Research On Moderators Of Choice Overload Effect

Nowadays,we always face with a serious of choices such as choosing breakfast,investment projects or even our partners.Although it seems that more options are more attractive,sometimes too many choices may lead to negative outcomes like the decrease of purchase motivation and satisfaction.When shopping,we often face with two situations:(1)choose from a relative desirable choice set,in which options are attractive;(2)choose from an undesirable choice set,in which options are unattractive.In these two situations,the problem is not the lack of options to choose from,but the difficulty to choose from a large choice set.A lot of studies have suggested that people do not always feel pleasant through choice,and sometime they may become "hesitant" or even "painful",so choice overload happens.Choice overload reflects the negative effect when people face with too many options,such as longer time to make a decision,higher probability of feeling regret,lower confidence,lower satisfaction and reduced purchase behaviors[1].One online shop owner has recognized this problem and reduced their types of certain products by 94%,and the result shows that their average revenue increased 11%[2]With the intense market competition,manufacturers have spared no effort to design as many kinds of products to meet consumers’ need with different budget,different preferences.In order to expand market share,there are both high-end products and low-end products,and compared to low-end products,consumers are relatively satisfied with high-end products.Although there are obvious differences between products within an enterprise,however,consumers usually need to choose high-end products or low-end products from different enterprises.We call the relatively satisfying choice sets as relative desirable choice sets and those with relatively unsatisfying choice sets as undesirable choice sets.Products in relative desirable choice set or undesirable choice set are difficult to distinguish which is better,so consumers always feel confused to make a choice.The more options a choice set has,the more difficult to make a choice,which will result in more tangled or more painful,and even result in lower purchase intentions[3].On the other hand,however,having more choices is often considered as an important prerequisite for personal freedom:choices ensure that people can choose their own way of life according to their own will[4].Therefore,it is considered that the negative experience caused by increased number of options is not an issue of whether it will happen,but when it will happen[5].So this paper studies whether the desirability of choice set will moderate the choice overload effect,specifically the choice difficulty and choice deferral rates.Through behavioral experiment and matlab simulation,we find that with the increased number of options,undesirable choice sets are more likely to result in choice overload effect,which can be reflected by increased choice difficulty and higher referral rate,while it is non-significant for relatively desirable choice set.This research will have theoretical implications for choice overload effect,and the findings will guide the design and planning of enterprise products,channel sales method and strategies,and can provide advice for manufacture enterprises and sales enterprises.