The Choice Overload Effect: Why simplicity is the key to perfecting your experience
“The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.”
— William James
Have you ever experienced analysis paralysis? It’s that feeling of anxiety when you have so much information that any action feels like the wrong one, so you don’t do anything at all.
As marketers, we often assume that giving people more information is better. But to customers, more options can be paralyzing.
Too many choices will overwhelm, but just enough will drive sales
In a famous study conducted at Columbia University, a research team set up a booth of jam samples. Every few hours they would switch from a selection of 24 jams to a group of six jams.
When there were 24 jams, 60% of customers would stop to get a sample, and 3% of these customers would buy a jar. When there were six jams on display, only 40% stopped. But here’s the interesting part — 30% of these people bought jam.
Lots of options attracted customers to browse, but fewer choices got them to buy.
