You’d think that only offering customers a few choices would put them off. It’s likely that none of the choices would quite suit and they’ll look elsewhere.
To a degree that’s true. If you are offering cars for sales and say ‘it’s only available in this one model, and two colours’ it’s likely the buyer wouldn’t feel they’d hadn’t enough choice to go ahead.
On the other hand, if you say ‘there are three base models, seven option packs, 12 colours and a completely customisable interior’ this prospective buyer is going to feel completely overwhelmed. So many choices will not just slow the sale, but could confuse the customer so much that they walk away.
I’ve been there myself: I wanted to buy a mobile phone and at first glance there were 57 different combinations of phone, data, minutes and text, with different payment amounts too. And I did walk away – too difficult a decision!
Offer choice, but not too much. And don’t put any of them on a spreadsheet or a table – that’s never sold anything!