A famous study offered shoppers jam samples at a grocery store. One day, there were 24 flavors to choose from. Another day, just 6.
The table with 24 jams attracted more attention. People stopped to look. But here’s what matters: the table with 6 jams sold ten times more.
We think we want lots of options. We’re wrong. Too many choices create paralysis. The brain gets overwhelmed, can’t decide, and chooses the easiest option: walk away.
This is where choice architecture comes in. You’re not just a store owner—you’re the architect of decisions. And if you design a confusing building, people will leave.
The Brain on Choices
Every decision costs mental energy. Literally—the brain uses glucose to process options, weigh trade-offs, and make choices.
Decision Fatigue
After making many decisions, the quality of our choices deteriorates. We either make poor choices or make no choice at all.
A customer who faces 47 color options, 5 sizes, 3 materials, and 4 bundle configurations isn’t excited by variety. They’re exhausted by it. Their brain is depleting resources just to understand the options.
The Paradox of Choice
More options feel better in theory. In practice:
- More options increase anxiety about choosing wrong
- More options make comparison harder
- More options delay decisions (often indefinitely)
- More options reduce satisfaction with whatever is chosen (“Maybe I should have picked the other one…”)
Less is genuinely more when it comes to purchase decisions.
Strategy 1: Goldilocks Pricing
This strategy uses a “decoy” option to make your preferred option look better.
How It Works
Imagine a coffee shop:
- Small: $3
- Medium: $6.50
- Large: $7
The large is only $0.50 more than the medium—but it’s probably not what you need. However, the comparison makes the medium look reasonable. If only small and large existed, you might choose small. With the medium there, the pricing architecture nudges you up.
Shopify Application
Structure your bundles or tiers to make the middle option the obvious winner:
| Option | What’s Included | Price | Per-Unit Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | 1 item | $25 | $25 |
| Popular | 3 items | $60 | $20 |
| Premium | 5 items | $95 | $19 |
The middle option (“Popular”) looks like the smart choice. It’s marked as popular, it offers good value per unit, and it’s not the cheapest (so the customer doesn’t feel cheap) or the most expensive (so it feels safe).
Label Your Architecture
Don’t just rely on pricing. Use labels:
- “Most Popular”
- “Best Value”
- “Recommended”
These reduce decision-making effort. The customer thinks: “The store is telling me this is the best choice. I’ll trust that.”
Strategy 2: Default Bias
Humans are lazy decision-makers. Given an option to accept a default or change it, most people accept the default.
The Power of Pre-Selection
If a variant is pre-selected, customers are more likely to buy it—even if it’s not what they would have chosen unprompted.
This isn’t manipulation if the default is genuinely good for the customer. It becomes a service: “We’ve chosen what most people prefer. You can change it if you want.”
Where to Use Defaults
- Size/variant selection: Pre-select your most popular size
- Subscription vs. one-time: If subscription offers better value, make it the default
- Product configuration: Start with a recommended configuration
- Checkout options: Pre-select standard shipping unless expedited is needed
Ethical Defaults
The rule: only default to things that genuinely serve the customer. Pre-selecting an expensive add-on they don’t need is dark pattern territory. Pre-selecting the most popular size is helpful service.
Strategy 3: Smart Categorization
If you have many options, organize them into meaningful groups. This preserves variety while reducing overwhelm.
From 50 Options to 4 Categories
Instead of showing 50 scents as 50 equal choices:
- Group them: Woody, Floral, Fresh, Spicy
- Customer picks a category (easy choice among 4)
- Then picks within the category (easier choice among ~12)
The total options haven’t changed. But the decision architecture has. Instead of one overwhelming choice among 50, there are two manageable choices.
Progressive Disclosure
Show information and options in stages, not all at once.
- First screen: Pick your main category
- Second screen: Choose your variant
- Third screen: Add customizations if desired
Each step is simple. The complexity is the same; the experience is completely different.
Guided Selling
Quizzes and recommendation engines are progressive disclosure in action. Instead of showing everything, you ask questions and narrow down to what fits.
“What’s this for? Work or casual?” → Show relevant options only.
The customer feels guided, not overwhelmed.
Strategy 4: Visual Hierarchy
How options are displayed affects which ones get chosen.
What Gets Attention Gets Chosen
- Position: First and last items in a list get more attention
- Size: Larger images draw eyes
- Color: Highlighted options stand out
- Badges: “Best Seller” or “New” tags direct attention
You can use these to guide customers toward options you want them to consider—ideally options that are genuinely good matches.
Reduce Visual Noise
Every element on the page competes for attention. More elements mean more competition, more noise, harder decisions.
Remove options that don’t sell. Hide variants that confuse. Show only what matters. Cleaner pages convert better because the decision is clearer.
When Customers Get Stuck
Sometimes people toggle between options, unable to decide. You can see this in analytics: they view one variant, then another, then back, then leave.
This indecision is a signal. The architecture isn’t working for them.
Growth Suite detects this toggling behavior and can respond with timely interventions—perhaps surfacing a comparison chart, highlighting which option is the best seller, or offering a small incentive to choose. Instead of letting the customer spin in decision paralysis, you provide a gentle nudge that simplifies their choice.
The Reduction Test
Here’s a practical experiment for your store:
- Find your product with the most variants
- Hide half of them (pick the lowest-selling or most confusing ones)
- Watch what happens to conversions
Most stores see conversions increase when options decrease. The remaining options get more attention, decisions become easier, and more people buy.
This feels counterintuitive. “But customers want variety!” They think they do. What they actually want is to make a good decision easily.
Architecture Principles
Keep these principles in mind when designing product options:
- Limit choices per decision: 3-5 options per category is usually ideal
- Make one option obviously best: Use labels, pricing, and position
- Set smart defaults: Pre-select good options to reduce effort
- Organize complexity: Categories and progressive disclosure tame large catalogs
- Remove friction: Every click, every field, every question is a potential drop-off
- Test reductions: Try removing options and measure the result
Key Takeaways
- More choices don’t mean more sales — The jam study proved this: 6 options outsold 24 options by 10x
- Decisions cost mental energy — Every variant drains cognitive resources
- Goldilocks pricing nudges to the middle — Use decoy options to make preferred choices obvious
- Defaults are powerful — Pre-select options that serve customers well
- Categorization reduces overwhelm — Group many options into a few categories
- Progressive disclosure spreads decisions — Step-by-step is easier than all-at-once
- Test by removing — Hide variants and see if conversions improve
Good design isn’t just pretty—it’s decisive. Your product page is a decision environment. You built it. If customers can’t decide, that’s an architecture problem, not a customer problem. Look at your highest-variant product right now. Could you hide half the options without losing anything important? Try it. You might be surprised how much simpler decisions lead to more purchases.
