Did you know the AI sales tools market might hit $4.88 billion by 2024? This growth shows how quickly AI is used to make sales better and more efficient.
Rep AI is now a recognized AI sales chatbot leader in Shopify’s ecosystem. Recently featured on the NASDAQ billboard, they have lept ahead of others because of their unique AI model that delivers:
- More site conversions (because of their behavioral AI)
- More AOV (the quality of their AI’s engagement is superb)
- Less redundant support tickets (because it easily handles ‘sales’ questions that would normally go to support)
For shoppers, they get:
- A conversational shopping experience
- Conversational product search and discovery using natural language
- An on-demand product expert, which increases confidence in their purchases
Do any of these persistent eCommerce problems belong to you?
- No in-store presence to attend to shopper needs and questions
- Low conversions on site visitors
- Discovering new products
- Abandoned carts
- Low shopper confidence
- Upselling or cross-selling with recommendations
- Support ticket overwhelm
Then, Rep AI is the tool you’ve been looking for.
Key takeaways in this review
- The AI sales tools market is expected to hit $4.88 billion by 2024—in other words, your chatbot should be selling
- Rep AI is a sales-first concierge (chatbot)—it’s programmed to sell through a service-oriented AI
- Rep has developed its own advanced AI model (CABBE) which uses a unique blend of generative and behavioral AI
- Rep’s AI has proven to handle some of the most persistent eCommerce challenges with an all-in-one solution
- Rep AI leads with a conversational shopping experience, behavioral intelligence that captures more site visitors than automated pop-ups, and an insane amount of data and insights.
An Introduction to Rep AI in 2024
As Rep AI introduces a new wave of AI assistants or intelligent and on-brand ‘concierges,’ they have also changed how we measure the success of chatbot technology.
Before, scripted chatbots were there to buffer support and deflect tickets. Now, they’re intelligent sales concierges, offering individualized shopping experiences at scale.
Rep operates just like a retail store’s sales rep. Its AI senses when shoppers are disengaged and approaches them with a simple chat when they’re hesitant.
Conversations are contextual to the page, so every recommendation is relevant. Rep is also alerted when someone abandons their cart and reaches out to them with an incentive to drive more sales on the spot.
Why is Rep AI so effective?
In short, Rep is smart and driven by CABBE, the most advanced AI for Shopify. CABBE is an acronym that stands for:
- Conversational Intelligence
- Analytical Intelligence
- Behavioral Intelligence
- Brand Intelligence
- Emotional Intelligence
They all work together to produce a seamless shopping experience and give merchants access to data and insights they never had before.
What results does Rep AI get?
The results from Rep’s clients have been eye-opening.
- Harney & Sons Fine Teas conversions tripled, or 3.5x their previous mark
- Body Align saw a 41% increase in AOV
- Snow Teeth Whitening converted 33% of their abandoned carts to a sales boost of $219,000 within a 60-day period
- GoSun reduced support tickets by 40% YoY
The Concierge learns and gets smarter over time. It can also be trained and fine-tuned so interactions are on-brand voice, messaging, and recommendations.
The Evolution of Rep AI from 2020 to 2024
At first, Rep managed simple chats and relied heavily on user-generated conversation flows. Now, the AI sells in a contextual, individualized way.
Using the Shopify integration, Rep’s advanced AI is always scanning and reading the store every 30 seconds. So product stock is constantly updated and the AI is always up to date.
Rep can also handle up to 97% of support requests, which tend to be pre-sales questions from shoppers that usually end up in support. This means that support teams can tackle harder tasks while AI does the routine work.
Why Businesses are Adopting Rep AI
With a flurry of ChatGPT powered options available, how can you tell the rock-solid performers from the rest of the pack?
Performance, obviously. Can it sell? Deflect tickets? Yes and yes.
But what Rep brings to the table is its unique behavioral AI which claims to solve the low conversions problem that plagues most eCommerce sites. Let’s face it, 80%, if not more, of your traffic will fail to convert.
