When Similarity Costs Sales
Limiting choices helps combat “analysis paralysis,” as too many options can be demotivating. You might expect, then, that having identical price points for multiple products would be ideal, right? Not always, according to research from Yale: if two similar items are priced the same, consumers are often less likely to buy one than if their prices are even slightly different.
In one experiment, researchers gave users a choice of buying a pack of gum or keeping the money. When given a choice between two packs of gum, only 46% made a purchase when both were priced at 63 cents. Conversely, when the packs of gum were differently priced—at 62 cents and 64 cents—more than 77% of consumers chose to buy a pack. That’s quite an increase over the first group.