The Paradox of Choice: Fewer options mean more customers and more sales!
The more always it is, the better. Don’t you agree? More food variety in a restaurant, more flavors of a jam band, more TV channels, and… We are always looking for more, more and more. no? No! This is just the outer layer of the matter; reality is something else and I think it’s time for us to reconsider. Many choices can have quite the opposite effect and confuse the customers. but how is that possible? Don’t people prefer to be free of choice? It is precisely because of this paradox that this phenomenon is called the paradox of choice.
A scientific experiment in the field of the paradox of choice
To better understand consumer psychology and the paradox of choice, two researchers, Sheena Lingar and Mark Leper, designed a very simple experiment. An experiment that could show the effect of the number of choices on us humans.
They went to a fruit market in the United States and set up a booth to try and sell jams in this market. Halfway through the opening hours, they displayed 24 different flavors of jam, and for the other half, they limited the selection to six flavors. They paid attention to two issues throughout. how many people in each of these two cases:
1. Stopped by to try the jam
2. Bought a jar of jam
And… Surprising results occurred
The results of this experiment did not make sense. When researchers offered 24 flavors, 60% of people stopped by to try jams, but only 3% of them bought a jar of jam. But when there were only six flavors on display, 40% of people stopped by to try jams, and surprisingly, 30% of those people bought a jar of jam.
So even though more people were attracted to a booth with a variety of choices when there were only six choices, the chances of the customer making a purchase increased by at least six times. And this is the paradox of choice. But why does it happen? What’s the psychology behind it?
Why do fewer options increase sales?
When people are faced with a long list of choices, it becomes difficult for them to decide. The more the choices are, the more time they will spend making decisions. Even if it is not in their best interests. Psychologists have named this phenomenon a pressure of choice. That’s when the process of receiving information, evaluating choices, comparing them, and deciding on a purchase becomes so hard that even the buyer may give up his decision. This means that the fewer options there are, the easier it gets for the customer to choose, and as a result sales will increase.
What is the importance of the paradox of choice in the digital world?
Well, apparently in a fruit market, you can get better results with fewer choices. But does this also apply to the online world? Our answer is: do not doubt for a moment! This rule directly affects Internet users and mobile applications. So, if you are willing to make a little change in the design of your website and application and get rid of extra and unreasonable choices, you will see better results. This will even improve the SEO of your website. In the following, we will show you in which cases you can implement this law into action, and we will show you examples of successful brands.
Limit Customer choices as much as possible
You should limit user choices as much as possible. The best example to understand this statement is the home page of a website. You probably have a lot of information to put on your home page. You may have thought that you should provide everything the user needs on the same home page. But now both me and you know that this path is not right. Your question should be: what you can remove from this page? A good design is not possible by putting all the features on the main page. But it becomes possible only when you remove everything you can from the home page.
The home page and of course the other pages of your website should be visually simple, the colors should be carefully selected, the texts should be easy to read and the important content should be emphasized so that the user’s attention is focused on them. You need to make it clear to the user what to do and what your core service is.
What is the focus of this page? What should readers pay attention to? Is there enough emphasis on topics of important matter? Unfortunately, the designers of the Yahoo! website did not ask any of these questions to themselves. There is no emphasis on search, no emphasis on Yahoo sites, and no news. Everything is just displayed on the home page. Instead of helping the user make the most important decision, they are faced with many different choices that only confuse them.
Google is the most visited website and offers a wide variety of services to users. But when you get to the main page, what do you encounter? There is only one decision you can make and that is to search the internet. Google indeed has the best search engine in the world, but that is not the only factor in its success. What makes this service so popular is that anyone can easily use it. All the user has to do is decide what phrase to search, which means there’s no paradox of choice.
Make the choices clear
The complexity of making decisions is not just about a number of choices. The problem can also be the difference between them. You can even offer a variety of choices to the customer, provided the difference between them is clear.
This can be very serious when it comes to buying a computer. Because most buyers do not know the difference between 4 GB RAM and 8 GB RAM. But Apple has found a great way to overcome this challenge. They have reduced the choices and noticed the difference between them. Just visit the company’s website to find out what we mean. For every model of computers and laptops, the company has a brief and understandable explanation.
If you are looking for a lightweight and slim laptop, you should go for the Air model. If you are looking for a small laptop, the mini model is definitely for you. Maybe the price is the issue here… Then you should go for the simple MacBook model. There’s also specialized information about these models, but specialized information is followed by short-brief information about models and is of second-degree importance.
Do not think of yourself that this is only about products. The difference between the options should be very clear in every part of your site. From the main menu categories to the smallest sections. This way your audience won’t be confused and can easily use your website.
Offer your users a choice
When a user has to make a tough decision, the best way to move it forward is to make a suggestion yourself. This technique is used by almost all online stores. These stores offer special offers for a number of their products and introduce a number of their favorite products.
While this can make it much easier for them to make decisions, it probably doesn’t affect them much emotionally. Because today’s customers are well aware that every purchase is in the seller’s best interest. Amazon’s solution to overcome this problem is interesting. The website has a section on its home page titled “What other customers are looking at now.” Since we as human beings like to look for others in new and unfamiliar situations, we will look at these choices.
Or do not let a choice be made at all
The best way to avoid the pressure of decision-making is to eliminate this process. In many situations, we can decide for the user and still put him in this situation. There are two reasons for this. One is that we know that although most users do not want to make decisions, there is a minority of them who are looking for more choices. Second, we think users are looking for more choices because they say so. But by now you must have realized that users do not know what they are looking for and need help. The ability to make decisions at first may give the user the feeling that he is in control of things, but eventually, it will bother him.
But what is our solution to this issue? Should we ignore the minority? Is it possible to sell clothes only in one section? Or limit computers to just one model? It’s simple: Allow your users to choose but choose one option for them by default. This way, you will simplify their work a bit and avoid the paradox of choice as much as possible.
Always keep in mind, the paradox of choice!
Although we like to think that we are perfectly rational beings. But this is not the truth, we never carefully weigh our choices. Especially when we have a difficult decision ahead of us. What do we do instead? We use our subconscious to make decisions, show our constant reactions, and deal emotionally. As a result, we become skeptical and feel out of control. Sometimes even this feeling becomes so strong that we prefer not to decide at all instead of making a wrong decision, and the result is a paradox of choice. Therefore, Sellers, Digital Marketers, website designers, etc. should be careful not to force their customers to make difficult decisions.
