We’ve all experienced it – whether we’re trying to decide what to watch on Netflix, arranging an evening out with friends, or selecting what to buy when we’re out shopping – choice overload is a real phenomenon that can at best make the decision-making process a lot longer and at worst result in not making a decision at all.
According to behavioural scientistsat The Decision Lab: "people get overwhelmed when they are presented with a large number of options to choose from. While we tend to assume that more choice is a good thing, in many cases, research has shown that we have a harder time choosing from a larger array of options."
And this is fuelled by preference uncertainty: not knowing what we want from our final choice. If we don’t know much about the things we’re trying to choose from, it can be overwhelming when we’re faced with a huge range of them.
While this can be problematic on an individual level, big business, including the retail industry, clearly hasn’t escaped the issues that arise from having too much choice. Take a look at the terminology used to describe modern retail strategies – are they hybrid, omnichannel, unified or is there a new term waiting in the wings to describe cross-channel shopping? It’s safe to predict that by next year there will be a new buzzword dominating the boardroom in an attempt to define what customers want from their overall experience, and any number of solutions on offer.
From a retail perspective, the good news is that solving the problem at big business level will also go a long way to solving it at the individual shopper level. Strip away all of the perceived complexities (and choice) involved in what to name today’s shopping experience and how to deliver it, and it all comes down to ‘right product, right place, right time’.
Right product
As the Association for Psychological Science points out, customers who have relevant, easily-understandable information about a targeted range of products are more likely to buy – in other words, knowledge is power. Give store associates access to customer insights personalised to the individual (past purchases, preferences, what’s on their wishlist) coupled with all the details they need about products that specifically match their requirements and you’ll have a powerful recommendation tool that takes the stress out of being presented with an unmanageable amount of choice.
