With more business’ competing for consumer
dollars on the Internet, conversions are sometimes
elusive. So how do merchants selling brand name
products stay ahead of their competition? Find out
how one company created a tool that is filling a
gap in user experience and helping to improve conversions
as we talk with Joe
Chin, Founder and CEO of Guidester.
Recorded Live
November 10, 2006 new
audio files coming soon!
Improved Visitor Usability:
A Better Experience All Around
A better user experience is always a good thing,
I mean who wants to visit a site and not have
some way of finding what they are looking for?
Gone are the sales people that come with a brick
and mortar store and other than a simple search
solution or possibly a customer service number,
how does the consumer figure out what they want?
 
Increasing Conversions for
Merchants
Merchants and retailers, sales staff and marketers
are always on the lookout for ways to increase
conversions. Joe Chin from Guidester tells us
how his company found a niche and is helping online
retailers to create a better user experience and
increase sales.
Creating New Advertising Space
for Manufacturing Partners
Manufacturers rely largely on their distributors
to sell their products and they have little say
in how this takes place. Sure there are guidelines,
but it is up to the merchant to really sell and
market the product effectively. Joe tells us how
he and his company’s forward thinking team
created an opportunity for the manufacturers to
get involved.
Putting it All Together with
Guidester, a Free Online Tool
We’ve heard about creating a better user
experience to increase conversions and how big
manufacturers are getting involved. They found
a marketing niche that brings manufacturers dollars
to the table and creates a win-win-win situation
for all parties involved. Guidester’s business
model pulls all three together and the sky’s
the limit.
Guidester, Inc., formerly Decidia, Inc., is the
leading provider of Internet decision-making systems
and a next-generation paid search company. The
company offers its online decision tools to Global
1000 companies at no cost and recently released
its Guidester branded tools which help consumers
choose products that best suit their individual
needs by employing an easy-to-use online questionnaire.
How Usability & Conversions Create a
Win Win Win Summary
Talking about conversions and usability, eMarketing
Talk Show hosts Cindy Turrietta and Todd Sarouhan
chat with Joe Chin, the CEO and co-founder of
Guidester, Inc. about how his website Guidester.com
offers a range of decision enabling tools that
help provide users with a better online experience.
Formerly known as Decidia, Inc., Guidester, Inc.
today is one of the leading providers of Internet
decision-making systems. Repositioned from an
enterprise business to a paid search company,
Joe Chin, the co-founder and CEO of Guidester
talks with Cindy and Todd about how to improve
conversions and provide a great user experience.
Describing what Guidester is and how the company
works, Joe Chin explains that by partnering with
retailers such as Circuitcity.com, Compusa.com
and Buy.com, Guidester places user-friendly decision-making
tools on their sites that help customers find
exactly what they are looking for. Guidester thus
helps to create a better user experience by providing
better usability and as a result generates higher
conversions.
Referring to the types of consumers who are using
Guidester, Joe says that a lot of usability studies
are done as it is the core of their business.
“We find that all types of consumers…
from the beginner to the expert … all find
the Guidester tool very appealing.” This
tool was designed so that consumers can drill
down to whatever level of detail they desire.
If you are a beginner user, you can select what
is called a lifestyle criteria, while if you are
an expert user, you can get down to the nitty
gritty specifications and details. Elaborating
further on the lifestyle criteria, Joe says, “It
is one of the most popular features of our Guidester
tools.” The result of a lot of research,
this tool is designed specifically for the novice
user.
On the subject of usability and how to make it
easier for people to find what they are looking
for, Joe says that the task most retailers online
have is “to combat the regular usage pattern
of web users, which is the hop from site to site.”
What Guidester does is that it teams up with retailers
to “really engage the user almost interactively.”
Web 2.0 is the basis for all Guidester tools,
according to Joe, and AJAX in particular, as it
is a very interactive engaging type of technology
and really draws people in.
When asked if better user experience has a great
impact on conversions, Joe replies “Yes,
definitely.” As you only have a moment to
capture the attention of a user, Guidester tools
show the consumer that this site has the technology
and the tools that are going to help them find
a product quickly, and at the same time it gets
rid of one of the big fears that keep people from
buying on these retails sites, which is the fear
of not being able to find the right product.
Joe goes on to say that any site can benefit
from a better user experience. Our studies have
found that even small sites which have just a
few products also face this issue, of trying to
get the user to find the right product on their
own. When the user can find the right product,
they feel very satisfied and excited, and one
of their big fears, which is ‘I don’t
know if this is the right product’ is taken
away. Once this happens they are then much more
likely to buy.
Joe also feels that the newer version of Guidester
with AJAX has increased conversions because “with
the AJAX technology the response time, to when
a user selects something either a criteria or
something they are interested in, goes down dramatically.
It’s almost like instant gratification.”
Joe predicts that this is going to be the wave
of the future for the web, to move towards faster
reacting applications with “enhanced interactivity.”
Talking about consumer reactions to Guidester,
Joe says, “Overall, consumers love it.”
Close to 90% of users find the tools easy to use,
while 90% of users say that the tools have helped
them find the right product or narrow their choices.
“The good news for retailers is that close
to 80% of users after using the tool are more
likely to purchase a product,” according
to Joe.
By creating new advertising space for its manufacturing
partners and advertisers, Joe goes on to say that
Guidester has created a one-of-a-kind opportunity
for targeted product marketing, where the manufacturers
and advertisers can really reach a qualified network
of buyers across the vast network of retailers,
allowing for only a few sponsored matches in their
result list. Some of the top manufacturing partners
on Guidester are; Olympus, HP, Panasonic, Nikon
and Casio.
Explaining how the Guidester network differs
from the other online marketing opportunities
out there, Joe says that the Guidester network
for advertisers is the only Pay Per Click network
that allows manufacturers and advertisers to influence
the customers that they want to influence. Currently,
the Guidester network has over 60 retailers, with
80 million customers a month.
On the future of Guidester, Joe says that they
have about 30 different verticals they plan to
hit, such as automobiles, cell phones, baby products
and apparel. Heading in a number of different
directions, Guidester not only wants to facilitate
retailers with ideas such as helping users find
accessories for their products, or providing them
with more product information or interactive content,
but it also want to help people in general “make
better decisions.”
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