Underoutfit, who currently rank in the top percentile of all Shopify stores, tripled their conversions with Rep according to their founder. And there are more examples.
The team at Rep AI have been developing their own model, which also uses OpenAI’s core Gen AI capabilities with ChatGPT, but is bringing something new to the table with CABBE.
Finally, no other company in this category offers a 30-day free trial AND a 60-day money-back guarantee if a merchant doesn’t 5x their ROI. Couple this offer with their self-serve interactive demo where merchants can try Rep on their own stores in a safe and secure demo environment. That’s an offer that’s hard to beat.
Key Features of Rep AI
Here are the features that matter:
Conversational Intelligence
The conversational commerce platform uses GenAI and a powerful NLU (natural language understanding) provide an on-demand brand and product expert for every shopper. Rep is also multilingual understanding slang, idioms, and even local dialects making conversations more natural feeling.
Conversational search and discovery is likely to replace the ineffective site search engine on most sites. Using natural language to discover, say, new wines is a revelation.
And because the AI is essentially a product expert, it can answer questions and recommend different products based on preferences or needs.
Analytical Intelligence
Rep delivers AI-assisted metrics such as conversions, sales, AOV, and more. Also, and perhaps most importantly, every AI chat is recorded and available for analysis.
Why is this important? Because AI chats with shoppers gives merchants something they never had before: feedback at scale. Every conversation is a window into what shoppers think, want, and feel.
Some merchants reported using information from chats to improve their Shopify tagging system, product descriptions, and more.
Raw shopper feedback is an advantage no merchant can afford to be without.
Behavioral Intelligence
Rep uses advanced behavioral AI that checks, every 5 seconds, how shoppers are engaged on your site. It analyzes scroll depth, mouse clicks, and inactivity to determine whether someone might leave your store or stay.
If there’s a risk of them leaving, behavioral intelligence initiates a chat, and conversational intelligence takes over from there.
Even if the AI doesn’t triple your conversions, as they’ve seen with Harney & Sons, if it only gave you an extra 1% or 2% more conversions, wouldn’t that be worth it?
Brand Intelligence
When setting up the AI, merchants can train the AI’s personality with:
- Brand voice (set a prompt for the AI’s voice)
- General info about the brand (mission and values)
- Info about the customer (who do you serve?)
- And more
The AI is brilliant at executing its instructions and maintaining brand consistency. When training their AI, Duck World simply instructed the voice to be “duck puns.”
Smart.
Emotional Intelligence
This capability will be available in Q3 of 2024, so I’ll update this post then. Ei will be able to:
- Adjust its tone depending on how shoppers or customers interact with the AI — an upset shopper will get a different tone of voice
- Sentiment analysis — wouldn’t you like to know which products or collections inspire the most joy or frustration? What could you do with that knowledge?
Stay tuned.
How Rep AI Enhances Sales Automation
Rep is as close to a plug and play solution as it gets. Its job is to sell by:
- Approaching disengaged shoppers
- Offering product and brand expertise on-demand
- Converting more abandoned cart shoppers
- Collect leads or even sell memberships
- Recommending similar or complementary products
- Guiding shoppers right in-chat to collections, product pages, add to cart, or even take people to checkout
A Shopify AI for Customer Support Automation
What’s the difference between a shopper and a customer? Simple. One of them is in the act of buying something, and one has already bought. Rep’s purpose is to convert more shoppers into customers. And if customers happen to be in shopping mode, then Rep’s job is to sell them again, and sell them more.
Many of the questions that shoppers ask are very different from the questions that customers need help with. And that’s the difference.
Rep AI is so effective at deflecting support tickets because most of those questions are sales questions. They could also be product or policy questions, such as shipping or returns.
Rep’s job is more ‘shopper support’ than ‘customer’.
Integrations and Compatibility
Currently Rep AI only supports the Shopify ecosystem. As of this writing, Rep has two primary integrations:
- Marketing
- Support or helpdesk integrations
They have a third integration with Tapcart, which turns any store into a mobile app.
