Delve: Are Consumers Spoiled For Choice or Too Overwhelmed to Choose?

Today’s consumers demand and expect a wealth of choices in everything from sneakers to potato chips, but while large product lines provide abundance and variety, they don’t always result in sales—and can even take away from a company’s bottom line. In new marketing research, Desautels Professor Demetrios Vakratsas explores breadth and depth in product lines to determine their role in consumer choice-making today. Will a change in colour or shape make a shopper reach for one product over another or send them to another brand altogether?

For more insights, read the full interview with Professor Vakratsas in Delve and read the research paper: The Dual Impact of Product Line Length on Consumer Choice.

Bringing Insight to the Surface

Founded in 2019, Delve is the official thought leadership publication of McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management. Under the direction of Professor Saku Mantere, inaugural Editor-in-Chief, Delve features the latest in management thinking that stretches perspectives, sparks new ideas, and brings clarity to decision-makers at all levels and across sectors.