A team of Romanian entrepreneurs, founders of Naratix, has created five robots based on artificial intelligence that work non-stop, reducing return rates by up to 60% and increasing the average order in online stores by up to 30%. The robot employees were developed in approximately 12 months, with an investment of €350,000, and by the end of the year, their developers aim to implement them in over 2,500 online stores.
“We started by solving the problem of product documentation for e-commerce catalogues, which was a significant need in the e-commerce market, an important demand so that clients began buying them even during the development and testing period before we officially launched them. The need for AI-based robots to increase efficiency in company operations is infinite in Romania and worldwide, so we developed the five robots while researching their development. This happened because AI evolves and spreads extremely rapidly, and there were no other options but to ‘build the parachute after jumping out of the plane.’ The business idea of Naratix and the development of robots to solve various problems in the e-commerce industry emerged during the pandemic when we led several digitization projects for large e-commerce brands, some even local, in Romania. At that time, we discovered the difficulty, exaggerated costs, and the importance of e-commerce product descriptions and product documentation as a whole(product attributes, product details, product photos, etc.). We see the introduction of AI into e-commerce as similar to the introduction of the steam engine or the assembly line creation. It is the fourth industrial revolution and will allow brands to scale in an unprecedented way and completely reinvent certain operations in a very short time,” said Cristian Orășanu, co-founder of Naratix (Forbes 30 under 30, Paybilla, Techcelerator).
The robots serve as brand managers, engagement managers, data engineers, sales agents, and influencers. They were developed by six young people aged between 29 and 36, Ionuț Avram, Marius Drenea, Stelian Mustea, Vladin Grebeniță, Cristian Orășanu, and Alina Orășanu, with experience in IT, business development, machine learning, cybersecurity, marketing, sales, and psychology.
Who are robots and what exactly do they do?
Naratix has developed two generations of robotic agents to be used by online stores and showcase sites.
The Nara robot, the most creative robot
The robot Nara, acting as a Brand Manager, writes unique content for product descriptions on online stores, category pages, as well as brand pages. Nara has been trained on a vast dataset specific to the e-commerce industry and can operate within any digital or e-commerce department worldwide. Nara can employ the brand’s voice and identity in each description, as well as the SEO strategy or catalogue data of the brand.
Nara can utilise structured, unstructured, minimal data to create unique descriptions that captivate customers’ attention. Nara does not hallucinate or lie, nor does it invent attributes; it exclusively uses details provided by the brand. Moreover, Nara can employ elements such as the brand’s unique tone of voice representative of the brand, and customer profile to craft descriptions specific to a target audience for each product. Additionally, it can draw connections between products and various social events or contexts, such as specific campaigns or cultural events (International Women’s Day, Black Friday, the beginning of the summer season, etc.), and it utilises cultural localization not only to create descriptions in any language but also to culturally localise these descriptions.
The Nara robot also employs computer vision, meaning it analyses the product image gallery and creates stylized content based on the visible information in the images. Furthermore, based on the buyer’s profile, Nara determines the most relevant information about a product and then incorporates it into the description. For example, for a customer in the Beauty/Skincare segment, Nara explained in the description of a product what the Hibiscus extract or Q10 enzyme is used for.
The Dynamo robot, the robot that creates product documentation
The second robot, Dynamo, serves as a Data Engineer, striving to enrich and enhance the relevance of data for each product in an online store. Dynamo utilises EAN codes or product PDFs, scouring the internet for relevant product information in any language. It can search for data from suppliers, merchants, public sources, and more. Subsequently, Dynamo retrieves, translates, and normalises this data into filterable attributes in online stores (e.g., Men’s T-shirt, Color, Style, Material, Collection, Brand, Size, etc.).
The robot Gina, who makes appointments for customers
Gina serves as an Engagement Manager, acting as an agent who provides consultancy to clients, qualifies them, assists in decision-making, and can further liaise with internal departments. Essentially, Gina replaces chatbots or IVR systems. She undergoes training with each interaction and quickly assumes complex responsibilities in customer interactions. Gina can even assist in choosing an appropriate gift or make appointments.
Grant, the charming robot selling online
Grant, as a sales agent, offers consultancy in choosing the ideal products. If the user is on a page with earrings on the online store, Grant encourages them to complete the set and buy a necklace or a ring of the same style. He is consultative, charming, and extremely engaging, especially visually. Through cross-sales, Grant can increase the AOV (average order value) by up to 30%. Grant also learns customers’ preferences, just like a friend from the corner store. He’s the “would you like fries with that” of e-commerce.
Julie, the influencer with an attractive personality
Julie is a digital influencer for brands. She builds her audience, is engaging, posts on social media from her accounts, and creates relevant content. Julie helps brands that want to do live streaming or online content (unboxing, hauls, try-ons, etc.) and is an influencer with a unique personality, reflective of the brand.
Depending on the brand’s specific nature, Naratix offers several advantages for online stores, including reducing documentation and listing costs by up to 97%, as well as automating manual processes, leading to a fivefold efficiency improvement in the ecommerce documentation processes.
Other advantages include up to a 60% reduction in return rates, decreased bounce rates, increased time spent on product pages, up to a 30% increase in Average Order Value (AOV) through cross-sales, up to a 15% increase in add-to-cart rates, and strengthening the brand through unique, personalised content tailored to the appropriate audience.
Naratix, a newly founded company, has implemented these 5 robots in several well-known companies, such as MeliMelo, TheBodyShop, NeaKaisa, Bigotti, Caro, and others, from all e-commerce verticals, ranging from Fashion, Beauty, Home & Decor, Furniture, DIY, IT to Electronics.
Additionally, Naratix founders have managed to form partnerships with the most important e-commerce platforms (Go-Mag, ContentSpeed) in Romania, as well as with the largest digital marketing and SEO agencies specialised in e-commerce (DWF, Data Revolt Agency).
“With a relatively small team, augmented by robots like those created by Naratix, a brand can be present in multiple countries and can support all these operations successfully. Agencies play a role in augmenting existing personnel and automating repetitive processes, freeing up people and helping them make strategic decisions. Naratix robots are dedicated to medium and large online stores looking to scale internationally, but we can also be a great partner for e-commerce startups. By the end of the year, we aim to reach 2,500 clients and grow our partner base, including both e-commerce platforms and performance agencies. When it comes to investments, we`re considering accepting some of the VC offers we received so far and developing a financing round to help our international scaling efforts”, says Cristian Orășanu, Naratix founder.
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