Sheena Iyengar, a psycho-economist and professor at Columbia Business School, discusses the challenges of choice overload, highlighting that an increase in available options can lead to decision delays, poorer choices, and reduced satisfaction. She suggests four techniques to improve decision-making in businesses: cutting extraneous options, making choices more concrete, categorizing options effectively, and gradually introducing complexity. These strategies aim to enhance the customer experience by managing the abundance of choices presented.

1. CHOOSING EASIERHOW BUSINESSES CAN IMPROVE THE EXPERIENCE OF CHOOSING

2. ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Sheena Iyengar is a psycho-economist.
She is the inaugural S.T. Lee Professor of
Business in the Management Division at
Columbia Business School and the
Faculty Director of the Eugene Lang
Entrepreneurship Center and known for
her research on choice, culture, and
innovation.

3. • a typical American makes
about 70 choices a day
• an average grocery store
today offers you 45,000
products
• a typical Walmart today
offers you 100,000 products

4. The choice causes overload problem.
The more choices available, the more
likely people were to completely avoid it.

5. 3 m a i n n e g a t i v e
consequences to offering
people more and more
choices:
1. They are more
likely to delay
choosing
2. They are more
likely to make
worse choices
3. They are more
likely to choose
things that make
them less
satisfied

6. There are four simple
techniques you can
apply in your businesses
to avoid it.
1. CUT
2. CONCRETIZE
3. CATEGORIZE
4. CONDITION FOR
COMPLEXITY

7. CUT
Get rid of the extraneous alternatives.
When Procter&Gamble went from 26 different kinds of
Head&Shoulders to 15, they saw an increase in sales by
10 percent.

8. CONCRETIZE
Make it real.
In order for people to understand the differences between the
choices, they have to be able to understand the consequences
associated with each choice, and that the consequences need
to be felt in a very concrete way.

9. CATEGORIZE
We can handle more categories than we can handle choices.
400 magazines divided into 20 categories make people
believe that they are given more choice and a better choosing
experience than when they are given 600 magazines divided
into 10 categories.

10. CONDITION FOR COMPLEXITY
We can actually handle a lot more information than we think
we can when we gradually increase the complexity.
You've got to make 60 different decisions to completely make
up a custom made car from a German car manufacturer.

11. These techniques are designed to help you manage
your choices.
Better for you - better for the people that you are
serving.

12. Ted talk:
http://www.ted.com/talks/
sheena_iyengar_choosing_what_to_choose