The Hamburg-based Otto Group is relying on an “AI-first mindset” in order to exploit the potential of artificial intelligence across the group in the future. Together with cooperation partner Google, the retail group presented concrete AI applications from the group companies Crate & Barrel, Bonprix and Otto at a press conference in California.
“AI commerce is not just another technological cycle – it is a fundamental change in the way we work and compete,” said Petra Scharner-Wolff, CEO of the Otto Group. AI not only increases efficiency, but also enables new shopping experiences.
The US furnishings brand Crate & Barrel already uses an AI-supported shopping agent based on Google Gemini. This is intended to transfer personal advice from brick-and-mortar retail to digital through natural dialogues and multimodal interaction.
At Bonprix, which only went live with an AI tool for size recommendations for all existing customers in March, “VestiFlow”, a product development solution developed together with Otto Group One.O, is used. The current pilot project already includes trend discovery, assortment fit and product design. Within this pilot, VestiFlow uses AI to provide automated market analysis, generate strategic assortment suggestions and support detailed product design and specifications. This is how data-driven ones should
Product decisions are made possible and greater coordination between trends, customer needs and brand identity can be achieved.
Otto is also testing an AI assistant in his app. This combines text and voice interaction with product catalog knowledge to provide customers with individual advice. According to the company, users show significantly higher engagement in voice mode, with an average of eleven text input interactions per session instead of two. At the same time, the order value increased by an average of 37 percent compared to classic search.
In addition, Otto uses an internal AI agent in customer service who automatically processes standard inquiries and forwards complex concerns to employees. In the long term, the company is pursuing the goal of a central, multimodal AI platform that accompanies customers along the entire customer journey, from inspiration to after-sales service.