What is Guided Selling in eCommerce?
Guided selling is a strategic approach to online retail that actively assists customers throughout their buying journey. Just as an experienced sales assistant helps customers in a physical store, guided selling in eCommerce provides personalized assistance to help shoppers make confident purchase decisions. Guided selling software can take many forms; from interactive product finders and smart recommendation systems to conversational commerce and visual configuration tools. The core principle remains the same: actively guiding customers instead of leaving them to navigate an extensive product catalog alone.
How Guided Selling Works
Guiding buyers typically involves a series of steps. Let’s examine this process in the context of eCommerce:
1. Interactive Assistance for Product Discovery
Begin by offering help or guidance in areas of your webshop where visitors may need support, such as category pages or your homepage. This creates a smoother path for product exploration.
2. Presenting Personalized Product Recommendations
Using targeted questions or other guided selling methods, direct buyers toward a recommended product. Often, recommending just one product isn’t enough. For instance, if you sell shoes, you might suggest two options: one that’s the perfect match and another at a lower price point. This approach narrows product discovery to items that truly fit their needs while providing additional choices for price-sensitive customers.
3. Explaining Why Each Recommendation Matches Their Needs
Visitors appreciate confirmation that the product being suggested is right for them. Take the time to explain why each recommendation aligns with their preferences and requirements.
4. Guiding Them to the Next Step
Use simple and intuitive calls-to-action to clearly indicate the next step in the buying process. Should they “Add to Cart” or “View Product”? The specific call-to-action depends on where in the buyer journey you’re introducing the guided selling tool.
This general outline captures the core steps of guided selling. However, there’s an additional, valuable step that it offers:
Guided Selling vs. Traditional Product Filtering
Traditional filters let shoppers narrow down options based on technical specifications. But what if customers don’t (yet) understand these specifications? Guided selling takes a more human approach:
Traditional Filtering:
- Relies on technical product attributes
- Requires product knowledge from shoppers
- Can still leave too many options
- Uses industry jargon
Guided Selling:
- Focuses on customer needs and use cases
- Requires no prior product knowledge
- Provides personalized recommendations
- Uses language that visitors understand
Why Your eCommerce Store Needs Guided Selling
Guided selling offers numerous benefits, impacting everything from conversion rates to reduced returns. Let’s break down these advantages below.
The Impact on Conversion Rates
Research and industry use cases clearly show that guided selling positively influences conversion rates, and it’s easy to see why. By minimizing decision paralysis or choice overload on your webshop, guided selling helps visitors make better and faster choices.
Guided selling can significantly enhance your bottom line:
- Up to 40% increase in conversion rates
- 15-30% higher average order values
- 50% reduction in decision-making time
Customer Experience Benefits
Modern shoppers increasingly expect personalized experiences—they’ve grown accustomed to it. As a result, they are more likely to favor online retailers that guide them effectively. A great experience creates loyalty, and guided selling delivers this by:
- Eliminating choice paralysis
- Building shopping confidence
- Providing educational value
- Creating an interactive shopping journey
Data Collection and Insights
Every guided selling interaction generates valuable customer data. This leads to:
- A deeper understanding of customer needs
- Insights into shopping patterns
- Feedback on products
- Improved inventory planning.
Guided selling isn’t just a tool, it’s a better approach that benefits both your customers and your business.
Types of Guided Selling Solutions
As mentioned earlier, guided selling is a domain of solutions. You’ll find it within eCommerce, but also within B2B CRM solutions. It’s helpful to have an overview of the type of guided selling solutions out there.
Product Advisors, Finders and Quizzes
Product advisors or product finders use interactive questions to guide customers to the right products. For example, a mattress company might ask about:
- Sleeping position
- Firmness preference
- Temperature sensitivity
- Budget range
Interactive product configurators
Perfect for customizable products, configurators help customers build their ideal solution step by step. Common in:
- Furniture selection
- Machinery
- Custom clothing
- Home design
AI-Powered Recommendations
There’s a role for AI in the guided selling space. AI can deliver AI-powered recommendations, based on data that’s being provided. It enhances guided selling by:
- Learning from customer interactions
- Improving accuracy over time
- Providing real-time personalization
- Scaling the experience efficiently
Conversational Commerce
The last aspect of guided selling is conversational commerce. Everything is in the name already. Integrating a conversational approach to guiding buyers into your online store.
This approach uses chat interfaces to guide customers:
- WhatsApp integration
- Live chat support
- Chatbots
- Voice assistants
Real-World Examples
Here are some successful implementations of guided selling:
Nike Shoe Finder:
- Asks about activity types
- Considers personal preferences
- Recommends specific shoe models
- Explains the benefits of each recommendation
The Future of Guided Selling
Looking ahead to 2025 and beyond, guided selling will continue to evolve with advanced AI integrations. The domain will double down on conversational commerce. More and more solutions will integrate advance AI within their products to align with this trend.
- Advanced AI integration
- Predictive analytics
- Enhanced personalization
Getting Started with Guided Selling
Ready to implement guided selling in your eCommerce store? Here’s what to consider:
1. Choose the right solution for your business
2. Ensure you have complete and structured product data
3. Use clear, simple language that customers understand
4. Test and optimize regularly
5. Monitor performance metrics