There has been a lot of experimentation in recent years with the size of the number of products within a product category. Sometimes it is better to keep the number of products in a product category small if you have a (web)shop. I share my experiences in this article, so that you have a handle on your assortment.
Introducing a new product category often leads to additional sales and profit, but for some categories we noticed at DeMassageWinkel.com that the more products we added, this did not immediately lead to additional sales and/or profit. This was particularly noticeable in categories where:
The purchase price is high
Products only need to be purchased once
In this article I will give three reasons, from my email industry list optometry own experience, why it is sometimes better to keep the number of products in a product category small if you have a (web)shop .
Reason 1. Choice stress
Too much choice leads to lower conversion and more returns. We noticed this with our massage table category. For example, we initially only had tables with a width of 71cm (the most common size). Later, we also added massage tables with a width of 63.5cm.
And it turned out that where previously people never hesitated between 71cm and 63.5cm, because we only offered 71cm wide massage tables, we increasingly received questions about the different widths.
People wanted to see the tables in real life first. Since we don't have a showroom, we lost these customers. We also noticed that the return percentage of the 63.5cm wide table was significantly higher than the 71cm wide table. It turned out that people preferred a wide table after all.