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The development of the web has brought a number of benefits to businesses, such as providing a new channel to distribute products and services, enhancing customer interactions, and facilitating the marketing activities (Ragins & Greco, 2003). Having an e-commerce presence has become essential for companies to remain competitive. The U.S. Department of Commerce (2018) reported that the e-commerce share of total U.S. retail sales in the first quarter of 2018 was 9.5 percent, about 123.7 billion. This is an increase of 16.4 percent compared to the first quarter of 2017. The sales of e-commerce have been steadily growing since 1992 (The U.S. Department of Commerce, 2018). One of the factors that contributed to the growth of e-commerce has been its capability of presenting/viewing an extensive range of products, a convenience for companies and customers (Turban et al., 2012). A physical store is space limited, but the online environment is malleable and expandable. Some retailers provide substantial color variations online but only display a couple of colors of the same product in the physical stores for showcasing. Some of them have offered online exclusive products. It seems to the retailers that the essentially unlimited online space provides a new opportunity to satisfy their consumers.
However, according to the studies of choice overload, presenting too many options is likely to induce negative responses in customers, colloquially referred to as the paradox of choice (Iyengar, Huberman, & Jiang, 2004; Iyengar & Lepper, 2000; Iyengar, Wells, & Schwartz, 2006; Oulasvirta, Hukkinen, & Schwartz, 2009; Schwartz, 2004). Which brand of athletic shoes should one purchase? Which restaurant should one pick for a party? Which flight should one take for a get-away trip? While companies strive to introduce various products to satisfy the diverse preferences of their consumers, providing too much choice could lead to confused and less happy consumers. In contrast to the classic economic and psychological theory that the more choice, the better, field observation and lab experiments conducted by Iyengar and Lepper (2000) concluded that having more choice may be demotivating. The choice-overload effect has been observed in different contexts (e.g. grocery shopping, charity donation, prize drawing, and essay topics) or with various product categories (e.g. jams, mp3 players, pens, and chocolates). The potential negative outcomes of choice overload identified by researchers include frustration, dissatisfaction, post-choice regret, post-choice dissatisfaction, ambivalence about choice outcomes, choice deferral, and less motivation to choose (Chernev, 2003; Greifeneder, Scheibehenne, & Kleber, 2010; Haynes, 2009; Iyengar et al., 2004; Iyengar & Lepper, 2000; Oulasvirta, Hukkinen, & Schwartz, 2009; Shah & Wolford, 2007).
While the effect of choice overload has been observed in various contexts, the effect has not been broadly examined in the online context. On the other hand, many research studies in online retailing have found that the atmospheric qualities of a virtual store can influence shoppers’ approach/avoidance behaviors through the intervention of affective and cognitive states (Eroglu, Machleit, & Davis, 2001; Kim & Lennon, 2008; Prashar, Vijay, & Parsad, 2015). When entering a website, the images of products presented and the number of them can be deemed as atmospheric cues. Thus, combing the research background of the two literatures, the authors of the present study proposed that the number of choices shoppers are exposed to on a webpage has a significant impact on their shopping behavior.