More options don’t lead to better customer decisions

I almost had a meltdown in the Tesco cereal aisle at the weekend.

I was doing the dreaded stock up shop, where I realised I’ve let all my cupboard essentials get down to a critical level and then have a long list of things I need to buy. But this shop was different. I told myself I am in my healthy summer era and would explore the aisles and Try Something New. (Read: Not get the chocolate flavoured version of everything).

So there I was, standing in the cereal aisle. Suddenly surrounded by a sea of options, feeling more overwhelmed than empowered with that goal. What should’ve been a simple, satisfying choice turned into a slow spiral of indecision with me second-guessing and trying to understand the ingredients on hundreds of different boxes.

It lasted about 60 seconds. Then I naturally resorted to the same cereal I buy every few weeks even when I’m not sure I even really like them.

Weetabix choc chip crispy minis, I’m looking at you. Tescos’ 358 different cereal choices on your website (yes I checked), I’m blaming you.

Shop online you say? This was somehow harder than finding the cereal aisle

This is decision fatigue in action. And to comfort myself, it’s very common for people to default to the same thing they always choose, or just abandon the choice all together, when faced with that overwhelm.

It’s the same reason I always struggle to buy from ASOS or can never make my mind up on what to watch on Netflix. I know it's not just me.

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A few weeks ago, my boyfriend and I stopped ourselves when we realised we were spending more time deciding on what takeaway to have than we would actually eating it. We instead decided to each pick two food categories and put them into a decision spinner app. When the type of takeaway was decided for us (I won with Thai!), the amount of options were massively decreased, and we were quick to agree on a specific Thai restaurant from that list.

That’s because reducing options leads to faster, better decisions.

And this is a crucial part of business psychology that people miss when defining their services and products.

Let me get to the point:

I’ve recently been reflecting on my own services and so took myself back to the start of my freelance journey to look at everything I worked on in the first 12 months, to remind myself of all the different services I’ve offered and help me decide on a direction. That list was chaotic, looking bit like this:

• 6 different processes and variations of full website design (across 2 different platforms)

• 2 different types of website audits

• Variations of a one off SEO audit, a 3 month SEO process, an ongoing SEO retainer

• Variations of different website strategy and business strategy workshops and sprint weeks

• Other (random) services like creating a magazine, presentation design, social media support, marketing support.

If someone had landed on my first site and thought “I need help with my website”, they were met with a buffet of options that would’ve made them question what they even needed.

Unsurprisingly, I had a very low conversion rate, and those that did reach out to me were often confused. I was giving potential customers all the choices to be ‘helpful’, but with the more I gave, the less they chose.

This isn’t just anecdotal. It’s behavioural psychology.

I imagine most people have now heard of the "jam study" by Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper (2000), but in case you haven’t, here’s a quick summary:

In a busy grocery store, researchers set up two tasting stations. One offered 24 types of jam. The other offered just 6. More people stopped at the 24-jam table. But only 3% of them made a purchase.

At the 6-jam table, a full 31% bought something.

More options drew attention. But fewer options drove action.

And this is exactly what we need to remember when we design service pages, sales flows, or even call-to-action buttons.Cognitive overload = inaction.

As humans, we can only hold around 3 or 4 things in our short-term memory at a time. If your website presents 7 packages, 6 pricing tiers, 12 add-ons, and multiple different next steps? Even if your visitors want what you offer, they’ll be leaving your website just like they left the 24-jam table.

Now, I keep it simple. I offer just 4 services. 3 of these are a core phase, the 4th is the full package combination. That’s it.

I do still have 3 tiers within my Website Design service, but I don’t present those upfront when talking about all my services. Once a client knows they want a website, I guide them to the best-fit tier based on clear criteria. Sometimes I even choose for them. Because I’m the expert and that’s what they’re paying for.

So this again fits within that rule of 4.

There is surely more to life than filtering on cereals

This can show up at so many points in your business strategy and on your website, but these are the top 3 I see:

• Service pages with over 6 different packages: It might seem helpful to cater to every possible person, but trust me it’s not. I recommend picking your best 2 to 3 offers and highlighting those. If you have more, offer a free discovery call for a personalised quote, or combine smaller add-on services into a bullet point list (again of ideally max 4) to hint at what that custom quote could include.

• Pricing tables with endless variations: If you do have lots of different add on options to your different services, don’t overwhelm users by trying to display this all at once. Highlight your 3 ‘core’ paths, or split out different options into different customer types, displaying the best 3 options for them.

• Multiple call to actions: This is always a pet peeve of mine. And for this, I recommend ignoring the rule of 4 and using a rule of one. Just offer ONE clear next step, everything else really is just noise.

Next time you feel tempted to add another service, package, tier or button, remember that nobody has ever said "I wish that website had more options to choose from."

So no Tesco, I do not want 358 different types of cereal to be available on your website. And yes, if you’re ready to simplify your site, I’d love to help. You can check out my 4 services here.

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