How Outnorth delivers expert advice at scale with AI-powered Product Finders

About Outnorth

With a mission to inspire outdoor activities, a well-selected product range, and an unceasing focus on sustainability -- Outnorth is today one of Scandinavia's leading e-commerce in outdoors & sports equipment.

Beyond their commitment to delivering the best of Scandinavian Outdoors, Outnorth has an unrelenting dedication to providing customers with expert advice, personalized support, and a first-class shopping experience.

The Mission
Bring guided selling into the digital environment and providing customers with high-quality advice online.

Solution:
The Running Shoe Finder

Buying running shoes online can be complicated. Regardless if you're an average jogger or an experienced runner, it's hard to translate features like "Heeldrop" or "Flyknit-technology" into actual practical value.

With that in mind, picking Running Shoes as the first product segment to apply a Product Finder was a no-brainer.

We are category experts in sports & outdoors

To live up to that part, we need to have a product range that matches it and tools that make it possible for us to provide customers with the same level of expert advice as a physical store.

- Anders Nielsen

CPO/Purchasing Manager, Outnorth

We are category experts in sports & outdoors

The approach

Step 1.

Narrowing down the search to reduce choice overload and make it easier for customers to make well-informed decisions.

Step 2.

Turn technical filters of running shoes into more relatable questions. E.g. Heeldrop --> "How do you land when you run?"

Step 3.

Based on the answers, create and provide a product recommendation with product-to-customer-fit information.

The results

The Running Shoe Finder saw the light of day in February 2022, and Outnorth has since added over 10 (!) more guided selling experiences across different categories and has plans to expand even further.

35% higher AOV (average order value)
Thanks to the Product Finders, Outnorth has seen a significant increase in both the average order value and conversion rate. Customers who have completed one of the guides have an AOV that is 35% higher, demonstrating the powerful impact of the Product Finders in driving sales and customer satisfaction.

Valuable consumer insights

Besides providing customers with the tools to make better-informed purchase decisions, the Product Finders have resulted in a new way of collecting customer feedback.

With a customer-centric approach and tireless dedication to improving the customer experience, the idea of developing a feedback system came to life during the development of the first guide. In a close collaboration between Outnorth and Ebbot, a feedback system was built and implemented into the Product Finder.

The system allows customers to rate the recommendation they received as well as leave comments on recommended products.

This feedback provides Outnorth with invaluable insights about their customers, that can be used for both purchase planning and marketing. Such as insights about which activities the customers looking to use the products for.

Achieving expert position

One of the most important outcomes of guided selling is that the product finders have made it possible for Outnorth to differentiate themselves from competitors as experts in the outdoors & sports segment. The finders enable Outnorth to provide customers with on-demand expert advice comparable to a brick-and-mortar store. But at scale and online.

Being an expert online retailer that knows its audience also makes attracting and keeping suppliers easier. As brands are becoming more selective with who they allow reselling their products online. For example, on the 1st of June 2022, the European Commission (EC) launched new competition rules for distribution agreements, in short VBER. In practice, this has led to checklists for the resellers by the suppliers, with guided selling often a criterion. Having already implemented this Outnorth was light-years ahead of the competition.

The collaboration has been amazing!

The ebbot team has been very keen on taking our suggestions and ideas into account and has customized the solution when needed.

- Lina Johansson

Online Merchandiser, Outnorth

Interested in getting similar results? 🚀

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