Choice Overload

I remember painting my apartment a few years ago and agonizing over hundreds of shades of colors. (Do you know there are over 100 shades of white?) I was wrestling with a pretty golden color and spent days studying 50 different color chips on my wall. Thankfully, my Aunt was in town and forced me to pick from 3 of them. I was eternally grateful (and ended up with a gorgeous apartment.) Too many choices can be paralyzing.

The average American supermarket now carries 48,750 items—up from 5 times the number (9,750) in 1975. Britain’s Tesco stocks 93 varieties of toothpaste and 91 different shampoos. Think about it. Do you want a moisturizer that softens, refreshes, nourishes, conditions, smoothes, rejuvenates, revitalizes, firms, lifts or has de-ageing properties? Or one that has antioxidants, vitamins or minerals, or is chemical and paraben free? Shopping can be exhausting…

Starbucks has endless ways to order a cup of coffee: different sizes (short, tall grande, etc); styles (Latte, Mocha, espresso etc), milk type (Non-fat, 2%, Soy), syrups (15 flavors), caffeination, espresso shots (single, double), whipped cream, etc. Apparently, with only one syrup the Starbucks framework offers almost 200 million variations. Add a second syrup and there are over 1.3 billion variations. There are over 15 syrups. So there are billions of variations? Wow.

I’m all about selection. Literally. (I’m in the agency selection business.) Free choice is the basis of the free market system. However, there is a point that too many options become intimidating and lead to indecision.

Studies have shown that shoppers that have limited choices buy more. Some firms have cut down and eliminated SKUs to help make decision process easier. P&G cut its product line of Head & Shoulders shampoos from 26 to 15 and increased sales by 10%. Glidden (paint) reduced its palette of wall colors from 1000 to 282. (I’d appreciate that now!)

When overwhelmed with options, sometime it’s easier not to make a choice. Even on Facebook, you have a choice to RSVP for an event: yes, no or maybe. You don’t have to make a decision at all.

So it seems like some choice and selection is good, necessary and liberating. But a staggering selection isn’t necessarily better, and can lead to anxiety, indecision and be overwhelming. I think the lesson is to have a manageable, intelligent selection. That sounds like a smart choice…