This is How Guided Selling can Keep your Customers Happy

_{The LimeChat guide to using Guided Selling to delight your customers}

How many times have you gotten interested in one product, then been bombarded by ads on Instagram from more brands offering a similar version to the one you were interested in, only to give up buying any of them?

Or perhaps do you remember when you landed on a website with detailed descriptions of their products, but you still couldn’t figure out which one would suit you the best?

With reducing attention spans, and long days spent making decisions, the last thing online shoppers want is for their experience to be frustrating and confusing.

Many shop online WHEN they want joy. Not overwhelm.

You doing your best to offer that while they shop from your website is the easiest way you can increase sales and ROI.

Reassure the customer that they have come to the right brand AND that you are invested in helping them make the right decision.

Make shopping online pleasurable.

When marketing spends worldwide is increasing because of rising CAC, leading to general panic in the e-commerce industry, you know you have to get nifty and focus on increasing your ROI from your existing visitors.

Several D2C brands (at least the smart ones) use Guided Selling to increase sales, repeat orders, and deepen brand loyalty.

Guided shopping is a process of offering online customer support that resembles an in-store experience with personalised recommendations, like the sales representative slowly taking you through different products in their catalogue, finding out their expectations and desires, and leading them to the perfect fit.

In our first post in the masterclass series on Ecommerce Guided Selling, we covered what it means in detail, how it’s different from traditional selling, and why more and more e-commerce brands are using it to increase sales.

In this post, we will deep dive into exactly how it can benefit your users and how to deliver exceptional customer support through each step.

When you know all that guided shopping offers, you can pinpoint whether guided shopping is right for your brand.

Let’s begin!

Guided Selling Reduces Decision Fatigue

Now, we all know too many choices can overwhelm your customer, but a brand also needs to have a few variations of the same product to market to enough people.

The product pages for technical SEO reasons also include heavy product descriptions that can be difficult to wade through.

This is where guided shopping helps. A considerate nudge can take them through the catalogue (collaborative filtering) based on unique inputs and needs, reducing confusion and smoothly taking them to checkout.

Using plain language when product descriptions can be too technical will further reduce friction. 

An excellent AI chatbot picks up on what product features will appeal to your customer through conversations and match them with the perfect results.

Customers will feel better having made that decision because an expert-guided it, and the brand will also feel approachable.

Offering live support at key moments is pivotal to e-commerce brands’ success in the coming years.

Educates and Advises Customers on Compatibility

Sometimes your customers can’t decide what to get because they do not know the necessary parameters to make the right purchase.

Through guided selling on live chat, you can advise them on what they should consider.

E.g., someone is looking for an air conditioner. Your Guided Selling tool can ask questions like the room size, local weather, if they’re working remote, etc., finding an ac that will match their lifestyle.

The fact that the brand was practical, considerate, and informed the customer would spark trust and, as a result, repeat purchases.

Use Guided Selling to Cross-Sell and Upsell

This process doesn’t have to come off as salesy.

You can offer more services and products that will add value to your customer, potentially at a discount before they check out.

Your AI chatbot will understand the right time to suggest additions to the cart and tailor it for them.

The fact that this is automated but the recommendations are still unique to the customer is a huge advantage.

Guided selling, when done thoughtfully, can help you sell more.

Present Customer Reviews and Testimonials at Key Junctures

We are very affected by reviews. A single negative review can break the sale.

Don’t have your visitors leave your website to find reviews; send those on live chat.

Your Guided Selling tool can assess their interest through conversations and share user-generated content, testimonials, and reviews to reassure the customer.

Done at the right moment, it can motivate your customer to checkout quicker.

Through each step of shopping online, customers constantly look for positive feedback- use your past verified success stories to inspire faith in your brand.

Your customers will feel reassured that they’re making the right decision.

Inform them of Logistical Details like Shipping, Returns, Exchange Process

Getting the product from a store is instantaneous. But shopping online creates a lot of doubt regarding when it will be delivered, will they be home when it’s out for delivery if it will be difficult to get it exchanged, etc.

Because of these reasons, they may not finish the purchase.

You may have an FAQ page, and you can direct your customers there, but most of them won’t check it out or find it overwhelming.

Even if they check that page out, going through so much text will encourage drop-offs.

With e-commerce guided selling, you can, during their conversation, offer exactly and only what they need.

Let them know when they will get their order, ask them if they’d like to opt for delivery notifications, and share in brief sentences how easy it is to return, and you’ll find them checking out quicker and coming back to you often!

Guided Shopping Delivers Personalised Shopping Experiences with Zero Party Data

Guided Selling is a boon with recent developments in data privacy laws.

You can get explicit consent from your customers and their data ethically and, target them with retargeting ads, encourage refills without irritating them with boring spammy newsletters and texts.

With more countries and companies moving forward to reduce privacy

Enable Speed Ordering

Some customers know what they want. Guided selling can facilitate that within seconds, in just a few steps.

Even if the percentage of such customers is low, why take chances and lose out on a sale?

Make Customers Feel in Charge of their Shopping Experience

Guided selling conversations are a collaborative effort. By assisting them, minimally- just enough, you can keep your customers engaged and encourage them to make the sale.

Having a conversation and shopping is also likely to leave a stronger impression.

Great for All Age Groups

Guided selling makes it easy for customers to shop online, especially if they are from generations that started after the pandemic.

By offering customer support in multiple languages through your chatbot, you can extend your target audience further, facilitating a frictionless shopping experience.

Guided shopping is a product-customer-centric strategy and creates moments of fun exploration and discovery throughout the process.

Guided Selling with LimeChat

Our Ecommerce Guided Selling tool was made (and is continuously updated) with our focus on purely D2C brands.

Research from several industries like beauty, health, wellness, fashion, etc., has given us unique data into what convinces a customer to shop online.

Our Level 3 conversational assistant lets you have humanlike conversations with your customers online. 

We can create a guided selling tool that

1. Engages both discovery-oriented and goal-oriented customers to maximise your sales
2. Keeps customers invested in their shopping journey by minimising fatigue from information overload and choice overload
3. Address product-specific queries to boost confidence, and
4. Deliver an incomparable customer experience

In addition, our ecommerce help desk minimises resolution time, is omnichannel, has several customisable templates created for e-commerce brands, and can be quickly integrated with Shopify apps.

Want to find out how we can help you ace Guided Selling? Book a demo now!

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This post is the second lesson in our Masterclass series on Guided Selling, where we deep dive into the current expectations and strategies some of the best D2C brands use and how to execute them in simple, actionable ways.