1. Introduction

With the rise of the Internet, people's choices in commodity consumption have become very complicated, and the overload of choices has brought many problems to people. For example, difficulty making decisions and not knowing how to make the best choice from many options; Loss of satisfaction, consumers regret not choosing a more thoughtful product, and so on. Our literature will summarize some ideas about the psychological mechanisms of consumers when choice overload occurs and why product overload occurs.

Everyone has this experience: when you are hungry, many people will choose to order takeout to save time. But looking at countless foods on the delivery app, I started to worry, and spent a lot of time and energy ordering a takeaway, only to realize that time was wasted on choice. With the development of the commodity economy, the number of goods available for people to choose is increasing, from choosing takeaway, to buying a house and a car, too many choices have become the norm in our lives, sufficient choices are intended to provide consumer with a better shopping experience, but in fact this is not the case. We will find that when there are many products, people can't easily buy what they need and consumers may have a worse experience even more while merchants offer more choice. Too many choices can make it difficult for consumers to choose. This phenomenon is becoming more and more common in today's society, so many scholars have conducted related research. In this article, we will review the literature on "too many choices can make consumer choices difficult". Due to the continuous development of society, there are more and more types of goods and opportunities for choice, and consumers are faced with more and more choices in the shopping process. However, too many choices can make it difficult for consumers to make decisions, which can influence purchasing decisions. Therefore, this article aims to explore the impact of too many choices on consumer choices and analyze the reasons for the difficulty of choice.

2. Literature review

We collected literature on this topic, collated and analyzed it. These documents are mainly developed from the following aspects:

1. Impact of choice: Numerous studies have shown that too much choice can negatively affect the decision-making process of consumers. These studies have experimentally verified that too much choice leads to more confusion, uncertainty and difficulty in making decisions for consumers. Sheena S. Iyengar and Mark R. Lepper - "When Choice Is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing?" [1]: This classic paper provides an in-depth study of dyslexia and introduces the notion that "too many choices may reduce satisfaction".

2. Consumer choice psychological mechanism: Firstly, we need to understand the impact of too many choices on the psychological mechanisms of consumers. Research has shown that when people are faced with a multitude of choices, they may experience psychological phenomena such as decision-making difficulties, anxiety and dissatisfaction. This is due to several key psychological mechanisms:

2.1 Increased cognitive load: when faced with numerous choices, consumers need to invest more cognitive resources to compare and evaluate different options. And people's cognitive capital. The ability to source and process information is limited, and a large amount of product information is more likely to make subjects perceive cognitive overload [2]. In the experiment by Jacoby et al. [3], subjects who were unwilling to buy goods from the election set reported that "evaluation is needed. Some information, too tired ", which explains why in some situations people prefer smaller sets of options instead.

2.2 Distraction: When there are too many choices, attention may be dispersed to too many options and not be able to focus on the characteristics of each option. This may result in consumers missing out on some important information, thus reducing the quality of their decisions.

2.3 Fear of missing out: The fear of missing out on the best choice is a common psychological mechanism. When there are too many choices, people may fear that they will make an undesirable choice, leading to anxiety and hesitation. Grass [4] also suggests that the intense frustration consumers experience when faced with too many choices and not knowing which product is the "right choice" is the reason why they are reluctant to choose from a large set of options, resulting in a choice overload effect. Moreover, the fact that there are fewer gaps and more suboptimal products in the large set of choices causes consumers to repeatedly think about other good choices that they did not choose, which leads to more regrets and thus affects the consumption experience [5].

2.4 Decision-making delay: When faced with many choices, people are often more likely to delay decision-making. They may need more time to think about and compare options, which can lead to missed opportunities or feeling stressed. The emotional load of a decision, i.e., the emotional consequences that a decision may trigger, is also a factor that leads to choice super When there are too many choices consumers may experience preference uncertainty, especially when thinking about the possible negative consequences of a bad choice consumers avoid choices and are reluctant to make a decision [6]. Consumers report an increase in negative emotions when they think that choosing one good means giving up another, and an increase in the expected experience of regret [7]. In studies where goods are presented in a "lost" frame, consumers experience particularly negative emotions and are more likely to experience choice overload [8]. These empirical studies confirm that the emotional burden of decision-making affects the choice overload effect, and that when there are too many choices, consumers may avoid choices more in order to avoid the negative emotions that may result, and thus delay or refrain from making decisions [9].

2.5 Decision Regret: When people have made a decision, they may regret it because they fear that other unchosen options might have been better. This regret may reduce their sense of satisfaction.

These psychological mechanisms interact with each other and can lead to the too many choices effect, i.e., when people are faced with a multitude of choices, they may be more likely to make an unsatisfactory decision or simply abandon the choice.

Another important psychological mechanism is information overload. When there are too many choices and information available to consumers, they may feel overwhelmed. Information overload may lead to inattention, making it difficult to sift through and process information, which reduces the quality of decisions. In such cases, consumers may seek ways to simplify decision-making, such as relying on brand reputation, word-of-mouth or expert advice, in order to alleviate the discomfort caused by information overload.

In addition, psychologists have studied individual differences, which means that different people may react differently psychologically when faced with too many choices. Some individuals may be better able to cope with choice overload, while others may be more susceptible to psychological stress. These individual differences can involve factors such as an individual's decision-making style, cultural background, and level of education.

