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Its ability to instantly recall millions of products has made
the Virtual Sales Assistant an indispensable asset for
consumers and sales associates alike, he said.
"Many large-format stores have a wide range of products
and departments," he added. "It's difficult for retail
salespeople to stay abreast of store layouts, products
Company: magia.ai and inventories. But like Iron Man, they can don magia's
Product: Cognitive Selling Platform exoskeleton and become superhuman, confidently
Website: www.magia.ai answering questions and telling customers where to find
Contact: sam.vasisht@magia.ai products."
Advanced digital assistants Ron Vaughn, co-founder and COO of Argonaut Liquor,
said the magia Virtual Sommelier is an invaluable tool for
online and in-store customers. The Denver liquor store
to enhance the customer has more than 8,000 wines and 40,000 square feet of retail
space. "Increasingly wine shoppers are visiting our website
not only for selection but also for wine information, and
experience the Virtual Sommelier provides all of that," Vaughn stated.
"It has become a great resource for my staff, adding to their
education and ability to manage our inventory. It helps my
an Jose, Calif.-based magia.ai launched the customers and employees make great informed choices
Cognitive Selling Platform, a suite of artificial and they learn a lot along the way."
intelligence-powered technologies designed to
S provide a personalized shopping experience Full-featured, autonomous selling platform
across an array of digital channels. The platform's Virtual
Sales Assistant can interact with shoppers on websites, The Cognitive Selling Platform understands free-form
natural language and can follow a shopper's thought
apps, social media, messaging services, in-store displays
and kiosks. Its advanced language and cognitive skills process while continually adapting and updating product
selections, Vasisht noted. Following are several additional
facilitate selling complex products and create human-like
shopping interactions, the company stated. features and benefits he described:
• Consistent, omnichannel experience: The Cogni-
magia's adaptable sales assistants professionally engage tive Selling Platform enables merchants to sell on
with shoppers, helping them compare products and every channel, maintaining a uniform, omnichan-
services. Their natural language, product knowledge and nel customer experience.
advanced listening skills differentiate them from early
iterations of selling bots. For example, magia's Virtual • Fast, easy deployment: Domain-specific Virtual
Sommelier can sell millions of wines, based on its extensive Sales Assistants are equipped with vertical indus-
knowledge of region, taste profiles, varietals, food-pairing, try knowledge and selling techniques. This enables
price and other attributes. Company representatives merchants to deploy magia Virtual Sales Assistants
said merchants can leverage these capabilities to boost within days or weeks with minor customization.
conversion rates and enhance the consumer shopping
journey. • Advanced retail analytics and business intelli-
gence: By capturing user intent and objections in
Cheng Zou, Chief Executive Officer at magia.ai, said the their own language, these digital sales assistants
company beta tested its Cognitive Selling Platform in can capture shopper buying behavior and analyt-
the wine vertical, because buying wine can be a complex ics. Retailers can assess this data to better under-
decision process. People who know little about wine rely stand shopper needs and buying triggers, and craft
on human assistance, but wine specialists don't always intelligent merchandising strategies.
have the ability to match a user's need with the most
optimal selection. "This is where magia not only helps • Simple integration: The open platform is designed
find the optimal wine, but also explains to a user why it to seamlessly integrate with any service a company
is so," he stated. "This has not been done before with the can deploy, from ecommerce to POS systems to in-
finesse that we do." teractive, in-store displays.
Enhancing the human experience "The Cognitive Selling Platform addresses multiple
industry requirements across many different services,"
Sam Vasisht, Chief Marketing Officer at magia, said Vasisht said. "We can integrate in smart shopping carts
the Virtual Sales Assistant can employ up to 27 selling and smart shelves to enable merchants to compete with
techniques to build rapport and create a buying rationale. autonomous shopping formats such as Amazon Go."
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