Online shopping has never offered more opportunities for customers. They have access to all kinds of products from every retailer with a website. But this overwhelming abundance of choices also introduces problems. Analysis paralysis and decision fatigue stop potential customers from making purchases.
This friction-filled experience isn’t just frustrating for shoppers, though. It also reduces conversions for brands. implementing intelligent, customer-first guided selling strategies can fix this. With intuitive product finders and shopping assistants, brands remove the guesswork. This technology works to understand each buyer’s needs. Then it surfaces relevant recommendations.
In this post, we’ll take a look at why guided selling is so important and what brands can benefit from it the most. Plus, we’ll look at guided selling examples that are driving sales for some of the world’s top ecommerce brands.
Understanding the Problem of Choice
While more choices should be empowering, extensive research shows this abundance leads to more difficulty in making satisfying decisions. In one study, researchers found that an excessive number of options can “undermine” people’s ability to choose. Participants presented with 24 varieties of gourmet jam were less likely to make a purchase compared to those given only six options.
This “choice overload” extends to the ecommerce environment too. It impacts online shoppers attempting to navigate through product catalogs, and there are additional challenges. Another study revealed 60% of shoppers admitted to abandoning an online shopping cart due to having a poor website experience. This highlights the clear impact that confusion has on conversions and sales.
By transforming broad searches into consultative, personalized journeys, brands solve choice overload. They also increase confidence and conversions. Implementing guided selling capabilities streamlines discovery by gathering details on each shopper’s needs. Then, it uses intelligent algorithms to recommend product matches.
What is Guided Selling?
Now that you have some background, it’s time to dig into the details. What is guided selling? This refers to digital sales tools and strategies that assist customers in efficiently finding products or services tailored to their specific needs. Guided selling provides a curated, consultative shopping experience.
With guided selling, a question flow or needs assessment captures key details about a customer’s intended use case, preferences, and requirements. The inputs power intelligent product-matching algorithms or logic flows. Then customers get their personalized recommendations.
These guided selling tools can take many forms. From basic product finders with sequential questions to more advanced AI-powered shopping assistants with conversational interfaces. But the principle is the same: understand the “job to be done” for each customer first. Then guide them to the best product.
By streamlining product discovery, guided selling elevates ecommerce experiences. It simplifies the purchase journey. All to help customers buy products that will work for them.
How Ecommerce Brands Benefit from Guided Selling
Increased conversions: By reducing choice complexity and quickly bringing customers to the right products, guided selling boosts conversion rates.
Lower product returns: With personalized guidance on product matches, there are fewer inconsistencies between buyer expectations and received products. The result is fewer returns.
More customer data: Answers to questions and customer behavior captured in guided selling experiences provide insights into shopper needs and preferences.
Better brand positioning: Providing tailored expertise through guided selling reinforces brands as trusted, authoritative sources.
How Customers Benefit from Guided Selling
Guided selling offers an effective solution for shoppers looking to cut through the clutter. It helps them make confident purchase decisions aligned to their needs. This is how:
Simplified product discovery: Guided selling captures customer needs first. Then, it shows tailored recommendations. This way, customers don’t have to search through seemingly endless catalogs.
Personalized buying advice: Through an intelligent and consultative approach, guided selling provides each shopper with individualized product recommendations.
Education on important features: Smart question flows help customers see key attributes and product differentiators people should consider based on their needs.
Comparing Guided Selling Solution Approaches
The necessity of simplifying the overwhelming online shopping experience is clear. However, there are several different ways to approach this. Ecommerce brands should understand these methods and what they provide to find the right solution.
Rules-Based Product Recommendation Engines
These product recommendation platforms use manually coded rules and decision trees to match customers with products based on their needs and preferences. These are relatively straightforward to implement. However, rules engines often require extensive mapping of all potential selection criteria. Without the right process and solutions in place, you may struggle to scale and maintain accuracy.
AI and Machine Learning Recommendation Platforms
More advanced guided selling solutions use artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to dynamically match shoppers with products. Through natural language processing, these platforms may engage customers in conversational experiences. Then, customers get tailored recommendations.
Visual Product Finders and Shopping Assistants
Some guided selling solutions incorporate visual and imaging capabilities to enhance personalized product discovery. These assist customers by uploading or capturing photos. Then, they use AI vision models and visual search algorithms to find similar items, identify product details, or suggest matches. This may also power experiences to virtually “try on” products.
