It doesn’t give you infinite options so you don’t even think

Mercadona sells more choosing for you. While chains like Carrefour Abruman with up to 20,000 references, Mercadona triumphs in quota and profitability, among other reasons, thanks to their less than 10,000 carefully selected references.

The Valencian chain has turned the selection and reduction of catalog into an advantage: by offering less options, eliminates decision fatigue and increases its margins.

Why is it important. Mercadona has achieved A net margin that touches 3.9%well above the rest of his rivals. Applies what we could call “spotify formula” to retail: Select and screen instead of accumulating.

That also allows you to get more rotation, more control and more margin.

The panoramic. Eroski, Carrefour, Alcampo … bet on the variety. Mercadona bets on the selection. It operates with what we could call an “efficient assortment”, based on their own brands developed with what they call their “Totaler suppliers“

It controls so much what is manufactured, as the “how” is manufactured, such as what finally reaches the linear.

• Spotify avoids navigating among millions of songs with very specific and refined recommendations.
• Mercadona filters between thousands of products and chooses by the consumer reducing their options.

That translates into less than 10,000 products per store in front of competitors that double that amount. Assorted reduction is a general trend, but Mercadona is the one who has opted the most in the last five years (-45% assorted compared to -31% of Eroski, -20% of Carrefour or -14% of Lidl), according to a Kantar study cited by Interempresas.

The context. Psychology supports it. Barry Schwartz showed that having too many options can be an initial hook, but When executing they overwhelm us. Is The choice paradox. Reducing them also reduces friction and decision -making time.

Less products, less decision fatigue, more satisfaction.

In detail. Where you used to choose between eleven oils or six snacks, now choose between two or three. The client, if he trusts, does not have to compare. Do not spend mental energy. Just buy, and continue.

Yes, but. The model also has costs. Mercadona withdraws products quite frequently if they do not fit their expectations. Some would be pleasantly popular on other surfaces, but they are not enough in the Mercadona model.

It is something similar, since we talk about technology, to what happened with the iPhone Mini: they had around 5% of the annual sales share of the iPhone, something celebrated for many other manufacturers, but Not for Apple, who discontinued him After two generations.

• Mercadona has not invented the selection and screening, but it has refined the technique of applying it to the supermarket.

Deepen. Choosing for the client can be seen as a paternalistic movement, but Mercadona has made it efficiency. When there is overabundance in the environment, well -designed shortage is power.

In a world that usually rewards accumulation, Mercadona wins simplifying.

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