Making a decision to buy a product from an ecommerce store can feel completely overwhelming when all of the potential outcomes\/risks are considered, particularly those that stem from making the wrong choice.<\/p>\n
Studies have shown that humans need the appropriate amount of options associated with choices in order to make the best possible decisions.<\/p>\n
Having too many good options can be frustrating because each option must be analyzed against the others to help determine which is best. Too few options just leave human beings longing for more.<\/p>\n
Hence, one of the ultimate struggles for online retailers: finding the correct balance of having the appropriate amount of products for customers to choose from compared to overwhelming people with things to buy.<\/p>\n
Bloomreach has set out to help businesses mitigate this paradox of choice<\/a> issue in 2021.<\/p>\n As the world has seen shopping habits change due to the unforeseen circumstances of 2020, paradox of choice issues should be a major consideration for ecommerce fashion retailers moving forward.<\/p>\n With all sorts of new types of shoppers online, how can your online retail shop help these new potential customers to not feel paralyzed by the wide variety of options that are now at their fingertips on your website?<\/p>\n To understand how to best serve your customers, businesses must first have an understanding of who their shoppers are and how they behave.<\/p>\n While it is impossible to know that information for each individual browsing your website, having a general idea of the population you are serving is essential.<\/p>\n Phil Graves<\/a> is a consumer behavior consultant and author of the book Consumer.ology, The Market Research Myth, The Truth About Consumers and The Psychology of Shopping<\/a>. In collaboration with Graves, Bloomreach commissioned a behavioral analysis study to understand more about the shoppers who have made the shift from shopping at brick-and-mortar stores to shopping online during 2020. <\/p>\n According to Consumer.ology, people are extremely bad at understanding their own decision making and behavior. In a sense, humans do not truly know themselves because we are not able to tap into our subconscious mind to understand the root of our behavioral patterns.<\/p>\n Therefore, setting up your ecommerce shop with the right amount of product choices is essential because it is very difficult to predict how human beings will react to choice overload, or to not having enough options of a particular style or product.<\/p>\n \u201cMost research is obsessed with statistical validity,\u201d Graves said. \u201cWhat it completely abandons is psychological validity. To what extent are people capable of answering the questions being asked? Oftentimes, they aren\u2019t qualified to answer the questions because they don\u2019t understand their own behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n The results of Bloomreach\u2019s study were eye-opening, to say the least. Get our Paradox of Choice in Ecommerce guide to see the complete results and several different strategies that your business can use to alleviate paradox of choice issues with online shoppers.<\/p>\n Here are some quick hitters to whet your appetite before you download the guide: <\/strong><\/p>\n Bloomreach\u2019s Customer Data & Experience Platform<\/a> is well-equipped to help businesses deal with paradox of choice issues.<\/p>\n Whether it\u2019s pushing reassuring information to shoppers with a weblayer, using the vouchers tool to send shoppers who want to save a discount, or retargeting relevant ads to users, the CDXP<\/a> is built to help you retain customers as a business and to provide the best experience for your customers in your online store. <\/p>\n\n