"Despite our strong growth, we have always remained authentic," says Melanie Giebler, Teamlead Product Management at Bergfreunde. "I believe we’re a fun brand." Melanie and her team are responsible for all content and features seen in the shop. This means that product discovery with all associated shop functions such as search, suggest and filter fall within their area of responsibility. Facilitating this platform, FactFinder has been in use for 13 years – an eternity in eCommerce. "With it, we have a partner at our side who places the same high demands on its services and products as we do." 

Bergfreunde offers a range with tens of thousands of products, about 750 brands and hundreds of categories. With such an extensive selection, it is crucial that customers can find what they are looking for quickly and reliably. The switch from the standard search of the shop system to FactFinder marked a decisive step in the company’s development. The previously used search proved to be too inefficient: features such as auto-suggest, analytics and fault tolerance were missing, as well as additional modules for navigation and merchandising. 

Combination of AI and human control 

Today, FactFinder facilitates all the basic functions of the shop – from sorting product lists to filtering to controlling marketing content in search results and categories. As for optimizing the result lists, Melanie and her team benefit from the combination of AI-based automation and human control. 

FactFinder’s merchandising module plays a central role in optimizing Bergfreunde’s online store. Depending on the search term or category, Melanie and her team can control, via an intuitive user interface, which products are highlighted, and which banners and content are displayed – always with the goal of visually enhancing the customer journey. 

Guided selling – the virtual consultant 

Among FactFinder’s flexible and extensive merchandising functions is guided selling. "We wanted to replicate the consultation experience you get in retail for our customers online. Since we have an incredible number of products across numerous categories, good advice is especially helpful for beginners and newcomers," says Melanie. 

After implementing and launching the guided selling feature in the German-speaking shop, it was expanded to all international shops. This expansion was then evaluated for its success, measuring the impact on key performance indicators. Melanie explains: "In sessions with guided selling, conversion rate increased by at least 30 basis points. This shows us that it really helps our customers and improves the shopping experience.”

In an effort to boost engagement with guided selling, the module was updated, which involved swapping out photographs for colored illustrations. This adjustment led to a significant 76.54% increase in usage, with a particular 143.74% rise from mobile device users. Presently, bergfreunde.de hosts six active guided selling modules, strategically deployed in categories known for generating substantial revenue or those that require more detailed advice. 

Results with guided selling: 

+30 bps in the conversion rate of sessions with guided selling 

+approx. 1 bps in the overall conversion rate 

+76.54% increase in usage through illustrated graphics 

Bergfreunde‘s future plans with FactFinder

In addition to implementing further guided selling functions, Melanie sees great potential in testing the latest developments in product discovery. This includes the GPT Synonyms tool, which uses OpenAI’s Large Language Models (LLMs) for synonym creation, reducing search optimization time by up to 70%. Moreover, with Atlas AI and Pulse, new possibilities are now available to answer search queries in a context-based manner and to recognize micro-trends in real-time. For Melanie, one thing is clear: "FactFinder will definitely be with us in the future." 

Get the full success story here.