Consumerology: How Choice Affects Customer Purchase Decisions

Consumers are a funny lot…from the a business owner’s perspective. We like to think they are these logical creatures who want to make rational purchase decisions, based on all the information that’s available to them. But that’s not really what they want. In fact, the more information you provide a consumer, the more difficult you make it for them to make a purchase decision.

In my most recent podcast episode, Consumerology: How Customers Make Purchase Decisions, consumer behavior expert Philip Graves tells us that more information and more choice is not necessarily what the customer needs. The video below is an excerpt from the show in which Graves explains what happens when customers have lots of choice.


Choice is a complex equation that is a by-product of a number of things, including the number of things you choose to tell a customer about a product. Rather than giving customers all the information and all the choices up front, provide them a series of steps so their mind can process things one point at a time. Customers prefer to make simple, easy choices from a few things and work through a hierarchy.

But here’s the rub, customers will tell you they want more choice and more information. That’s their conscious mind speaking. But it’s the unconscious mind that will ultimately make the purchase decision, and the unconscious mind doesn’t like all that choice. In my conversation with Graves, he shares many more insights on consumer behavior and you can help customers make purchase decisions. Listen to the complete episode here: Consumerology: How Customers Make Purchase Decisions


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  1. […] A recent survey by Adology  shows that branded smartphone applications influence consumers’ purchase decisions. The ability to view product information with your mobile smartphone on an opt in basis also tends to impact purchase intent. As a muti-platform wine marketer, you should be aware that the era of push marketing has come and gone, and the age of pull marketing has arrived, and your consumer is now in charge. This means identifying those tools that now best provide the opportunity to achieve planned results. As we’ve all observed, the average number of wine SKUs in retail wine aisles have exponentially grown  over time, and the marketplace has become quite congested. The idea that most wine shoppers feel either intimidated or overwhelmed by choice is a significant point of friction that often negatively affects wine purchase decisions. […]

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  3. […] of information about a product, either don’t show it all or unveil it piece by piece. Make customer choices simple by handing out bite-size chunks of information as needed. Organize information and choice in a […]

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