Assisted selling in your online store: quotes, prepared carts and video calls

The customer calls: they need spare parts for their machine and do not know which ones. Your salesperson tells them over the phone, one by one, with their references. The customer hangs up, goes to the website, searches for each product, gets one wrong, hesitates over another and leaves it for tomorrow. Tomorrow they buy somewhere else.

Assisted selling —the kind that goes through a conversation with a person— is common in technical catalogues, in B2B and in large purchases. The problem is not usually the conversation, which works, but the jump from the conversation to the cart.

When selling with assistance pays off

• Products with compatibilities: spare parts, consumables, components that depend on a model.
• Projects with several parts: an installation, a renovation, a complete fit-out.
• Trade customers who repeat long orders and want them prepared for them.
• High-value purchases, where the customer wants to talk to someone before paying.
• Customers not used to buying online, who trust a person more than a form.

The channels, and what each one is for

Whatever the channel, the conversation should end in the same place: a prepared cart that the customer pays for with one click.

From conversation to cart

PrestaShop lets you create an order for a customer from the back office and email them the cart so they can pay for it. It works, but it has limits: the customer must have an account, the cart is for them alone and there is no way of knowing whether they have opened it.

The alternative is a link that loads the cart: you prepare the selection (products, combinations, quantities, perhaps a coupon), generate the link and send it through whichever channel you are using. The customer opens it, sees the quote with images and prices, and moves it into their cart.

What a quote with a link should include

• Expiry. Prices and stock change. A quote from three months ago should not keep loading the same price.
• A usage limit, if the quote is for a specific customer, or open if it is a selection for many (a kit, a list from a catalogue).
• What happens if something goes out of stock: remove it, warn, or replace it with another product.
• The coupon, if there is one, applied or not depending on what you agreed.
• Restrictions: only for registered customers, for a trade group or for a country.
• A preview that changes nothing, so the salesperson can check it before sending.

What the law says if you sell by phone

A sale closed by phone with a consumer is a distance contract, with its 14-day right of withdrawal. And it has a rule of its own: article 98.6 of Royal Legislative Decree 1/2007 (Spain's General Law for the Defence of Consumers and Users) requires the offer to be confirmed in writing or on a durable medium, and the consumer is only bound once they accept it in writing. The prepared cart solves this naturally: the customer sees the offer on the website and accepts it when paying through the checkout, with the usual terms.

The same applies to video calls: the conversation serves to sell, but the contract is closed at checkout.

The video call as an in-store salesperson

For a product that needs to be seen —a piece of furniture, a piece of jewellery, technical equipment—, a video call from the product page is very similar to serving someone in a physical shop. What makes it practical:

• The customer chooses between talking right away or booking an appointment.
• The salesperson can add products to a cart that the customer sees on their screen while they talk.
• When they finish, the customer moves that cart into their own and pays without redoing anything.

Before launching it, set realistic hours: a «talk now» button that never answers does more harm than not having one.

Knowing what each salesperson sells

If assisted selling is not measured, it ends up looking like a cost. What you should record:

• Which links or sessions end in an order, and for what amount.
• Which salesperson each order is attributed to, with a reasonable time window.
• How long it takes the customer to pay after receiving the quote.
• Which channel converts best (WhatsApp, email, video call).

With that data you can set commissions, hours and priorities based on numbers, not impressions.

Preparing the team

The tool handles the jump to the cart, but the sale is made by a person. Before announcing assisted selling, it is worth having settled who handles each channel and at what times, the maximum time it takes to send a quote, how much leeway each salesperson has to apply a discount and who reviews large quotes before they are sent. And one practical detail: the salesperson should see the catalogue with real stock, so they do not prepare a cart with products you cannot supply.

Common mistakes

1. Dictating references over the phone instead of sending the cart.
2. PDF quotes that the customer has to retype on the website.
3. Links with no expiry that keep loading old prices.
4. Using the salesperson's personal WhatsApp, which leaves with them if they change jobs.
5. Promising video call availability without anyone assigned.

How to solve it in PrestaShop

RKR Magic Carts turns a selection of products —with combinations, quantities, coupon, expiry and usage limits— into a token link, a signed permalink or a QR code that loads the cart with one click. The customer sees a quote page with the lines and images; you decide whether the cart merges with the one they already have, what happens if a product goes out of stock, whether login is required and which groups or countries it is valid for. The statistics, with UTM, tell you which links sell. RKR Video Call places a button on the product page to talk to a salesperson by video, right away or by appointment: while you talk, the agent fills a shared cart that the customer sees on screen and moves into their real cart with one click, and each order is attributed to the agent who closed it.