The DRMA Masters Course — Assortment Variety: Too Much of a Good Thing

One of the advantages of online retailing is that you don’t have the constraint of physical space, soassortment variety can be much larger. However, when there are more choices, people can be more likely to delay making a choice, can make worse choices, or can ironically be less satisfied with the choices they ultimately make. Dr. Barbara Kahn of the Wharton School of Business will distinguish between actual variety (the number of SKUs offered, either online or offline) and perceived variety (the amount of variety that consumers caneasily process). She also will illustrate various strategies that increases perceived variety (and thus increases conversion and purchase quantity) both when actual variety is low or when actual variety is overwhelming.

This activity is sponsored by: