Maybe we shouldn't offer consumer so much choice
Loreen Epp, Director, Retail Ideas -- Furniture Today, April 10, 2005
A bigger store is better than a smaller one, right? Everyone knows consumers want lots of choices, and they'd rather choose between 60 sofas than just 10 to find their perfect style, right?
Unfortunately, the big-choice theory doesn't translate so well in furniture. Unlike big-box mass merchants who are strongly category focused, furniture stores often scatter categories and collections throughout a large store to enhance the shopping experience. We're pretty sure we're doing consumers a favor by offering more. After all, if the consumer is insecure about how to furnish their room, a bigger selection will fix all that, right?
So how is it that Pottery Barn, with just a couple of sofas, bedrooms and dining rooms, is such a busy retailer today? And how can Costco put one bedroom on its floors and sell several thousand in just a few weeks? There's little choice at Pottery Barn, and sometimes no choice at Costco — one style, one color, one price, one solution. Did consumers forfeit style or choice because of a good price? Or was it just easier than wading through too many choices elsewhere?
I sat next to a Costco buyer on a long flight not that long ago, and had an intriguing conversation. Rather than fill the store with product options, this buyer's mission was to find just a couple of SKUs, the right SKUs. In his fabric/leather category that season, he was buying 12 SKUs. That's 12 items, not 12 groups.
Costco buyers do a lot of homework. They search and research the best looks, trends and consumer hot spots, so their offerings are compelling. And with literally boatloads of inventory to support those 12 SKUs, he's got to be right.
It comes down to focus, and I wonder if we've made it too easy to be wrong. Have we created so much retail space, or so many product options, that we're not only complicating the customer's already uncertain mind, but hurting our bottom line as we constantly drop, add and change products?
Imagine what might happen if we took time to study our customers, test product ideas and measure product performance rather than buying more product before last market's products are in yet. How much more profitable would we be if we drove more sales off fewer products? What if we took time to develop unique brands and products with distinct customer benefits rather than chase knockoffs?
And how much happier would customers be if they believed our products were the very best we could find, not just everything we could find — and got delivery faster?
Today's consumers have less time (or desire) to shop. Is it possible that a growing number may actually value less choice, faster ways to shop, and stores they love and trust, over too many choices?
Contact Loreen Epp at loreen.epp@reedbusiness.com
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Maybe we shouldn’t offer consumer so much choice
Apr 12, 2005
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