20-fold growth: Bergfreunde and FactFinder have been a team for 12 years

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 we do."

Bergfreunde, also known as Alpine Trek in the UK, is on the march to ever new sales records. Starting out as a niche store for climbers, they have quickly risen to 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. See for yourself their exciting range of mountain gear.

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 the implementation and go-live in the German-speaking store, FactFinder's guided selling feature was rolled out in all international stores to a glowing review. Melanie states: "In sessions with guided selling, the conversion rate increases by at least 30 basis points. This shows us that the purchase advisor functions really help our customers and improve the shopping experience. And that has an expected uplift of nearly 1 basis point on the overall conversion rate."

And to increase the use of guided selling even further, photos were replaced with colored illustrations in the next iteration. This led to a +76.54% increase in usage of the feature, primarily driven by mobile devices (+143.74%). As of today, our guided selling feature can be found all across bergfreunde.de, especially in categories that are either high margin or require advice. Melanie, excited by the results, said "FactFinder's guided selling helps us keep our promise of being competent and authentic to our customers."