This isn't some crystal-ball prophecy or marketing waffle. It's hard data straight from Macy's — one of the biggest American department stores, something like our Answear or Bonprix, only on steroids.
Imagine a customer lands on your site for a CZK 400 (≈ €16) T-shirt. You exchange a few smart words with them and they leave with a basket worth CZK 1,900 (≈ €76). What if you had exactly that on your e-shop?
The summary for those in a hurry
- Brutal numbers: People who chat with Macy's AI assistant spend 375% more than regular customers.
- Like a real stylist: "Ask Macy's" runs on Google Gemini and behaves like a pro from a boutique.
- Not just for the giants: These days you can get an AI assistant for your e-shop (on Shopify, say) for a few hundred CZK a month.
- The end of dumb bots: The classic chatbot mostly annoyed people; today's AI can "complete the look" and sells whole solutions.
- Snooze and you lose: Anyone who doesn't deploy AI within a year will be at a huge competitive disadvantage.
What "Ask Macy's" is and how it works
Macy's went all in recently. No quiet testing — they rolled it straight out to millions of their customers.
Their new darling is called "Ask Macy's," and under the hood purrs a beefed-up Google Gemini model. Forget those annoying 2015-era pop-ups that could only manage "Hello, how can I help you?" before packing you off to the FAQ. This is a completely different league.
It works like a premium digital stylist. A customer types: "I'm going to a summer wedding in Italy, I have fuller hips and a $200 budget." Within 3 seconds the AI doesn't just offer her a dress. It serves up a complete outfit — including shoes, a clutch and earrings.
On top of that, Macy's added a "complete the look" feature and a virtual fitting room. A customer uploads a photo and instantly sees whether that mustard shade really suits them. This is the AI shopping revolution, live and in real time.
4.75× more spent — how on earth is that possible?
You might be wondering how a machine can sell more than a live salesperson on the shop floor. The answer is simple: brutal, real-time personalization.
The reports from Fortune and Bloomberg are jaw-dropping. Customers who chat with "Ask Macy's" drop an average of 6 items into the basket instead of the usual 1.5. Why? Because good AI in e-commerce does upselling and cross-selling with an elegance a human simply can't match at that speed and scale.
Because people no longer just look for a specific product. They look for a solution to their problem.
When I want a tent, I don't just want a bit of fabric. I want to survive a weekend in the mountains where it'll be freezing and pouring at night. An AI assistant gets this. You buy the tent, and it immediately throws in waterproofing spray, a warmer sleeping bag and a gas stove. Boom — the order value shoots into orbit.
What this means for your e-shop
Right now you're probably thinking: "Lucie, that's great, but I'm not a billion-dollar corporation, I can't afford developers." And here's what I'll tell you: forget the developers.
You don't have to be Macy's to have this on your site within a week. There are off-the-shelf solutions on the market today for a few hundred CZK a month. Whether you run on Shoptet, Shopify or WooCommerce, you've got plenty to choose from.
You can reach for apps built specifically for Shopify, or try platforms like Tidio or Intercom. They already have AI models built in. All you do is connect them to your XML feed. Once you've got getting people to the site sorted — say your Facebook ads for the e-shop are running beautifully or your Google Ads for e-shops are dialed in — the AI makes sure it squeezes the maximum out of those visitors.
And if you're out of your depth, we at LK Media are happy to lend a hand. We enjoy integrating smart tools just as much as we enjoy growing your profits.
How to deploy an AI assistant step by step
Don't wait for a miracle — let's get to work. Here's the exact process for getting an AI chatbot onto your e-shop without going grey in the process.
1. Pick the right platform: Don't buy the most expensive option straight away. Start with something that plays nicely with your e-commerce system. Tidio is perfectly fine to start with and costs a few hundred CZK.
2. Train it on your data: This is critical. The AI assistant has to know your products inside out. Pour in your product feed, descriptions, terms and conditions and even old support tickets.
3. Set the guardrails: You don't want your AI sidekick advising people how to bake a cake when you sell car parts. Give it clear rules on what it's allowed to talk about.
4. Test like crazy: Before you go live, try to catch it out. Ask it nonsense, ask about discounts, about returns. You need to be sure it answers in the spirit of your company culture.
Where it doesn't (yet) work
So that we don't just float around on a rosy cloud, let's face the truth. There are places where an AI assistant will, for now, break its teeth.
When you're selling Rolexes for half a million CZK (≈ €20,000), the customer wants to talk to a man in a suit, not an algorithm. High-end luxury still demands personal contact. The same goes for extremely complex B2B products involving tenders and 50-page contracts.
And then there are the legal question marks. Who takes the blame when the AI gives bad advice on dosing dietary supplements? And what about GDPR when a customer pours their health problems into the chat? Here you have to be careful and have it legally covered that this is only a recommendation.
Conclusion, and what to do about it now
The gap is widening. On one side there'll be e-shops with an average order value of CZK 1,200 (≈ €48). On the other, those who got the trend, deployed AI, and whose customers leave over CZK 5,000 (≈ €200) per purchase.
You don't have time to wait for your competitors to do it. Once they deploy it, you won't catch up. Add cracking UGC ads and aggressive retargeting on Facebook to a smart assistant, and your e-shop will shoot for the stars.
Want your own digital salesperson on your site — one that never sleeps, never takes a holiday and sells 4.75× more? Write to us at LK Media. We'll talk it through over a coffee and come up with a solution built just for you.
FAQ
How much does an AI assistant for an e-shop cost?
A basic version (Tidio, Chatbase) starts at anywhere from CZK 500 to 2,000 (≈ €20–80) a month. Large custom builds over an API (like Macy's has) start in the tens of thousands of CZK for implementation.
Does the AI assistant work in Czech too?
Absolutely! Models like GPT-4 and Gemini speak Czech completely fluently — they handle declensions, conjugations and even our particular humor and slang.
Will an AI assistant replace customer support?
About 70% of it, yes. It handles all the boring queries like "Where's my parcel" or "Do you have this in blue". Your support people are then left to deal with only the genuinely complex and VIP cases.
How quickly will I see results?
If your e-shop already has traffic, you'll see results literally overnight. A higher conversion rate and order value show up as soon as the bot is live and dialed in.
Is an AI assistant right for a small e-shop?
One hundred percent. For small e-shops especially, it's a huge advantage. It gives you the power and level of customer care the big players have, without paying for a whole team of agents.