Marketing Integrations
Current marketing integrations include:
- For marketing
- Yotpo
- Klaviyo
- Attentive
- Postscript
Their functionality allows merchants to collect email and SMS in exchange for a discounts or deals. When shoppers take the deal, Rep asks for their email in exchange for a discount code, and then auto-applies the code at checkout.
One merchant made the claim that emails collected through Rep versus standard pop-ups were more engaged and bought more after measuring their RPR (email revenue per recipient). A powerful testament to conversational interactions versus interruptive automated pop-ups.
Shopify and Other Ecommerce Platforms Integration
Rep AI integrates with Shopify and other upcoming eCommerce platforms. It’s a simple one-click integration that works flawlessly.
User Experience and Interface
Shopper UX
In the end, Rep is a chatbot interface that shoppers are familiar with. But as the saying goes, “It’s what’s on the inside that counts.”
With CABBE working as Rep’s advanced AI, the ‘chatbot’ behaves and functions like a true sales concierge for your store. And CABBE is interface agnostic, so in the future, Rep AI could be deployed through voice, or perhaps in the metaverse.
Merchant UX
As for the merchant side of things, the console makes it easy to:
- View sales and engagement analytics
- Train the AI using text, documents, and URLs
- Read AI Conversations and come up with your own insights
- View AI’s top-selling products and adjust those flows if you want to promote undiscovered products
- Or go LIVE with a shopper that needs help now—the AI will ping you if a shopper wants human assistance now
This stresses the value of humans and machines working together in modern AI design.
Pricing Plans and Affordability
Rep provides flexible pricing plans starting at $29 a month. These plans are designed for various business sizes, but here’s what matters:
- Everyone, regardless of plan, gets the same advanced AI — nothing is stripped away
- Everyone gets access to the same integrations
- Plans differ by monthly site visits and the size of a catalog
- Lower tiered pricing plans get more automated support via email, whereas the higher-tiered plans get more bespoke assistance the more you pay
- Finally, higher-tiered plans also get more customization ability with the AI
Free Trial and How to Get Started
To get started with Rep AI, they have three primary methods:
- Try the self-serve simulator or risk-free demo—sometimes that’s enough to convince merchants that this is no ordinary AI
- Start a free trial—go through the self-serve onboarding process, set up Rep, brand it and so on—and see how it works with your store
- Ask for a personal demo—ideally for more mid-market to enterprise clients
Again, the simulator will demonstrate how Rep works on your catalog right now. You can test and train it to your heart’s content (or try to break it).
Also, you get a 30-day free trial and a 60-day money-back guarantee if you don’t get a 5x ROI with Rep. That’s an offer you can’t refuse perhaps?
Rep AI Review: Pros and Cons
Rep AI has 45 5-star reviews on Shopify. Here’s a comprehensive pros and cons list.
Advantages of Using Rep AI
- You get the most advanced AI in eCommerce: CABBE
- You can train the AI on your brand voice and personality, who your market is, and dos and don’ts—like a real employee
- You have an always-on brand and product expert in your store
- Rep converts more site traffic using Behavioral Intelligence to approach and engage shoppers proactively — some merchants have experienced up to 3x more site conversions as a result
- Merchants have experienced boosts in AOV, sometimes up to 41%
- Support tickets tend to go down because Rep answers redundant pre-sale or product questions that usually wind up in support
- Rep has proven to convert up to 33% of abandoned cart as proven in this case study
Limitations and Areas for Improvement
There are a few drawbacks and areas where Rep AI could get better:
- Users want more integrations within the Shopify ecosystem
- Like an employee, the AI needs training, and that training will come from you
- The AI works great 99% of the time but sometimes hallucinates—could be a site UX issue or signal to train the AI better
Merchants can report any issue directly to the Rep team, like so:
In summary, with the generous trial period and a money-back guarantee, there are few downsides. The AI can sometimes be unpredictable, but the benefits outweigh the cons.
Case Studies and Success Stories
Explore the success stories of Rep AI. This platform has greatly improved sales and customer happiness in many fields. It creates personalized experiences that are true to your brand. This has led to higher engagement and more conversions, showing how powerful it is in enhancing customer experiences with AI.
