One of the biggest challenges in e-commerce is recognizing that customers need guidance. Online shops usually underestimate how overwhelming it can be for users to navigate through hundreds of product options. The result? Frustration, abandoned carts, and lost sales.
The solution? Product guides—tools that help customers find the right products based on their specific needs and preferences. These guides boost conversion rates and improve customer satisfaction by simplifying decision-making.
So now that you’ve decided to truly help your customers, which product guide should you choose? What does the perfect guide look like? What are must-have features? Let's dive deep into three examples to see the good, the bad, and the ugly of customer experience.
How hard can choosing a bike be? It's just two wheels and a frame, right? Well... Between all the tech specs, various types for specific terrains, and different sizing, it can get tricky. It's good news that a major brand like Trek recognizes the need for a guided solution to help their customers. After all, buying a bike is a big investment, and a helping hand is crucial. Trek’s Bike Finder looks simple and intuitive—no redundant features and short, concise wording.
Before you can start using it, you have to find it first. It's buried somewhere deep in their site—most customers wouldn't even know it exists unless they specifically go looking for it.
Secondly, the guide isn't integrated into the product listing so it doesn't show narrowed-down results as you go. Instead, you have to take the entire quiz to see a recommendation. This all-or-nothing approach feels like a chore and reduces the customer's sense of control over the process.
What’s more, the questions sound like they're written for biking pros. If you're new to cycling, how would you know what kind of trail you want to ride? Now imagine you're shopping for an e-bike—you don’t know anything about the motor until you're almost at the end! Not a single mention. By then, you’ll probably bail in frustration.
The cherry on top: When you finish, the guide only gives you one bike option—no alternatives. Customers want choices, not a single recommendation from a black box.
Trek's Bike Finder feels too shallow for such a complex product. The questions don't dig deep enough to understand whether the customer is a pro racer or a casual weekend rider. This will frustrate both customers, especially when there’s just one recommended bike at the end that might not fit your budget, riding style, or performance needs.
It's a great concept—people definitely need guidance when buying bikes, and Trek's effort should be appreciated. But right now, it's hard to find on the site, the questions confuse more than clarify, and, in the end, you're likely left with a product that isn't quite right.
Do you want to see what the bike Product Guide should look like? Try this one.
Bosch's Product Advisor is easier to find than Trek's—good. Plus, it covers multiple product categories—also good. Washing machines are a big purchase, so having the guide just a click away offering helpful suggestions is certainly a plus.
Simply put, the guide is too product-centric. The questions seem like they were lifted straight from a filter tool with some tweaks to make them sound more conversational. They ask about product features, but there's little focus on the customer's actual needs or use cases. What's missing is the "why" behind these choices.
The guide asks a few basic questions and then attempts to recommend a single top pick. Unfortunately, it won’t have enough details about the customer's specific needs, lifestyle, or usage to make solid recommendations. Basing a recommendation on only a handful of generic questions is unlikely to be helpful to anyone.
While Bosch offers a decent product guide, it feels too product-centric and doesn't empower customers to make informed decisions. More transparency and recommendations would be a huge improvement.
Do you want to see what the Product Selection Guide should look like? Try this one.
Expert nails the product guide experience by integrating it directly into the product listings. It starts with a simple ask: "How large screen do you need?" From there, the guide leads customers step by step, using easy questions anyone can answer. For customers who aren’t sure even about screen size, the guide breaks it down in a way that’s easy to understand:
This kind of explanation helps users make confident choices, no matter their level of expertise. By keeping the language simple and relatable, it ensures everyone—from tech-savvy shoppers to first-time buyers—can make an informed decision without feeling overwhelmed.
The key difference? The guide focuses on where and what you want to watch, not technical specs. You also see how your answers affect the number of available televisions and their price range—all in real time. Throughout the process, you have complete control, perusing products at any point as you like.
Expert delivers the perfect balance of guidance and freedom, allowing customers to choose from multiple options and know each one fits their needs.
What truly sets Expert apart is that they've chosen a ready-made solution for their product guide. The entire guided selling experience was crafted by experts in the field, resulting in a seamless, intuitive journey that enhances customer experience at every step.
When you decide to offer your customers better guidance, you'll face a key decision: which guided selling platform to choose. Many companies offer DIY tools, where e-shop owners are responsible for creating the entire flow themselves—from the questions to the wording. It's a massive undertaking that can take weeks, if not months, to perfect.
Or you can take the smarter route and opt for a solution like Outfindo's Product Guides. With us, the only thing you need to provide is your product feed—our proprietary AI systems handle the rest. From managing data to crafting a personalized guidance flow, we make it effortless for you to offer world-class guidance to your customers.
So, what will you choose: the DIY route or a seamless, plug-and-play solution?
