EFFECTIVE PRODUCT ASSORTMENT COMMUNICATION: OVERCOMING THE “PRODUCT VARIETY PARADOX” ON THE NET Fabricio Salvador Cipriano Forza IE Working Paper DO8-121-I 13 / 05 / 2004 Dpt. of Op. and Technology Management Dpt. of Mechanical and Civil Engineering Instituto de Empresa University of Modena and Regio Emilia María de Molina 12, 5º Via Vignolese, 9005/b, 41100 Modena, Italy 28006, Madrid forza.cipriano@unimore.it fabricio.salvador@ie.edu Abstract When a firm offers customiz ed products, variants and options may end up confusing the customer, instead of increasing sales. Recent developments in Information and Communication Technology made available a class o f software products, often termed as “product config urators”, which appears to offer new solutions to support the sale of customized products. The present paper analyzes the underlying principles on which successful sales configurators have been built. I n doing so, the paper attempts a formalization of the mechanisms throug h which a firm’s product assortment can be efficiently and effectively presented to the customer Keywords E-commerce, product variety, product configuration, customization