Avoiding the variety paradox through product configurators

Product configurators can help firms avoid the risk that offering more product variety in an attempt to increase sales, paradoxically results in a loss of sales. Few studies, however, have focused on the characteristics configurators should have so as to avoid this paradox. Furthermore, empirical investigation on the effectiveness of the recommendations made by these studies has been hindered by the lack of psychometrically sound measures. This paper conceptualizes, develops and validates five capabilities that product configurators should deploy to avoid the variety paradox: namely, focused navigation, flexible navigation, easy comparison, benefit-cost communication, user-friendly product-space description capabilities.