Source: Fenty Beauty
Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2024 4:22 am
People love choice. But if e-commerce customers are given too many choices, they’ll abandon before checking out. Product recommendation quizzes give digital marketers the opportunity to collect data while guiding customers to the right product in a fun way.
The Choice Dilemma in E-Commerce
Analysis paralysis sounds like a hassle. We’ve experienced it when we’re faced with too many menus or Netflix: nothing to watch. Faced with too many choices, people may give up.
There’s evidence—just look to the 2000 paper “When Choice Is Frustrating: Do People Crave Too Much of a Good Thing?” In one study, researchers examined the relationship between in-store jam displays and jam sales.
In the study, grocery store shoppers were shown displays of 24 jam varieties and 6 varieties. More shoppers stopped to sample the jam at the larger displays—but surprisingly, shoppers were 10 times more likely to buy jam after seeing the smaller displays than after seeing the larger ones.
More choices means more attention, but fewer conversions.
E-commerce isn’t immune to this phenomenon—just look at how many digital stores have abandoned cart emails!—but online stores typically sell hundreds or even thousands of items. (Amazon sells more than 10 million.)
The rationale is often “more is better” and “customers want more choice.”
But “choice alone can no longer justify marketing strategies,” Barry Schwartz, an author and psychology professor, wrote in Harvard Business Review. “More is not always better, for customers or retailers.”
Why product recommendation quizzes work in e-commerce
Now, when you feel overwhelmed by the jam in a physical store, you can at least ask a salesperson for help.
How can you replicate this personalized experience online?
You can:
Hire a customer service team to answer questions via chatbots—but this approach is expensive, so it’s usually only used to solve problems that customers have.
Build a product recommendation algorithm, like Amazon does — but that requires a lot of data (and data scientists).
Hit visitors with pop-up surveys — nobody likes that.
A more scalable, more accessible option: product recommendation quizzes.
These can help ecommerce stores access zero-party data (unique actionable information, like a user’s hair type, that you’d never get with a cookie) and make personalized recommendations.
Quizzes can even out personalized offers, which Deloitte found is worth paying a premium for for 25% of customers.
Here are 12 examples of popular DTC brands using product recommendation quizzes to boost their ecommerce marketing, picked by Gen Furukawa, co-founder of Prehook, who specializes in interactive quizzes for Shopify.
12 ecommerce quiz examples
Third Love.
Quiz Overview: This lingerie brand found success by moving the bra-trying process online. In 2014, Third Love disrupted the lingerie industry with this 60-second quiz. Since then, more than 4 million women have “tried on” bras with the online quiz.
What it’s like: Third Love uses quiz data to offer custom choices for abandoned cart campaigns — “When you see these, you think of you.”
What it’s like for sellers: Tons of useful data on fit and comfort, as well as common pain points. Sellers who complete all the steps also submit their email.
What it’s like for users: Recommended bras based on their size and shape.
How it’s distributed: “Find my right size” is the second CTA on the homepage, right after “Find a bra.”
Source: Third Love
Fenty Beauty.
Quiz Overview: This six-question shade finder quiz from Rihanna’s makeup brand helps shoppers find the perfect foundation shade for their skin tone without having to test different colors in store.
What it’s like: The copy is filled with encouraging, conversational phrases like “All’s well” and “We’ve got your back.”
What it’s like for sellers: Market data and some new email subscribers.
What it’s like for users: Their shade and product recommendations. Users can choose to get their quiz results via email, add to cart, or save for later.
How the Quiz Is Distributed: This quiz is in the top navigation of Fenty’s homepage.
Trade Coffee.
Quiz Overview: This seven-question quiz from the DTC brew-to-order coffee brand asks new visitors about their coffee personality—how much do they know about coffee? How do they brew coffee at home?
Nice Design: Users can respond “I’m at your beck and call” to questions brazil phone number sample like “What roast level do you typically prefer?” That’s smart—not everyone has strong preferences (or doesn’t know theirs yet).
What Sellers Get: Actionable data about user tastes.
What Users Get: Personalized coffee bean recommendations.
How the Quiz Is Distributed: On Trade Coffee’s homepage—just scroll down the “Shop Now” tile—and in retargeting ads on Facebook (like this one).
Source: Trade Coffee
Birchbox.
Quiz Overview: Beauty subscription service Birchbox builds FOMO with a 5-step teaser quiz about skin care, hair, and personal style preferences.
Nice Design: The quiz is checkbox-style. Even doodling in a virtual box can be satisfying.
What sellers get: Data. And, ideally, recurring revenue. While Birchbox doesn’t require an email to start its quiz, to get results you’ll need to buy a subscription.
What users get: All or nothing — nothing if you don’t pay, or a personalized, discounted beauty box if you subscribe. (Throughout the process, Birchbox’s static banners have the discount code dangling from them.)
How the test is distributed: Through Facebook ads. Also available through Google.
Source: Birchbox
International Anti-Doping Agency.
