Decisions, Distractions and Death

When it comes to sales – freedom, options, and choice are more like decisions, distractions, and death.

In his groundbreaking book The Paradox of Choice, psychologist Barry Schwartz reveals how freedom and choice can be a bad thing.

The more choices we have, the more anxiety we have around making a decision.

And then, when we do decide, a greater number of choices means we have less satisfaction with the decisions we make.

Although it may seem that an increased number of options available to us would provide us with more comfort, and more opportunity to find the product that fit our needs the best, the research suggests that an increased number of choices makes us less likely to buy.

In one study, researches set up a display of exotic, high-quality jams in a gourmet food store. People who visited the display could taste samples, and would be given a discount coupon for purchasing a jar of jam for themselves.

The researchers set up their display twice – once with a selection of 6 jam varieties, the other with a selection of 24 varieties.

The larger display – with 24 jam varieties – attracted more people than the smaller display.

However, when it came time to buy, only 3% of visitors to the larger display purchased – versus 30% of visitors to the smaller display.

When it comes to sales – freedom, options, and choice are more like decisions, distractions, and death.