What does your company do?
zoovu provides a SaaS technology that enables retailers and brands to offer automated but human-friendly customer support on all digital channels. It removes barriers to conversion as it helps consumers make informed and confident purchase decisions.
With the rise of digital selling and the ability to deliver products and services at scale, consumers have more choice than ever before. Often they are expected to find what they want with no guidance or support which can be overwhelming – we call this choice paralysis.
Our AI-driven digital assistants know how to ask meaningful questions that help consumers find the right product or service based on their needs. This means less friction and a personalised experience that is much more fun for consumers and rewarding for brands and retailers.
Many of our clients use zoovu to drive sales and conversions. Apart from that, they also receive invaluable analytics data and insights, which helps them understand their customers and the motivations behind buying decisions better.
Our clients see higher engagement, increased loyalty but also decreasing returns after integrating zoovu.
WHAT CHALLENGE ARE YOU SOLVING FOR MULTICHANNEL RETAILERS?
If we look at it and remove all layers, businesses want to sell more. Simple as that. They want to grow and increase their customer base. And to do this, they must ensure that all friction, everything that stands between a customer and a purchase, is removed.
We help them ensure that customers receive the consistent assistance they need and demand to make a confident purchase decision, whether they’re surfing online, mobile or visiting the store.
They can deploy digital assistants on the web, mobile apps, on an in-store kiosk but also on chatbots and voice-enabled devices.
Each channel has its own distinctive characteristics and requirements and zoovu is able to manage this complexity without putting the burden on multichannel retailers.
Our clients usually deploy digital assistants for their product ranges and integrate additional seasonal assistants, such as gift finders, to address seasonal demand by consumer personas that need a differentiated form of consultation and support. One of our clients increased the conversion rate by 500% with a digital assistant for gifts, which was quite impressive.
What is your vision?
We want to provide a digital customer experience similar to the one consumers receive in-store. We aim to be on every website and every store kiosk to offer convenience, immediacy and instant gratification.
Consumers are expecting frictionless experiences whether online or in store and the role of both retailers and brands has to evolve from merely offering products and facilitating transactions to providing personalised assistance that helps consumers easily identify the perfect products.
What is unique about your offering?
Our complete SaaS platform reduces complexity for marketers and allows them to see results much faster. It’s intuitive and lets business users create digital assistants without the back-and-forth with IT and long development cycles.
zoovu also takes care of product data cleaning and preparation, which is usually a major issue for retailers. And instead of confusing shoppers with technical filters, business users can translate specs into a human-friendly language, which offers a more intuitive and conversational experience for shoppers and one that is closely aligned with the psychology of human decision-making.
Our digital assistants combine in-depth product category knowledge, learning algorithms, interaction patterns and unique question and answer knowledge for over 50 different categories. It is a self-service solution that’s highly intuitive and allows companies to quickly and easily create, customise and integrate their digital assistants.
Who are your customers?
We have solutions for all sizes of retailers and brands ranging from one digital assistant for one product line to multiple digital assistants across multiple countries, multiple product lines and multiple channels. Our solution is simple: if you have a website, a store or are simply looking to provide a more personalised and interactive experience then we have a solution for you.
Customers include consumer electronics brands such as Canon and Whirlpool, ecommerce giant Amazon but also health and beauty brands such as L’Oréal and Coty and UK favourite M&S.
What plans do you have for the future?
In 2019, we will increase investment in AI and behavioural analytics, as well as achieve further growth and expansion in APAC.
Give us your one-sentence elevator pitch.
zoovu empowers brands and retailers to solve the ‘I want’ moment on all digital touchpoints and truly enhance their consumers’ experience.
CUSTOMER CASE STUDY: Canon
Canon Europe is the EMEA arm of Canon Inc. and strategic headquarters for Europe, the Middle East and Africa with operations in around 120 countries, contributing about a third of Canon’s global revenues annually.
For years, consumer electronics manufacturers have competed primarily through innovation – expanding product ranges and adding more advanced features to products. This approach generally helps businesses reach new target audiences, boost market share, and increase profitability. However, as product ranges grow, and features become more complex, it’s also becoming increasingly difficult for consumers to understand which product is right for them.
A lack of clarity in technical product specifications causes shoppers to often overlook distinctive features, making it harder for businesses to stand out, differentiate and build brand loyalty. This was the challenge facing Canon. The vast array of options risked overwhelming even the most loyal customers.
The company was looking for intuitive and engaging ways to educate and inspire shoppers early in their purchase journey, driving consideration and fostering greater brand loyalty in a crowded marketplace.
Canon deployed a range of conversational digital assistants in product categories such as printers, scanners, cameras, and lenses on its brand websites in over 50 countries. Following a needs-based paradigm, digital sales assistants translate technical product specs into a user-friendly language.
Similar to a friendly sales assistant in a store, the AI digital sales assistants engage shoppers in a dynamic, intelligence-driven conversation and ask the right questions to understand what they truly want and need, before guiding them to the most suitable products.
Rob Thomas, EMEA marketing strategy director, comments: “zoovu provides us with a powerful platform and lots of benefits out of the box. The dynamic decision engine was very easy to configure, enabling us to see results quickly. Thanks to the flexibility of the platform, we were able to translate the intelligent digital assistants into multiple languages and integrate them on over 50 of our country websites.”
Thomas adds: “zoovu stood apart from the competition due to the easy implementation and speedy results. It was the technology of choice thanks to a flexible platform that can accommodate our individual business needs.”
He concludes: “The digital assistants are proving to be both popular and engaging. 13% of our total web traffic is using the digital assistants, and 50% complete them to the last question. Better yet, 67% of visitors click through to a product detail page, and 70% access a retailer website to purchase.”
This Company Spotlight was produced by InternetRetailing and sponsored by zoovu. Funding articles in this way allows us to explore topics and present relevant services and information that we believe our readers will find of interest.
