‘Active Sales Assistant’ Said To Increase E-Tail Conversion Rate
BURLINGAME, CA–Active Decisions Inc. (ADI), a provider of eCRM decision support
applications, has launched Active Sales Assistant, an interactive decision guide for
e-commerce sites that they say helps consumers decide what to buy in over 120 product
categories.
ADI says the Active Sales Assistant is already deployed by a number of major consumer
electronics, computer, and entertainment e-tailers. They say it can be customized for and
seamlessly integrated into the “look and feel” of a licensee’s own Web site. Retailers and
manufacturers provide the service to their customers to increase online sales, customer
confidence, brand loyalty, and site “stickiness,” while lowering return rates and costly
customer support.
“Technology from Active helps us convert online shoppers into buyers,” said Brian Siegel,
manager of new business development at Sony Electronics e-Solutions Company, which manages
the more than 750 consumer electronics products and services on the SonyStyle.com web site.
“Active’s system, like a knowledgeable sales person, helps customers quickly determine
which product best meets their individual needs.”
ADI says Active Sales Assistant’s interactive question-and-answer format
hones in on consumer preferences, generating intelligent, personalized, value-based
recommendations. They say each retailer’s latest pricing and product availability information is
updated automatically via an XML feed and that this service helps online shoppers make more
timely, well-informed, and satisfying purchase decisions by recommending and comparing
the products that best fit their personal priorities in terms of price and features. They say it
also aggregates information about consumer preferences that can help retailers and
manufacturers better understand their customers.
“If an online retailer doesn’t quickly differentiate itself by offering consumers the tools they need to make better choices, the
competition is only a click away,” said Tom DuBois, COO of Active Decisions. “80% of
online shoppers that have used Active Sales Assistant intend to buy one of the recommended products. It is an extremely useful
tool that saves shoppers both time and money. This increased customer satisfaction is reflected in higher sales conversion rates,
greater retailer loyalty, fewer returns, and improved bottom line results.”
“In today’s fast-growing but highly competitive e-tailing environment, revenues count, but ROI is king,” added Jeff Dunn,
Active Decisions’ president and CEO. “By helping our clients’ customers make better purchase decisions, we dramatically
reduce ‘buyers remorse’ and the costly product returns that go with it. At the same time, our highly automated decision-support
technology dramatically reduces customer service costs for the e-tailers themselves. We also save them money by offering our
Active Sales Assistant ‘recommendation engine’ at prices well below what it would cost them to develop this complex and
sophisticated technology in-house.”