⛷ SkiWebshop offers in-store experiences with guided selling

The Breda industrial park looks a bit grey today, but with Ski Webshop inside, everything exudes the familiar winter sports feeling where performance and fun go hand in hand. It takes little effort to imagine the often young employees here on the ski slopes. The winter sports enthusiasts among the staff, such as marketing manager Joost Breuer, have an extra reason to achieve the annual goals: if successful, the entire team will go on winter sports at the company's expense. So it's not surprising that the company is growing rapidly every year.

It takes some time to find a suitable space. The three-year-old building is already bursting at the seams: models walk back and forth for photos with the new winter collection, there are busy meetings upstairs, and Joost has also just got a number of new colleagues. “Normally you can still sit in the customer service department, but they now also receive calls all day,” he says as we take the stairs down to the relatively quiet welcome hall.

“You also notice that the weather is starting to get colder,” Joost begins when we sit down at the table next to a pair of nice classic wooden skis. “As soon as it's cold for a day, people will buy again.” The season only lasts three months; before then, the new collections must be online, stocks must be replenished, and new colleagues trained. And now also in that list: Aiden's guided selling software.

Last year, guided selling proved its worth in selling the skis, which, according to Joost, sold “much more than ever”. “Of course, that has to do with several things: our pricing and marketing, for example, but we think the product finder has also contributed to that.”

Good ski advice certainly doesn't hurt either: the range is huge and all those skis also all have different properties. “There are few people for whom it's a hobby to fully figure that out,” says Joost. “One ski is designed for high speeds, the other for a lot of exercise and short turns, another for off piste. It's nice if you just end up in the top 3, so you don't have to click open all those skis.”

Joost opens the product finder on his laptop and clicks along the steps. “I don't think we can achieve something so convincing with filters,” he says. “In any case, you miss the flow in communication.” He points to the last page with the advice: “Look, it says we assemble and adjust the bindings, and that customers get a free ski bag. Of course, it's really nice to be able to name this at the right time.”

If you want to do well as a webshop without physical stores, you will have to gain the customer's trust, says Joost. “In the past, people often wanted to feel the fabric of clothing. That's why we've invested a lot in photography and video.” The good reviews confirm that the colors and materials are now reliably displayed. According to him, the same applies when it comes to giving advice: “We try to bring the experience from the store to the webshop; with a product finder, this can be done in a very human way.”

Because the guided selling app performed well last year, it will not only be used for skis but also for ski goggles and helmets this year. “For example, we have goggles for eyeglass wearers,” explains Joost. “That's called OTG: Over The Glasses, and it takes us quite a bit of effort to explain in product texts. A lot of noise then comes in quickly. Now we can just ask: do you wear glasses yes or no? You're actually making difficult information easy, by transforming a function or property into a concrete need and a simple question.”

This is not only convenient, but also a lot cheaper than the templates you need to build if you want to launch new product pages, adds Joost. “Before you've fully developed that, you'll be tens of thousands of euros later in no time. A product finder is therefore a very good middle ground tool for us: you don't need to have a whole new product page, but you can advise much better. That's where the big win lies for us.”