Choose or not to Choose

http://www.ted.com/talks/sheena_iyengar_choosing_what_to_choose.html

Sheena Lyengar discussed the research on the idea to when an individual is presented with "to many" choices, they (The Individuals) simple choose not to choose, even if by not choosing goes against their best interests.

The bottom line is that by cutting/reducing consumer choice actually resulted in increased sales and profits.

How does this align with EIS.  Well, in eCommerce, let's use CDW for instance, when you search for a product, say RAM, you get 7,800 returns on things dealing RAM.  So by using Lyengar's idea of "Cutting" but let's put a twist on that, by letting the consumer reduce the options/choices, should then result in CDW improving profits and sales.

The second piece of advice that Lyengar provided, is that consumers must wholly be able to comprehend risk.  What this means, risk is usually presented to consumers on long boring legal jargon, that even the best lawyers in the world would have problems understanding.  She recommends presenting risks in an easily and immediately understandable method.

Going back to the RAM example, the search for RAM on CDW's website returned 7,800 options.  Ok, they must have a lot RAM, or equipment that has RAM.  But let's say that you need Buffered RAM for a server.  So using Lyengar points here, if CDW placed a picture next to, or even over the image of the RAM that indicated that it was or was not designed for servers, than at that point the consumer would be able to immediately understand the risk.

So in conclusion, to choose or not to choose comes down to 2 primary points: (1) reduce the number of choices, and (2) Ensure that risk is understood immediately.

Tim