Picture this: you have tasked yourself with finding a blue, sheath dress for under $300 for your boss’ birthday dinner. You are in a massive department store that has hundreds of items of clothing, but there are no associates, no signs, and no clear breakdown of clothing by type. Instead, you are expected to wander the store aimlessly until you discover what you want by pure chance.
If this sounds frustrating and downright unpleasant, then you are quickly discovering what most online shoppers go through. To make matters even worse, online shoppers can’t physically sift through items and must blindly search for their chosen item.
This is why guided commerce is so important.
Guided commerce, or guided selling, helps buyers find the best product and make it more likely that they will successfully complete a satisfactory purchase. When a shopper has a more pleasing shopping experience, they are less likely to return a product and more likely to continue purchasing from the company.
Why does guided commerce work?
Guided commerce allows online retailers the opportunity to emulate a personable, in-store experience by using features that blend web content and personalization. Take NYX cosmetics, for example. They leverage the incredible power of their 5-million strong Instagram account to curate a library of photos showing real customers using their products. So if a shopper is looking for a highlighter or contouring palette, they can peruse hundreds of images of real people using the real products and get a better idea of what the product would look like on them. This allows the shopper to see the product as a real world, usable item and to see it also as a coveted item.
Choice overload is real
It used to be that shopping for a specific item meant going to one or two stores and choosing between maybe two or three options. Now, with the advent of online shopping, people are choosing from hundreds or even thousands of options. Because of this, many shoppers experience decision fatigue where they become overwhelmed by the amount of options available to them and abandon their online cart, choose something without giving it much thought (and often return it), or have someone else make the decision for them.
Guided digital commerce allows you to give your customers enough choice that they feel in control without inundating them with information to the point that they become frustrated and overcome.
Shoppers want guidance
Ultimately, shoppers want guidance when making a purchase. Industries such as insurance, banking, retail and more have all seen this demonstrated time and again. These industries use guided digital commerce to make your company’s expert advice available to your customers, thus allowing them to feel more comfortable in a more personalized shopping experience. This results in higher conversion rates and a reduction in returns. Guided commerce also allows you, as a company, to seamlessly communicate your value proposition, to better engage your online shoppers and show them the next step of action, and to lead them closer to purchase decision that will suit them without telling them exactly what to buy. Together, all these elements will result in happier customers and a more successful business.
