Listen to this articleChat-apps are used more than anything else online, 80 billion texts per day are sent worldwide. eCommerce is growing 8x faster than traditional retail and people have app fatigue.
Mash.ai is a chatbot first eCommerce platform, proposing consumers brands and products that fit their profile and the occasion. All this happens in the shoppers preferred chat app like Facebook Messenger, Skype, Telegram or even on their Amazon Kindle. This means shoppers have access to all their favorite brands, inside an app they already use. Below is our recent interview with Frederik Van Lierde, CEO & Founder at Masha.ai:
Q: Can you tell us with how many brands do you work?
A: Currently, we work with 583 international brands like Nike, Ted Baker, Under Armour, Jack & Jones, Swarovski, L’Oreal de Paris, Hilton Hotels, Qatar Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Paul’s Boutique, Hamleys, Lego Holiday, ASOS, Fnac, In the Style, Waterstones, Primesport, Mont Blanc, TopShop, Hunkemoller, Converse, Blue Tomato… and have around 7.3 MM products available.
Q: What types of products do you offer to your clients?
A: For brands and businesses, we offer them 1 solution, a platform that puts them in front of their future customers inside their favorite chat app. We purely focus on that
For customers, we offer a full range of products and services, from gift cards, ink-cartridges, garden furniture, pet food, chocolates, flowers, up to fashion, cosmetics, luxury watches… we have more than 50 shopping categories.
The customer can visit the biggest shopping mall inside their chatbot. How cool is that? (smiles)
Some cool features the customers have:
LOVED BY THE EXPERTS: experts in the industry create specific collections chosen from all the brands on our platform.
FLOWER SERVICE It allows anyone in the world to send flowers to a friend in Europe. We are working to make it available to deliver anywhere in the world
WHAT MY FRIEND LIKE: We notify users on upcoming birthdays and propose immediately brands and products the friend really like.
Recommended: AnimeCon.org Organizes Anime Conventions In Support Of A Nerd Community
Q: What makes your platform unique? How do you stand out from your competition?
A: We are probably the first Chatbot Only eCommerce solution where 583 international brands signed up and many local businesses. Bringing them all in 1 place. Like a shopping mall.
At Masha.ai we believe you should spend less time shopping and have more fun with friends and family. Of course, we need to shop and the economy has to keep running. To reach our goal, we need to bring the right products in front of the shoppers at the right moment. The proposed products should not be how much a brand paid us to be on top, but what the consumer needs or wants. By working this way, we can support local businesses up to famous international brands.
I and the team believe strongly that this approach will be more profitable for the consumer (more free time) and the brand (more sales at lower cost)
We work with brands who don’t always work with the existing famous platforms like Amazon and ASOS, which gives us a different type of product we can offer.
Q: How is online shopping different today than it was a few years ago?
A: A few years ago, an online shop was an extension of the business, a marketing tool, an extra feature. The #1 part of the business was still the brick and mortar shops. the internet was great for researching, the online shop was great to showcase your products but the feeling of shopping was missing
Today, consumers don’t make the distinction anymore between online and offline. Consumers want to shop whenever they want it and how they like it. They expect personalization and relevant suggestions
Today, we can offer this via videos, 360 views, trying sunglasses with AI, chatbots to create conversations with the brands and much more, all to create a real feeling of shopping. We add video to the search results
We also see people do start to buy more and more via mobile. The shopping experience, with the technology of today, is never stopping.
Today, as a business, you can’t afford not having an online shop, a business should at least sell gift cards online. When a person wants to buy now, for whatever reason, as a brand you have to make sure he or she can buy it now. If not, they go to the competitor. It is that simple.
Recommended: Webexpenses Delivers Cloud-Based Travel And Spend Management Software To Businesses Of All Sectors And Sizes
Q: What are your plans for the future?
A: Continue pushing our mission, to let people enjoy more fun time, by giving them the easiest and fastest shopping experience whenever they want, wherever they want to shop.
In numbers, by the end of this year, we want to have signed 10.000 brands and local businesses and make a TU of 1MM/month
Technology wise, we will integrate with more chat apps, voice and other available tools on the internet, plus something very exciting and big will be launched in September the latest, it will automate shopping even more.
Activate Social Media:
