Information Overload - Ecommerce

I came across this study on information overload recently and wanted to highlight a few points from it.

SOLVING THE INFORMATION OVERLOAD PROBLEM: THE
ROLE OF UNCONSCIOUS THOUGHT IN ENHANCING ONLINE
PURCHASING DECISIONS

"This assumption implies that people who have made a good decision often experience a high level of satisfaction during and after the process. Thus, in this study it is reasonable for us to use satisfaction with the decision as our measure of decision quality."

"H1: When one is dealing with rich information, using unconscious thought results in better decision quality than using conscious thought."

"H2: When one is dealing with rich information, an increase in the total quality of the information leads to an increase in the quality of the decision."

"H3: When one is dealing with rich information, an increase of the quantity of the information results in a decrease in the quality of the decision."

"When the information supply exceeds the information processing capacity, an individual usually has difficulty in identifying the relevant information, becomes highly selective, ignores much of the information, and fails to reach a satisfying decision."

"H4b: When one is dealing with rich information using unconscious thought, the greater the quantity of information, the higher the quality of the decision."

Campbell's Soup and Ecommerce

What can we learn from Campbell's Soup about the future of Ecommerce?  Content marketing sells products.

In 1916 Campbell's Soup published the first of many cookbooks entitled Helps for the Hostess.  This cookbook, an early form of content marketing, provided value to the customer and helped sell a lot of cans of soup by incorporating soup into each recipe.

Selling soup was difficult because most homemakers didn't need cans of soup.  What they needed was quick, easy and nutritious meals to feed their family.  The cookbook sold a lot of cans of soup by answering the question "What's for dinner?"

Just like the Campbell's Soup homemakers, your users don't need a fishing rod (can of soup).  They need a better way to catch fish (make dinner).  Once you have convinced them of a better way to catch fish, you can sell them all the fishing gear you want.

Most Ecommerce sites look like rows and rows of cans of soup on a shelf.  They look real nice but users don't really know what to do with them.  Would you know what to do with a can of cream of chicken soup if you didn't have a recipe that called for it?  Would you know what other ingredients you would need to make a complete meal?

Ecommerce sites should look more like cookbooks.  Cookbooks have two main parts, instructions and ingredients.  For Ecommerce, the instructions are just that, instructions on "How To" do something that relates to your products.  The ingredients are the products that you are selling.  For example, write an article about how to catch rainbow trout in the rivers of Utah and then list along side for purchase all the ingredients (fly rod, reel, line, flies, waders etc.) that are needed.  You are now selling a complete package rather than individual parts to a puzzle that a user doesn't understand.  You are answering the question "How do I catch more fish?" ("What's for dinner?") and you will sell a lot more product.