Webmaster 101

Don’t give the customers too much choice

The general impression goes that more the array of products to choose from, the less are the chances that the customer will buy the. The simple logic behind this statement is that the more the choices, more will the customer get confused, and then finally end up not buying anything. A survey done in the supermarkets says exactly that. The amount of choices confuses the customer and thus they end up not buying anything and simply walking out. This is a phenomenon called paralysis of choice.

· The criterion that people often chose when choosing a good which had a lot of varieties was very often the wrong criterion as analyzed by the study.

· The more are the choices that you give to the customers, the more are their expectations and the greater their dissatisfaction if the product is not quite up to the expectations.

The option that the people have when they have a lot of choices is that they When people have more choices, they expect more, because they expect that they will be able to choose the exact item that meets their needs perfectly. When there is no choice, there is no further expectation from a product, but when u give choices to a consumer, the satisfaction is decreased because the expectation gets increased which otherwise settles for a product that is just good enough.

To bring these points into the complex virtual web, the webmasters need to look into the following points:-

· Reduction of the number of choices that you offer on your website, whether it is retail, or just a general site, do not keep too many options.

· Your site will be much better if a product comparison chart is provided, analyzing the like products and thus highlighting your advantages.

· User defaults that apply to mot people should be selected.

· Interface should be simple and noninvasive. Whatever other options you want to keep just keep them in the other options tab.

DO NOT MAKE RECOMMENDATIONS. This leads to consumer paralysis.

Filed under: E-Commerce