Charla, built by MadeinWeb with AWS, will back Melissa's sales force with personalized recommendations, piloted in Rio before a rollout to 403 clubs.
Yohan Consani · Published
Grendene, one of Brazil's largest footwear companies and a leading exporter in Latin America, is launching its first virtual assistant based on generative artificial intelligence to support its sales force. For this Customer Experience solution, the company is betting on the Melissa brand, present in more than 100 countries and at more than 45,000 points of sale worldwide.
Called Charla, the new assistant was developed by MadeinWeb in partnership with AWS, and will be fed with information from the brand's last four collections, along with sales data from two of the main Melissa clubs. The pilot tests are being run in Melissa's own stores in Rio de Janeiro (in the Ipanema and Leblon neighborhoods), with plans to expand across the whole network after initial validation.
This initiative not only demonstrates Grendene's commitment to leading innovation in the footwear sector, but also highlights the importance of bringing advanced technology solutions to every aspect of retail, from B2C to B2B relationships.Daniel Gandolfi, Director of Digital Business at Grendene
For MadeinWeb, the priority was keeping the assistant true to the brand's identity. “When we designed the solution, we emphasized how it should work, keeping it simple and efficient, making the virtual assistant an authentic extension of the Melissa brand and ensuring a seamless integration into the physical sales environment,” says Leonardo Waissmann, commercial head at MadeinWeb.
In day-to-day use
Using the assistant brings gains on several fronts. With detailed data about inventory across the whole network, Charla can suggest alternative products when there is a local stockout, or direct customers to other channels and stores, in an omnichannel approach. It also brings highly personalized recommendations, based on each customer's purchase history and preferences.
This not only encourages customer loyalty but also drives frequent returns, resulting in a steady increase in sales over time.Walter Duarte, head of retail tech at Melissa
Once the testing phase is complete, the virtual assistant will be made available to the sales teams of the 403 active Melissa clubs in Brazil, with the goal of improving the customer experience, driving complementary and cross-selling, and identifying market trends for inventory optimization and marketing strategies.