How Product Variety Influences Customers
We all know variety is the spice of life – and this is definitely true in business. Offering a wide variety of products not only leads to better business, but also has a huge impact on the way customers view your brand.
In business, having a variety of products means that retailers have a significant amount of different products in stock at all times. It is great for drawing in customers looking for an assortment of products, and drawing in customers means boosting sales.
Product Variety Shows Quality
When a customer walks into your store and sees a variety of products instead just a few options, it immediately heightens their perception of your brand. If they see your company as quality, it will also make them see the products you sell as quality and continually entice them to come back for more. With a good variety of the right product, your customers will associate your brand with quality without even realizing it.
Product Variety Offers Sensory Experience
Human’s make decisions based on their senses all the time, especially when it comes to where to shop. If a customer enters a store and sees dirty scuffs on the floor and smells rotten eggs, they aren’t likely to make a return visit. The same principle can be applied to having product variety.
Sight is the most prevalent human sense, and it’s important for your customers to see the variety of products you have. If a customer walks in looking for ice cream, but sees only two kinds of ice cream in the freezers, that customer is likely to look elsewhere in the future for that product.
Customers also like the ability to touch a product before they buy it, which is another way product variety can help. Companies package their products in different ways, and with a healthy mix of products, your customers will have more chances to touch, see, and smell the product before purchasing, encouraging more sales.
Product Mix Offers Comparison
It’s always good to have more than one brand of a product so that customers are able to make comparisons. Customers are much more likely to purchase products if they have similar products at their disposal with which to compare side-by-side. They can review the benefits of each product before making a purchase, and they’ll be more likely to come back to your store because they know they’ll be able to make comparisons to make the decision process easier on them.
Also, customers tend to believe that higher priced products are higher quality products. If you have a selection of lower priced products to compare with the name-brand products, many will choose the highest-priced product under the assumption that it will work the best, driving your sales in that area.
Customers Love the Convenience Factor
When it comes to product variety, some argue that unless you’re a large supermarket, you might not have the space to keep a large selection of one specific product, i.e. different brands, flavors, price points, etc., which will limit your customer satisfaction. However, this is where the convenience factor comes in. Many people don’t want to waste their time looking from store to store for different brands when they are already inside your store. If you have what customers are looking for, many will choose to take it right away so they don’t have to look elsewhere.
Specialty Stores and Product Variety
Product variety is especially beneficial in specialty stores. Though it’s great to have giant supermarkets where customers can find just about anything they want, there is great appeal in offering several varieties of a single product in a store that specializes in a certain niche. For example, a company that sells washers and gaskets should have as many types of washers and gaskets their store can hold in order to deliver the best product variety. The washer and gasket company will enjoy optimum profits because they’re much more likely to have what the consumer is looking for on the first try.