Six stores. One view of every customer.
An online store built around the advice customers get in store, and now an AI concierge that knows every shelf and every regular.
- Client
- A family-owned perfume and cosmetics retailer with six stores
- Engagement
- E-commerce build · AI upgrade
A long-established family business selling designer fragrance and cosmetics from six stores, known for the advice of its in-store makeup artists and skincare specialists. Moving online, it needed a store that carried that service to the web instead of competing with its own shops.
- An online store for its full range of designer fragrance and beauty brands
- Collect in store at every branch, so online customers still meet the specialists
- Custom order emails, sent on purchase and on completion, that staff use to follow up and cross-sell
Built by our engineering team. The client is described, not named.
Every store knows every customer
Each of the six stores knows its own regulars, stock and specialists, but nothing is shared. Every day staff answer the same shade and availability questions by phone and email, ring other stores to check stock and put items aside, and take consultation bookings by hand. A customer who asks online about a shade, or buys a fragrance in one store, is a stranger in the next. Every question that waits for an answer is a sale that can go elsewhere.
Where the time goes today
- Answering product, shade and availability questions by phone, email and the website
- 22–28 hrs a week
- Ringing other stores to check stock and put an item aside
- 9–12 hrs a week
- Taking consultation bookings by phone and writing them into each store's diary
- 4–6 hrs a week
With the upgrade
- Minutes
- from a stock or shade question to an item held in a named store, not hours
- ~20 hrs
- a week back across the six store teams, about half a full-time role
- Fewer lost sales
- because the answer is "yes, held for you at your nearest store" at any hour
Estimates. Based on a retailer with six busy stores fielding 90–110 product and stock questions a day by phone, email and the website. Every project starts with an Audit that measures the real numbers first.
How it works
- 01Stock and purchase history from each store's till system and the website come together in one live view.
- 02An AI concierge on the website answers questions on products, shades and availability from that live view, never from guesswork.
- 03It reserves an item in a named store, or books a consultation with a makeup artist or skincare specialist there.
- 04The specialist sees the customer's history and the conversation before they arrive.
What stays with people
The concierge gives product information only. Anything about allergies, reactions or skin concerns goes straight to a specialist.
What we measure
- Hours a week store teams spend on stock calls, product questions and bookings, before and after
- Reservations and consultations booked through the concierge, and how many became sales
- Stock and product answers checked against the till systems: the target is none invented
The AI is the easy part. This is the rest.
- 01Two-way sync with each store's till system
- 02Reservations that write back without selling the same item twice
- 03Brand rules on what can be priced or promised online
- 04Tested answers, so the concierge never invents stock
Have a system that needs this?
Tell us what it does today and where the work piles up. In 30 minutes we will tell you what AI could add, what it would take, and whether it is worth doing at all.