Boosting Sales Metrics with Rep AI
Rep AI has tripled site traffic conversions and handles nearly all support requests. For example, Harney & Sons Fine Teas increased revenue by 15%. Fresh Roasted Coffee saw a 33.85% conversion rate on abandoned carts. Snow Teeth Whitening earned over $200k. Plus, Rep AI showed a 20X ROI, highlighting its sales-driving power.
Its AI talks to shoppers who seem uninterested, doing much better than usual pop-ups. NutraBio’s sales jumped by 17%. Vush’s conversion rate went up by 10%. They also got four times more blog visitors and happier customers. These stories prove how well Rep AI boosts sales.
You can view all of Rep AI’s case studies here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the chatbot different from a concierge?
Rep makes the distinction between their concierge and typical chatbots. It’s part philosophical and part functional. The concierge was made to sell through a service-oriented approach. Chatbots are generally used to support, unlike a concierge which is a full-service, end-to-end shopping experience solution.
How does the behavioral AI work again?
The behavioral intelligence component of CABBE has one job: read digital body language to determine the likelihood of a site visitor’s engagement or lack thereof.
It checks on-site behaviors such as scroll speed, scroll depth, mouse movements, clicks, inactivity, and more every 5 seconds.
Before the custom AI was developed, the Rep team engineered the chat to approach people more like a timed pop-up—every 10, 20, or 30 seconds—and conversions went down.
The results have been almost night and day since the AI only approaches people when they’re most likely to leave. Again, some merchants have reported that their conversions tripled after deploying Rep AI in their stores.
Why are support departments adopting Rep AI?
Surprisingly, support teams are now under pressure to support sales and revenue goals. Some of the Rep’s biggest clients came through CS teams, not traditional marketing or sales.
The big surprise is understanding that a lot of support tickets are pre-sales questions. In other words, shoppers have questions about products, use cases, and accessories. And Rep AI is great at handling these redundant questions at scale.
What features make Rep different from the rest of the chatbot market?
The CABBE model is advanced AI built exclusively for eCommerce. Most AI models are generic and can be hit-or-miss. Rep was built for eCommerce sales.
The Conversational, Analytical, Behavioral, Brand, and Emotional Intelligences put Rep in a different tier when it comes to chatbot technology.
How does REP AI enhance sales automation?
By first converting more site visitors, or browsers into buyers. Second, by offering an engaging shopping experience that includes recommendations for upsells to give AOV a boost.
What benefits does REP AI provide in customer support automation?
Around-the-clock coverage. If a human covers support for 8 hours a day, that leaves 16 unmanned hours—unless you have the budget to cover it.
Hiring one person to cover these 16 hours at $15 per hour, every day for an entire month—or 30-day period—would cost you approximately $7,200 per month USD. And that’s without benefits.
AI’s biggest benefit is an always-on, on-brand, intelligent presence in your store. This wasn’t possible before.
What integrations and compatibility does REP AI support?
Rep is exclusively in the Shopify ecosystem. Marketing integrations include Klaviyo, Yotpo, Attentive, and Postscript.
Support integrations include Gorgias, Zendesk, and Richpanel.
And use Tapcart to convert your store into a mobile-app-like experience.
How does REP AI enhance user experience and interface design?
Rep’s UX prowess is more about how the AI behaves than other solutions. Shoppers can do almost everything in-chat with an intelligent concierge guiding them.
Merchants get a clean dashboard full of AI-assisted metrics and analytics—and a dedicated space to train and test their AI.
What are the pricing plans and affordability options for Rep AI?
Merchants can purchase a monthly or annual subscription if they want to save 20%. Pricing starts at $29 per month and goes up based on:
- Total monthly site visits
- Catalog size
What are the pros and cons of using Rep AI?
The downside is the AI can hallucinate, or make things up, if it’s not properly trained.
The pros are more conversions and sales and fewer redundant support requests. Merchants also get a treasure trove of data, analytics, and insights on how to improve.
