4️⃣ Help your customers choose with these 4 types of guided selling
Decision aids come in various shapes and sizes, but they have one thing in common: they help your customers choose (🤯). In this article, we highlight four types of e-commerce decision aids for web shops.
Decision aids come in various shapes and sizes, but they have one thing in common: they help your customers choose (🤯). With a good choice aid, your customer will spend less time and will not have to gain (technical) knowledge of the products themselves. Great for the customer and great for you as a webshop.
But not all types of decision aids are equally known. That's why we're highlighting four of them here.
1. The Classic: the product selection guide
The most well-known selection aid is the product selection aid. With a product selection aid, your customer will find the product that best suits their needs and situation.
Think about:
- Which e-bike is right for me?
- Which drill do I need?
- Which hiking shoe meets my needs?
The starting point of the product selection aid is that the user has already made a choice for the specific product category. If that is not the case, decision aid number 2 offers a solution.
2. The category of decision aid
The decision aid category is for customers who are still exploring. He is familiar with his problem, but is not yet familiar, or does not prefer, the possible solutions.
Think about:
- Which computer do I need: desktop, laptop, or all-in-one?
- Is a city bike or an e-bike a better fit for me?
- What skin type do I have?
The outcome of the selection aid category can be a category (“you're looking for a laptop, view all models here”), but you can also send directly to a product (“you're looking for a laptop and the Macbook Air best meets your needs”).
3. The accessory selection guide
A lid fits every jar, but it's a lot easier if you know on which potty which lid fits. Now a bit less cryptic: if you're looking for an accessory for a particular product, an accessory selection aid can be a solution.
The accessory selection aid first asks which product the customer already has at home. After that, additional wishes may be requested (e.g. budget, color, comfort), which is followed by advice with accessories that are perfect for this product and this customer.
Think about:
- What guitar case do I need for my Gibson Slash “Victoria” Les Paul Standard Goldtop?
- Which bike carrier fits my Peugeot 308?
- What battery do I need for my Makita DTP141RTJ 18V Hybrid Drill/Driver?
4. The style selection aid or profiling decision aid
It's a completely different angle, but a decision aid that helps the customer determine their style works enormously well. After all, customers really enjoy completing such a decision aid.
As an indication, at Buzzfeed - surely the quiz king of the internet - 96% of people who start a quiz actually finish it. We see the same scores in our customers' style decision aids.
Think about:
- Which home style suits me?
- What type of racing cyclist am I?
- Which colors suit me?
Where a product, accessory and category selection aid leads to the relevant product detail whether lister page, leads a profiling selection help usually to a content page with more information about the style and associated products.
Once a customer has identified themselves as “a nice weather cyclist with a love for gadgets”, it is of course very interesting to tailor their further customer journey and (marketing) communication accordingly. That is why we also call a style choice aid a profiling decision aid. With the collected information, you can immediately enrich the customer profile by: connect with you Customer Data Platform (CDP).
With these four types of decision aids, you can make online shopping a party for your customer. Do you think we are incomplete and that we are missing one? Then let yourself be loved. overhear!
Do you want to delve further into decision aids? Then check out these articles:
Stop losing customers to choice paralysis
Provide the right advice - self-serve at scale to massively grow your conversion rates.
