Everyone knows customers want choice. But how much choice is too much?

Imagine walking into a hair salon. You're greeted by a display crammed with every product the brand offers — all 150 of them. Or consider a fashion store T Shirt collection, with the graphic design repeated in four colors, offered in both in long and short sleeves, and with both crew and V-necks. The first example is clearly confusing and a bit overwhelming. In the second example customers are not really been offered true choice. If they don't like the graphic used on the T-Shirts, they won't consider any of the 16 different combinations offered.

Several retail studies highlight a curious paradox: When confronted with a plethora of options, customers often feel overwhelmed. Instead of comparing the pros and cons of each product, they opt to leave without purchasing anything.

In my experience, any product that sits to close to another product within a range, a product that doesnt offer customers , such as offering a twin pack of 10 Ml bottle of essential oils and a single bottle of 25 Ml of the same oils, will hardly add any sales. Instead, it merely divides existing sales across a larger pool of SKUs. This can lead to higher costs associated with managing these SKUs, tying up cash due to minimum order quantities, and a greater risk of wastage. there's a threshold beyond which adding more options doesn’t translate to more sales. Instead, it merely divides existing sales across a larger pool of SKUs. This can lead to higher costs associated with managing these SKUs, tying up cash due to minimum order quantities, and a greater risk of wastage.

So, how can your bussines effectively navigate this balance? Here are some strategies:

1 Prioritize Meaningful Choice: Before adding a new product to your lineup, ask if it complements your existing offerings or merely serves as an alternative. The aim is to provide options without diluting the essence of your range.

2 Limit the amounts on the shelves, thus creating a clear, concise and easy to shop offering for your client.

3 Group products in stories or collections, again making much easier for clients to shop, to pick up several products, UPT is a great KPI to track.

4 Implement a good/better/best architecture, or entry/mid & exit price point, to categorise your product offer, and compare it to your actual sales.

Aveda Price architecture

Shampure™ Nurturing shampoo 1L - £60 ( Entry Price Point / Good )

Nutriplenish™ Light Moisture Shampoo 1L - £90 ( Mid Price Point / Better )

Invati Advanced™ Exfoliating Shampoo Light 1L - £120 ( Exit Price Point / Exit )

Aveda Price architecture - a clear, defined structure with Shampure as Good, their bread and butter range, core product. Nutriplenish would be their Better range, clients trade up to a product with added features. Finally, Invati as their Best range or exit price point.

The art of choice: striking the right balance in your retail offer

It is worth remembering that an exit price point in one business could easily be an entry price point a few doors down the road. Shampure will be the top end offer at an independent hair salon in Edgware road, while opening the offer at the hair salon in Selfridges.

If you buy by collection you must ensure that you offer a representation across each of the price points, at least the relevant price points. If 95% of your sales are at £60 price point, your exit price should be £90. You always want to be

On a multibrand environment, brands could facilitate the segmentation, with one brand covering entry price point, while another cover your higher price range

5 Create a basic planogram, a basic drawing of the retail space, a visual aid to help you record how many different products you can hold. This will give you the maximum number of options you can, although behind each line that will 2 or 3 units of the same product. You may also decide to have multiple facings of one product; placing a best seller in two or three different locations.

On a final note, the best sales pitch is your endorsment of a product as the expert in the field, something your client will not get in Amazon. However, endorsing and believing in every becomes very difficult when you got too many options.