Quiz Overview: IPSY isn’t letting its competitors have all the fun. Unlike Birchbox, the beauty subscription brand’s 12-part quiz includes color swatches and photos to help people imagine their future makeup cabinets.
The Choice Dilemma in E-Commerce
Analysis paralysis sounds like a hassle. We’ve experienced it when we’re faced with too many menus or Netflix: nothing to watch. Faced with too many choices, people may give up.
There’s evidence—just look to the 2000 paper “When Choice Is Frustrating: Do People Crave Too Much of a Good Thing?” In one study, researchers examined the relationship between in-store jam displays and jam sales.
In the study, grocery store shoppers were shown displays of 24 jam varieties and 6 varieties. More shoppers stopped to sample the jam at the larger displays—but surprisingly, shoppers were 10 times more likely to buy jam after seeing the smaller displays than after seeing the larger ones.
More choices means more attention, but fewer conversions.
E-commerce isn’t immune to this phenomenon—just look at how many digital stores have abandoned cart emails!—but online stores typically sell hundreds or even thousands of items. (Amazon sells more than 10 million.)
The rationale is often “more is better” and “customers want more choice.”
But “choice alone can no longer justify marketing strategies,” Barry Schwartz, an author and psychology professor, wrote in Harvard Business Review. “More is not always better, for customers or retailers.”
Why product recommendation quizzes work in e-commerce
Now, when you feel overwhelmed by the jam in a physical store, you can at least ask a salesperson for help.
How can you replicate this personalized experience online?
You can:
Hire a customer service team to answer questions via chatbots—but this approach is expensive, so it’s usually only used to solve problems that customers have.
Build a product recommendation algorithm, like Amazon does — but that requires a lot of data (and data scientists).
Hit visitors with pop-up surveys — nobody likes that.
A more scalable, more accessible option: product recommendation quizzes.
These can help ecommerce stores access zero-party data (unique actionable information, like a user’s hair type, that you’d never get with a cookie) and make personalized recommendations.
Quizzes can even out personalized offers, which Deloitte found is worth paying a premium for for 25% of customers.
Here are 12 examples of popular DTC brands using product recommendation quizzes to boost their ecommerce marketing, picked by Gen Furukawa, co-founder of Prehook, who specializes in interactive quizzes for Shopify.
12 ecommerce quiz examples
Third Love.
Quiz Overview: This lingerie brand found success by moving the bra-trying process online. In 2014, Third Love disrupted the lingerie industry with this 60-second quiz. Since then, more than 4 million women have “tried on” bras with the online quiz.
What it’s like: Third Love uses quiz data to offer custom choices for abandoned cart campaigns — “When you see these, you think of you.”
What it’s like for sellers: Tons of useful data on fit and comfort, as well as common pain points. Sellers who complete all the steps also submit their email.
What it’s like for users: Recommended bras based on their size and shape.
How it’s distributed: “Find my right size” is the second CTA on the homepage, right after “Find a bra.”
Source: Third Love
Fenty Beauty.
Quiz Overview: This six-question shade finder quiz from Rihanna’s makeup brand helps shoppers find the perfect foundation shade for their skin tone without having to test different colors in store.
What it’s like: The copy is filled with encouraging, conversational phrases like “All’s well” and “We’ve got your back.”
What it’s like for sellers: Market data and some new email subscribers.
What it’s like for users: Their shade and product recommendations. Users can choose to get their quiz results via email, add to cart, or save for later.
How the Quiz Is Distributed: This quiz is in the top navigation of Fenty’s homepage.
Trade Coffee.
Quiz Overview: This seven-question quiz from the DTC brew-to-order coffee brand asks new visitors about their coffee personality—how much do they know about coffee? How do they brew coffee at home?
Nice Design: Users can respond “I’m at your beck and call” to questions brazil phone number sample like “What roast level do you typically prefer?” That’s smart—not everyone has strong preferences (or doesn’t know theirs yet).
What Sellers Get: Actionable data about user tastes.
What Users Get: Personalized coffee bean recommendations.
How the Quiz Is Distributed: On Trade Coffee’s homepage—just scroll down the “Shop Now” tile—and in retargeting ads on Facebook (like this one).
Source: Trade Coffee
Birchbox.
Quiz Overview: Beauty subscription service Birchbox builds FOMO with a 5-step teaser quiz about skin care, hair, and personal style preferences.
Nice Design: The quiz is checkbox-style. Even doodling in a virtual box can be satisfying.
What sellers get: Data. And, ideally, recurring revenue. While Birchbox doesn’t require an email to start its quiz, to get results you’ll need to buy a subscription.
What users get: All or nothing — nothing if you don’t pay, or a personalized, discounted beauty box if you subscribe. (Throughout the process, Birchbox’s static banners have the discount code dangling from them.)
How the test is distributed: Through Facebook ads. Also available through Google.
Source: Birchbox
International Anti-Doping Agency.
Quiz Overview: IPSY isn’t letting its competitors have all the fun. Unlike Birchbox, the beauty subscription brand’s 12-part quiz includes color swatches and photos to help people imagine their future makeup cabinets.