When evaluating guided selling solutions, brands must consider:
- Product catalog scale and complexity
- Ability to integrate with existing systems and data sources
- Analytics and customer data capturing capabilities
Examples of Brands That Need Guided Selling
All businesses can benefit from guided selling. That said, many ecommerce brands miss many opportunities by not having guided selling in place. Here’s a look at types of brands that need guided selling and effective examples to inspire you.
1. Technology
Technology brands carry catalogs of complex products with all kinds of specifications. Without guided selling, customers can easily become overwhelmed trying to navigate through technical details to find the ideal laptop, camera lens, or home office setup for their needs. Guided selling empowers tech brands to simplify discovery.
Microsoft PC Finder
The Microsoft PC Finder tool guides customers through selecting the ideal computer. First, they answer questions about intended usage. That could be work, studying, entertainment, or gaming.
In the end, they receive personalized recommendations for laptop and desktop options. These recommendations match their requirements for performance, portability, and budget. Detailed specifications ensure that all customers can make an informed choice before their purchase.
Canon Lens Finder
Canon’s lens finder assists photographers and videographers in selecting the perfect lens for their Canon cameras. Customers specify their camera model and desired photography type—portrait, landscape, or sports—through a straightforward interface to find suitable lenses.
From there, they can gain detailed information about each lens: specifications, benefits, and compatibility. This empowers customers to make informed decisions and enhance their equipment without overwhelm.
Logitech Setup Quiz
Having a good computing setup isn’t limited to what you can place at a workstation anymore. Logitech’s setup quiz helps every customer find the right products for their needs, from keyboards to monitors and beyond.
This quiz takes customers through a process to ask customers everything to build the perfect tech setup. That includes the environment they expect to be in and what aspects are most important to them.
2. Sports and Outdoor Recreation
Having the right gear is essential for athletes and outdoor enthusiasts to perform at their best. However, the sheer number of options can leave shoppers wondering what to choose. Guided selling allows sports and recreation brands to match customers to products optimized for their specific activities, skill levels, and environments.
Under Armour Running Shoe Finder
Under Armour’s Running Shoe finder interactively helps customers select the best running shoes for their needs. They input preferences like running style and size. Then they receive personalized recommendations to enhance performance.
Columbia Jacket Finder
The Columbia Jacket Finder offers a tool for selecting the ideal jacket tailored to individual needs. Customers can filter jackets by features like waterproofing, insulation, and specific activities. This user-friendly interface streamlines finding products for their outdoor or casual needs.
Galaxy Golf Driver Selector Tool
This driver selector tool offers a way for golfers to find exactly what they need. Customers can enter their average score and gender. This user-friendly interface streamlines the process of finding the right product.
3. Home Appliances
Home appliances like refrigerators, ovens, and vacuum cleaners are significant investments. Guided selling gives home appliance brands a way to guide customers through considerations like capacity needs, configurations and fuel types. This way, they always find the right fit for their needs.
Whirlpool Suite Builder
Customers can design their dream kitchen easily with the Suite Builder from Whirlpool. First, they select their style and finish. Then, they can customize with options like refrigerator style and oven fuel type.
JennAir Refrigerator Selector
It’s easy to navigate JennAir’s high-end refrigerator lineup with confidence using this tool. Customers specify the desired configuration, capacity requirements, and integrated or freestanding installation. Then they can explore top models.
Dyson Vacuum Assistant
Customers can find their best-matched Dyson vacuum through a guided selector. They share details about home size and cleaning priorities first. Then they get personalized recommendations from the product catalog.
4. Tools and Equipment
With guided selling, tool and equipment manufacturers can efficiently direct trade professionals and DIYers to the right power tools, lawn care equipment, or safety gear. This is based on their project needs, experience levels, and worksite conditions. Customers simplify the shopping process and brands make more sales.
Craftsman Lawn Mower Finder
This lawn mower finder dedicates itself to helping customers select the ideal lawn mower from Craftsman’s extensive lineup. Filter mowers based on type, power source, and terrain through this user-friendly interface. Browsers can find and purchase a mower that best suits their lawn care needs and preferences using detailed product information.
