Up to 70% more session revenue as Bergfreunde automates product recommendations

Melanie and her team are responsible for all content and features that can be seen in the online store, including search, suggest and filters. "I want to have the coolest store in the outdoor industry," Melanie emphasizes. "With FactFinder, we have found a partner that sets the same high standards for its services and products as us."

Bergfreunde, also known as Alpine Trek in the UK, is on the march to ever-new sales records. Starting as a niche store for climbers, they have quickly become a leading address for mountain sports and outdoor equipment in Europe. Since 2011, the online retailer has increased its turnover from 12 million to 240 million EUR in 2022 - and has relied on FactFinder's AI-powered onsite search for just as long. Visit their online shop.

Solution

The switch from the store system's standard search function to FactFinder marked a decisive step in the company's development. FactFinder now handles all the store's basic functions - from sorting the product lists and filters to displaying marketing content in the search results and categories. "Bergfreunde is a significant online retail space that operates seamlessly thanks to FactFinder," explains Melanie.

FactFinder's flexible and wide-ranging merchandising functions include guided selling - a feature that leads customers through difficult product decisions via targeted questions, just as a sales associate would do in-store. Each question answered narrows down the results, producing a precise pool of recommended products. This is critical for a brand like Bergfreunde that retails equipment for both beginners and advanced users, making that extra bit of live guidance a massive help when it comes to choosing the best product for the customer's specific needs.

Results

After launching Guided Selling in the German shop, Bergfreunde rolled it out across all international stores, testing and fine-tuning. For example, they swapped photo graphics for colorful illustrations to make it more engaging. Today, Bergfreunde.de has five guided selling tools live across 10 main categories and 55 subcategories, with 506 questions and 1,806 answer choices. And shoppers use them — more than half of all visitors interact with these tools. "They really go through the whole process," says Melanie.

The results speak for themselves. "In sessions with Guided Selling, conversion rates jump by more than 50% in some cases and revenue per session goes up by as much as 70%. We see fewer drop-offs and customers make better choices, which means fewer returns. That tells us our Guided Selling tools really help and make shopping easier."