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NewProducts





                                                                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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