The pepper mill predicament
Imagine this: you're lounging on your couch, scrolling through your phone, and you decide to buy a pepper mill. Easy, right? Well, not so fast! The internet has turned this simple task into an impossible choice. A quick search on amazon results in an army of pepper mills for your consideration: wood, glass, tall, short, manual, electric. Who knew pepper mills had their own universe?
So, you try to narrow your options and tick the wood or glass options. But instead of filtering it down to a few models, you've still got a zillion choices (234 on amazon uk to be precise). That's the beauty and nightmare of the 'infinite shelf' for you: endless options for even the most mundane items.
“Maybe reviews could help me make up my mind?” you naively think… ?But instead of helping, they send you spiraling down a rabbit hole of contradictory "5 stars – I cannot live without it!" and "1 star - it broke after one use!" comments for the particular models you thought might just do the job.
Fifteen minutes in, you're still no pepper mill expert, just another confused shopper with a headache and by now just give up altogether with the rationalization that the slightly beaten-up pepper mill sitting in your cupboard might not be so bad after all!
This real life example might be trivial, but it does make the point that in a world increasingly dominated by algorithms, maybe the way to deal with the burden of choice is to re-introduce a human touch in shopping? Imagine if I could have easily get to a friend's opinion saying, “Hey, this one's great and will last you a lifetime!” instead of having to rely on an algorithm that spewed out 627 options like my original search on Amazon did...
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Relying less on algorithms and more on real human taste and experience could probably also help us buy better products that would last longer and therefore have ultimately a gentler impact on our planet than some of the alternatives.
But scaling human curation & recommendations is trickier than you think and as Benedict Evans rightfully observed, when it comes to online experiences: "All curation grows until it requires search. All search grows until it requires curation."
Regardless, whoever successfully unlocks this conundrum will no doubt have the basis of a great business and be rewarded by consumers for whom the infinite shelf is quickly becoming a nightmare.
PS1: If you related to this article, I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments about how you deal with the burden of choice.
PS2: ChatGPT helped me write this article- part of my ongoing real-life experimentation with generative-AI tools.
Global / Regional MD | Media, Tech, Data, AI, & SAAS Start up | Sales Leadership | Growth Management | C-Suite Partnerships / Commercial Structure | New Product Go To Market | Pricing / Operations & P&L
11 个月Evans is right on the money — that really captures the tension between curation and search! I think the solution is somewhere in the middle. On the one hand, curation is important because it gives people a starting point, on the other hand, search is essential for people with specific needs or want to explore a wide range of options. Is there a better solution? The issue of curation and search is still a relatively new challenge online, so it's possible that better solutions will emerge in the future. There are a few ideas that are being explored to improve the situation: Personalized recommendations - using algorithms and machine learning to tailor content to individual users, based on their interests and preferences. Community-driven curation - using user ratings, comments, and feedback to help surface the best content. Social media - using social networks and influencers to spread word-of-mouth recommendations and drive discovery. I think it's likely that a combination of these approaches will ultimately be most effective, but it's still a work in progress, and we're likely to see many more solutions emerge in the coming years. P.S. Written by https://pi.ai/talk
Acquisition Marketing Manager - Bloomberg Live Experiences | Ex-Amex Senior Digital Acquisition Manager
1 年My exact experience when looking to replace a toaster
Global Head of Marketing Science | VP EMEA | GroupM Nexus
1 年Great read Nicolas Bidon and definitely resonates with my general disdain for shopping, whether online or offline! Also, it reminds me of the battle to cut through the sheer amount of choice across multiple streaming services to find something I or my family actually want to watch on TV. The “if you watched…” algos work to an extent but for us I agree that recommendations from friends and general word of mouth are the biggest influence. Also, content from sources we trust like HBO tends to dominate in our household. However, neither of the above prevents regular decision fatigue that never seemed to be a problem with 5 channels a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Hope you got a solid pepper mill anyway! ??
Business Leader | Advanced TV Specialist | ERG Chair | Mentor | Awards Judge
1 年Totally agree! Two things come to mind: 1. Brand equity; you buy the brand you love and trust (Le Creuset here!) and then the transaction is simple, you simply have to find the best price. 2. Customer experience; I have a local independent kitchen shop that I love to go to buy pieces like this. The staff are great, prices competitive, everything is displayed beautifully and I always end up leaving with more than I went in for.
Managing Partner Global Business Strategy
1 年Spot on. I just had the same experience with a cellotape dispenser then decided ill just go to the shops and get one!