We all like choices. They provide opportunities to locate the simplest solution. However our brains want to keep things simple. When you offer your shoppers too many decisions, they usually can’t come to a decision and grow to be leaving.
For example, i lately went to an airport bookstore in finding some light reading for a plane. The shop contained hundreds of books. Although they were categorized — mystery, romance, horror, nonfiction — i used to be overwhelmed with choices and couldn’t make up my mind. All of them looked good, but in spite of everything I opted to shop nothing.
What happened? Choice paralysis. It occurs when individuals are presented with too many options. Choosing takes work and the more choices people must make, the fewer they would like to do it.
Websites Can help you People Choose
People are likely to organize information into groups of 3 or four — a process called “chunking.” Bring to mind your phone number or social security number. It’s grouped for simple remembering and processing.
Consumers who come in your website have a mental model of the way it’s going to work in response to their past experiences with similar sites or their familiarity with the subject material. Organization is fundamental. Matching that mental expectation reduces the quantity of thinking required, making it easier for visitors to make decisions.
Ecommerce Businesses
For example, a chum is renovating his bathroom and desires to reserve a clawfoot tub. After searching, he finds several websites.
The first, The bath Connection, has 15 rows of tubs. Inside the yellow highlighted section, below, you’ll find it offers 44 tub choices and that every page can display 54 choices. Moreover, this site assumes that he knows the tub’s brand.
The Tub Connection’s main category page, where tubs are sorted by brand.
The menu at the left of that page lists “Soaking Tubs” after which offers the subcategory of “Clawfoot Tubs” with an extra breakdown of “Acrylic Clawfoot Tubs,” “Cast Iron Clawfoot Tubs,” “Clawfoot Slipper Tubs,” and “Dual Ended Clawfoot Tubs.”
The Tub Connection’s clawfoot tub menu listing sorts of soaking tubs
Using these categories — not brand names — can be easier for average consumers who’ve not narrowed their purchase to a brand. Since individuals are visual, using the kind of tub category could increase customer engagement and conversions.
The second site, Elizabethan Classics, has fewer tubs. They seem very similar — see the blue highlighted area below — and it’s difficult to differentiate what makes one better than the opposite. Also, the white tubs are on a white background and the descriptive text appears as gray links.
Elizabethan Classics’ website showing many similar clawfoot tub pictures
The third site, Vintage Tub and Bath, simplifies the selections by categorizing as “Classic Tubs,” “Double Ended Tubs,” “Slipper Tubs,” “Double Slipper Tubs,” and “Pedestal & Freestanding Tubs.”
Vintage Tub and Bath’s website offering limited choices in keeping with finely-honed categories.
After creating a selection from these broad category choices, the positioning then offers another category page to drill all the way down to the final word tub choice.
Types of Classic Clawfoot Tubs are subcategorized in subsequent category page.
Service Businesses
Service businesses often offer many solutions. But if prospects come to these websites, it’s frequently confusing.
For example, Outsource IT Solutions Group, in Illinois, offers 20 different services.
IT Solutions’ website with dropdown menu offering their visitors 20 different services.
Depending on its targeted customers, this menu can be overwhelming. The options offered require that visitors understand them. On this instance, would it not be better to prepare in keeping with client size or selection of computers? If the organization of your menus doesn’t slot in with the mental model of your site’s visitors, they could leave your site and begin your competitors.
Conclusion
Limit choices to four if possible. When creating category pages, use a grid of not more than 12 choices. When shoppers want to make a sequence of selections, provide strong calls to action or pathways to lead them to the following logical step.
Keep it simple. Provide visual cues to aid your site’s visitors decide. These cues can include comparisons, checklists, or detailed pictures.