Online consulting software: How does digital purchasing advice work?

Online consulting software with person-to-person communication

Below, we show you two examples of online consulting software that uses person-to-person communication.

Live chats

Live chat is a messaging tool that allows your customers to contact a representative of your online store directly. It is usually integrated into your company’s website as a pop-up window and enables one-on-one communication—much like in a brick-and-mortar store.

The advantage: Your customers receive immediate personalized answers to their questions about products and processes while visiting your store. Especially for complex goods that require explanation, customer-oriented live chat can positively influence the purchase decision. It is also possible to offer appointments for individual purchasing advice.

Mobilezone customers can use an online form to schedule a consultation for internet, TV, and mobile phone contracts.
(Source: Screenshot from mobilezone.ch)

video consultation

When potential customers visit your online store, some of them want to browse first. Their needs are not yet clearly defined, so advice by phone, chat, or email may be insufficient.

Video consulting is one of the latest trends in the e-commerce industry.¹ Your customers can talk face-to-face with an employee of your online store, ask questions, and receive personalized advice about your products and processes. For example, they can share their screen and show the sales consultant their ideas and inspirations. This allows the sales conversation to be even more targeted. In this way, you combine the advantages of online shopping with the special attention that customers would experience when shopping in a boutique.

With the right implementation of video consulting in your online shop, you can ensure a seamless service experience that ultimately increases customer loyalty and satisfaction. The Swiss cooperative Migros Aare has been very successful in this regard.

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Online consulting software with AI-based tools

Below, we will look at two examples of online consulting software with AI-based tools.

Guided selling

With guided selling, you guide your customers through the product selection process in an optimal way, leading them to a confident purchase decision. This is particularly interesting for potential buyers who do not have enough knowledge about the respective products to make a reliable choice.

Take strollers, for example: (Expectant) parents can easily feel overwhelmed by the countless models on the market. Should it be a combination stroller? With wheels for the city or for rocky dirt roads? How big can it be so that it fits in the car? Etc. This is where online product advice comes in handy, narrowing down the selection with specific questions—all the way to the ideal stroller.

Guided selling for strollers: The online product advisor at babymarkt.de guides shop visitors through the selection process.
(Source: Screenshot from babymarkt.de)

This form of consultation, in which a shop customer is guided step by step through the consultation process using specific questions, is particularly suitable for products that require explanation and is similar to a sales conversation in a brick-and-mortar store. However, guided selling can also be used for self-explanatory products by allowing customers to select certain tags to find the right product.

Digital purchasing advice for books: Shop visitors can select various tags in the Ex Libris gift finder. (Source: Screenshot from exlibris.ch)

What makes guided selling special is that you can personalize the results in the form of suitable products that your customer receives while clicking through the consultation process, i.e., based on your customer 's individual clicking and purchasing behavior. This means that your customer not only receives products that meet their desired characteristics and requirements, but also their individual preferences.

With the advancement of digital consulting solutions, conversational solutions are increasingly being used, enabling an even more personalized and dialogue-based approach to customers.

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AI-based chatbots & assistants

With the help of chatbots that use artificial intelligence, you can respond to hundreds of customer inquiries simultaneously and in real time. Depending on how the tool is programmed,

• It recognizes natural language, for example (no predetermined questions necessary).
• It automatically generates appropriate responses from text blocks and databases on your website.
• If it can no longer help the person asking the question, it will forward them to an employee.
• learns it independently.

One particularly innovative example is the AI Shopping Assistant as a conversational chatbot. Unlike traditional guided selling, where customers click through fixed decision trees, this solution goes one step further: the assistant enables genuine dialogue and actively supports customers in their product selection. Based on modern LLM (Large Language Model) technologies, it offers dialogue-based advice in which users interact in natural language, and it also understands abstract or complex queries. The system recognizes connections, takes user needs into account, and provides suitable product recommendations—for a flexible, hybrid search experience that meets the diversity of today's customer requirements.

Dialogue-based advice: The LLM-based shopping assistant helps store customers choose the right product.
(Source: Own representation)

A personalized online shopping experience

When potential buyers enter a brick-and-mortar store, they can personally consult with sales assistants on site to find the right product. By integrating this service into your online store in the form of live chats, video consultations, or guided selling, you can offer your customers an interactive, personalized shopping experience.

"Shoppers" become customers

Online consulting software helps you turn potential buyers into customers. In direct contact with your team, they receive answers to their questions that can positively influence their purchasing decision. For highly individualized products such as mattresses, an online product advisor helps shop visitors find the model that best suits their needs from the wide range available. This includes factors such as firmness, suitability for allergy sufferers, size, and price.

A better user experience

Your shop visitors appreciate positive experiences throughout their customer journey. Professional support through digital purchasing advice gives them confidence in their product selection and leads to a purchase decision far more often. Online consulting software also makes shopping easier: you present your customers with suitable solutions, they feel understood, and the positive user experience sticks in their memory.

Higher conversion

With online consulting software, you can reduce lost sales opportunities and increase your conversions. Sometimes potential buyers leave a store because they couldn't find a product that is actually available there. If they can simply ask a sales consultant about the product via live chat, it will improve their shopping experience.

Other potential customers have already added products to their shopping cart and are abandoning the purchase process. One possible reason: they had a question about a process that was not answered quickly enough. With an AI-based chatbot during checkout, these questions can be resolved quickly and efficiently.

Higher customer satisfaction

The personalized service of digital purchasing advice creates an intimate atmosphere—a one-on-one exchange that customers are familiar with from brick-and-mortar stores. This not only strengthens potential buyers' trust in your company, but also their satisfaction. And satisfied customers are happy to come back.

Fewer returns

Last but not least, online purchasing advice in your shop reduces the risk of returns. The two most common reasons for returns are: the product did not fit or was not liked. Through personalized, targeted advice, you can help your customers choose the right products. Products that meet their wishes and needs as closely as possible. This reduces your costs and simplifies your returns management.