22 September 2022
By Roger Kennedy
roger@TheCork.ie
There is no denying that over recent years, the choices that consumers have when it comes to buying products and services have grown significantly. Not only is there more choice in the brands that we shop with or the industry experts that we seek advice from, but even when we have picked where want to shop there are usually large ranges of products to choose from. It doesn’t matter whether that’s choosing which shampoo we want or want we want for lunch, the choices are usually vast and some say that this choice is making things too complicated for customers.
How Much Choice is Too Much?
Forbes recently surveyed over 7,400 people and how they felt about choice & their perceptions surrounding this. The survey results were interesting, with the US coming top among consumers that felt they had a choice overload. However, it is also within the food and drink industry that this was most felt – for example, when trying to choose what drink they wanted to have for lunch.
One industry that successfully offers plenty of choices is the online gaming industry. Over recent years society has embraced online gaming more than ever, which means that the choice of games available has been very welcome. Casinos like Spinbit offer more than 300 games at a time and find that their customers really enjoy this choice. A variety of games helps to keep things interesting for players and rather than feeling overwhelmed, online casino customers, tend to enjoy jumping from one game to another in order to try their luck.
Finding The Right Balance
What the research did show was that different countries had different expectations and felt overwhelmed with choices in different ways. And in fact, there are still plenty of people that feel some industries or brands don’t offer enough choice at all. The part of the world customers are in makes a big difference too – although this could be down to both customer expectations and the fact that different countries have different levels of product numbers available. For example, on average 28% of people surveyed in the US said that they had experienced choice overload in the past, whereas in India this is just 5%.
There is no doubt that audiences are starting to expect more as standard, although there could be a risk of companies offering too much & overcomplicating things when they don’t need to. Businesses should take time out to understand their customer base and make sure they offer what their customers need – and not too much, or too little.