3M’s Ecommerce Product Advisor for Hearing Protection
3M stands with a strong commitment to protecting workers’ health and well-being Its ecommerce product advisor for hearing protection revolutionizes the way organizations protect their workforce from noise-induced hearing loss.
5. Healthcare
Customers shopping for healthcare products need to select effective, high-quality solutions for their specific conditions and requirements. Guided selling allows health brands to capture relevant details. Then, they use that data to recommend treatments, supplements, and medical equipment.
GE Healthcare Contrast Media Smart Assistant
The Contrast Media Smart Assistant simplifies selecting the right contrast media for medical imaging. Answer a few questions about the imaging modality and the prescribing information needed. Users receive details, complete with detailed product information and administration guidance. This intuitive tool helps people choose media optimized for image quality, patient safety, and workflow efficiency.
Amazon Treatment Finder
Customers can simplify selecting the right treatment option with Amazon’s tailored recommendations. First, they enter details about their area of discomfort and shopping history. After answering a few questions, the best-fit products will appear.
UMZU
With so many options on the market, finding the right supplements can be tricky. Using UMZU’s guided selling tool, customers answer a range of questions to get supplement recommendations. Questions cover a variety of areas, from age to symptoms.
6. Beauty
The beauty and personal care space offers countless products tailored to different hair types, skin tones, and cosmetic needs. Beauty brands can implement guided selling to cut through complexity and capture each customer’s unique traits.
Image Skincare Skin Analysis
Customers can dicover their true skin needs and product matches with the Image Skincare product finder. After sharing details about age, skin type, all customers get tailored product recommendations.
Sally Beauty Hair Color Guide
It’s possible to take the guesswork out of DIY hair color with this selector tool from Sally Beauty. This tool asks customers to share their starting shade, desired color result, and hair history. Then, they can explore recommended color kits.
XMONDO Hair Quiz
XMONDO helps people find perfect new hair products and styling routine through this product quiz. Customers answer questions about their hair type and concerns to receive personalized suggestions.
Measuring the Impact: Key Guided Selling KPIs
Implementing an effective guided selling strategy requires monitoring performance data, then optimizing experiences with those insights. Here are the metrics you should be aware of and how to track them.
Engagement and Discoverability
To track engagement and discoverability, monitor total traffic to entry point pages and click-through rates of visitors starting guided experiences. Completion rates revealing how many shoppers make it through the product finder are also important.
Conversion Impact
You calculate conversion rates by taking the number of views or clicks and dividing that by the number of purchases. This gives you can idea of how effective guided selling tools are. When evaluating direct conversion impact, compare conversion rates from guided selling traffic compared to non-guided paths. Also look at order value and any potential crossselling and upselling opportunities your guided selling tool promotes.
Customer Experience
You can assess the customer experience by reviewing session durations for guided experiences. Be sure to pay close attention to exit points and areas where customers may be dropping off.
For example, the average time on page is calculated as the total time on page, divided by the total number of web page views. Then you subtract the number of exits. You may also consider looking for guided selling solutions that provide you with usage information.
Product Insights
Don’t overlook the product insights that guided selling can uncover. Top products viewed and purchased highlight the most impactful recommendations. Looking at customer behavior may also allow you to see the information that resonates most.
Return Rate
Return rates wreak havoc on ecommerce businesses. Look at your return rates for the products your guided selling tool recommends most to assess the impact. That way, you can make sure the technology is meeting customer needs.
To calculate your return rate, divide the number of units returned by the number of units sold. Also keep in mind that return rates can change depending on the season. For example, on average, retailers expected 17.9% of merchandise sold during the 2022 holiday season to be returned.
Ready to see the benefits of guided selling for your ecommerce brand?
As customer expectations around convenience and personalization continue to intensify, brands can deploy guided selling capabilities powered by advanced product finders to keep up. This improves the sales process from start to finish.
Shopping assistants transform an overwhelming experience into an intuitive, data-driven journey. For shoppers, the impact is elevated confidence in their decision-making and a more enjoyable experience. For brands, guided selling translates into increased conversion rates, lower returns, and better customer insights.
Looking for a way to implement guided selling in your ecommerce store at scale? Check out a product discovery platform like Zoovu. Request a demo here.