Starting as a shoe salesman in the 1950's, Ben Prober went on to own a very successful chain of women's shoe stores. The prices at his stores weren't the cheapest. The selections weren't that much different from any other shoe store in town. And the stores themselves were pretty basic. They were nice enough, but nothing that our design-and-experience obsessed era would consider a competitive advantage.
With no apparent superior offering or value added, how did Prober Shoes managed to outsell their competition year after year after year?
When asked the secret to his great success, Ben would reply simply, "two, not three." You see, Ben understood something about human beings that modern business has long forgotten: more choice is bad.
When a lady came into one of his shops, the odds were good that she would want to try on more than one pair of shoes. If she already had two styles to choose from and asked for a third option Ben would reply, "Of course, madam, I'd be happy to fetch you the style of your choice. And, which one would you like me to take away?"
What Ben learned is that when his customers had two options, they could easily make a choice which style they preferred. However, when they had three or more to choose from, they had more trouble making a decision and, more often than not, left the store without any pair of shoes.
Even if customers think they want more choice, the facts are overwhelmingly against them. Not only are we more likely to make a purchase with fewer options, but the confidence we have in our choices and satisfaction we get from those choices is considerably higher than if we are forced to choose from a larger selection. In other words, the only result of competing with "more," is less.
It may pay for us to look back on the days when helping people make decisions was more about actually helping them make a decision. Despite all our advances in getting more products to market, it turns out how people decide hasn't changed at all.
I certainly enjoyed the way you explore your experience and knowledge about the subject..PSD to WordPress
Posted by: Account Deleted | 04/24/2012 at 03:17 AM
+1 for Barry Schwartz - this is covered in his book "The Paradox of Choice" which is a great read.
Posted by: Johnjwall | 04/11/2012 at 04:24 PM
I love the way you expressed your thoughts in your blog post.. Very interesting indeed!
http://a1servicescincy.com/
Posted by: Account Deleted | 04/10/2012 at 08:46 AM
Great lesson learned here. Working as for a WordPress design firm, in Arizona we always see a project gets stopped when we present too ways to tackle or approach the job. The projects that sail smoothly are the ones that we assert our expertise and say, "this is how you need to go about things."
We all want to empower our clients with options, but we actually end up overwhelming them. This was a perfect read for today. Thanks.
Posted by: Greg Taylor | 03/22/2012 at 10:20 AM
I feel the same way when I go to a restaurant...more on the menu is overwhelming, not appealing. As always, nice work Simon.
Posted by: Laura Gironda | 03/22/2012 at 08:40 AM
True show story... a few years ago Joanne and I were in Shenzen China and we went ot a show store where shoes that would be $120 in Australia were $8 - EXACTLY the same as home.
Problem: there were 30 colours to choose from. To this day Joanne regrets not buying more but she got just 3 becuase there were "too many colours to choose from."
Posted by: Wayne Mansfield | 03/21/2012 at 06:02 AM
Every time I read an article about this idea, especially one that's well written, it baffles me that more businesses - which are usually run by intelligent people - don't keep this principle in mind!
Thanks Simon, and thanks Gcouros for the TED link. That's a good one!
Posted by: Ben Holt | 03/20/2012 at 05:31 PM
Again, I love your writing. If you haven't seen this Barry Schwartz Ted Talk, it is definitely applicable to what you are discussing:
http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html
Posted by: Gcouros | 03/20/2012 at 02:40 PM