Don’t overwhelm consumers with choiceWhen a default option isn’t possible, marketers must be wary of generating “choiceoverload,” which makes consumers less likely to purchase. In a classic fieldexperiment, some grocery store shoppers were offered the chance to taste a selectionof 24 jams, while others were offered only 6. The greater variety drew more shoppersto sample the jams, but few made a purchase. By contrast, although fewer consumersstopped to taste the 6 jams on offer, sales from this group were more than five timeshigher.1Large in-store assortments work against marketers in at least two ways. First, thesechoices make consumers work harder to find their preferred option, a potentialbarrier to purchase. Second, large assortments increase the likelihood that eachchoice will become imbued with a “negative halo”—a heightened awareness thatevery option requires you to forgo desirable features available in some other product.Reducing the number of options makes people likelier not only to reach a decision butalso to feel more satisfied with their choice.