with the same discount coupon. Remarkably sales went up, with 30% of customers choosing a jam.
This effect is known as “Choice Overload”. It occurs when our brains simply can’t cope with the amount of information available. Instead, our minds shut down.
Supermarkets have spotted this problem and now tend to avoid offering too many SKUs, but some manufacturers still don’t seem to get it.
What do you think?