3. Triggers of choice: Several literatures have explored the reasons that lead to too many choices. The reasons for the overabundance of choices in the commodities market can be attributed to a number of factors that intertwine with each other to result in a plethora of choices in the market. The following are some of the main reasons:

3.1 Competitive markets: In highly competitive markets, firms often try to attract consumers by offering more choices. They want their products or services to stand out from the competition and therefore keep introducing new varieties and variants.

3.2 Diversity of consumer needs: There is a wide diversity of consumer tastes, needs and preferences. In order to meet these diverse needs, firms tend to offer a variety of options to ensure that their products or services cater to as many consumers as possible.

3.3 Technological and production advances: As technology develops and production processes improve, the cost of producing goods decreases, which makes it easier for firms to offer diverse product lines. In addition, new technologies can be used to rapidly develop new products and brands.

3.4 Market research and data analysis: Modern market research and data analysis tools enable firms to better understand consumer needs and preferences. This enables them to introduce a wider range of options in response to market demand.

3.5 Consumer demand for freedom of choice: Modern society emphasizes individual freedom and the right to choose. As a result, firms tend to offer more choices to satisfy consumers' desire for freedom of choice.

3.6 Brand Expansion: Firms usually want to expand their market share by extending their brands. This means that they will introduce new products or services related to their original brand to capitalize on their established brand reputation.

3.7 Channel Diversity: Different sales channels, such as physical shops, online shops, social media and marketplace displays, can also motivate firms to offer a diverse range of options to suit different sales channels.

3.8 Cultural and regional differences: Different cultures and regions have different needs and preferences. Therefore, in order to succeed in the global marketplace, firms often adapt to these differences and offer region- or culture-specific options.

3.9 Increased consumer engagement: Modern social media and the Internet make it easier for consumers to interact with brands and offer suggestions and opinions. Businesses may respond to consumer feedback by introducing more options to meet their requirements.

3. Empirical evidence

Scholars have conducted extensive empirical research on the impact of choice overload on consumers and have concluded the following points:

Difficulty in decision-making: Choice overload can cause decision-making difficulties for consumers. Faced with too many choices, consumers often find it difficult to make rational decisions. They may feel anxious, uncertain and prone to decision regret.

Decreased Decision Satisfaction: Choice overload can lead to consumers feeling dissatisfied with the decisions they make. As more alternative choices exist, consumers are prone to regret and doubt that they have made the best choice.

Decline in Decision Quality: Research has shown that the quality of consumers' decisions may decline when faced with too many choices. Because decision-making consumes a lot of cognitive resources and energy, too many choices can distract consumers and lead to a decline in decision quality.

Choice failure: faced with too many choices, consumers may also experience choice failure. They may pay too much attention to certain options and ignore other more appropriate choices, leading to unsatisfactory final decision outcomes.

To summarize, empirical studies by scholars show that choice overload has a negative impact on consumers. It may lead to the emergence of problems such as decision-making difficulties, decreased decision satisfaction, decreased decision quality, and choice failure. Consumers need to pay attention to adjusting their decision-making strategies when facing numerous choices in order to improve decision-making effectiveness and satisfaction.

In addition to solving problems from the consumer's perspective, we should also solve problems from the merchant's perspective. It is crucial for businesses and marketers to understand the psychological mechanisms of consumers when they have too much choice. There are strategies they can adopt to help consumers cope with excessive choice and increase their satisfaction and willingness to buy. Here are some options for merchants to address selection overloads:

1.Streamline choices: Reduce the number of options offered and focus on those most likely to meet consumer needs.

2.Provide guidance and advice: Provide consumers with information on how to make decisions, including expert opinions, reviews and ratings.

3.Personalized Recommendation: Use personalization algorithms to provide consumers with relevant choices based on their preferences and historical behavior.

4.Education and Information delivery: Provide consumers with detailed information about products or services to help them make informed decisions.

5.Simplify interface and design: Design user interfaces and shopping experiences to reduce information overload and cognitive burden.

Finally, policymakers can also engage, through regulation and guidance, to ensure that too much choice in the marketplace does not negatively impact consumers. For example, provide for transparency in advertising and labeling to ensure that consumers have access to accurate and useful information.

In conclusion, summarizing the main points of these literatures. Too much choice can indeed lead to difficult choices for consumers, which can affect purchasing decisions. There are a variety of reasons for this, such as excessive choice can confuse consumers, increase stress, and may even lead to decision fatigue. In order to solve these problems, scholars have proposed the concept of choice management to provide consumers with better decision support.

4. Conclusion

The Internet exposes people's needs directly, and a large amount of information makes commodities more and more diverse. When people choose goods under the condition of overload of choice, there will be negative psychology such as fear of missing out and decision making delay. Although these studies provide us with rich theoretical basis, there are still some shortcomings. For example, most existing studies only focus on consumers' choice difficulties in the shopping process, while ignoring choice problems in other fields (such as healthcare, education, etc.). In addition, further discussion and research is needed on how to effectively implement choice management to help consumers make better decisions. Therefore, future research can expand the theoretical framework of this field and apply choice management to more fields to better solve the problem of excessive choice.