Podcast: Why E-Commerce Is Still Broken—And How Rep AI Is Fixing It

Walk into a great brick-and-mortar store and something magical happens: someone asks if you need help. They listen. They guide. They show you what’s relevant—not everything they have, just what fits your need. It's personal, it’s efficient, and it feels good.

Now open a typical e-commerce site. Scroll. Filter. Guess your way around. Maybe you find what you’re looking for. More often, you bounce.

That disconnect is exactly what Rep AI is solving.

In a recent episode of The Ecommerce Edge podcast, Rep AI co-founders Yoav Oz and Shauli Mizrahi sat down with host Jason Greenwood to unpack how their conversational AI is reshaping the way shoppers interact with online stores.

From Frustration to Foundation

This isn’t just another startup story. Yoav and Shauli—longtime friends, serial founders, and now business partners—didn’t set out to build AI for the sake of trendiness. They built it because they experienced the problem firsthand.

They clicked on Facebook ads, landed on beautifully designed DTC sites, and… left. Great products. No purchase. Why? Because no one was there to answer the simplest questions.

So they built Rep.

Shopping That Thinks Like a Salesperson

Rep AI is more than a chatbot. It’s a full-stack sales and support engine that behaves like the best associate in your flagship store. It collects more than 500 behavioral data points per visitor in real-time—what they browse, how they move, what they hesitate on—and then steps in only when the moment is right.

Not 10 seconds after the homepage loads. Not after the shopper’s already gone. But when there’s friction in the journey—and a chance to convert.

The AI doesn’t just react. It leads with context:
“Still looking at our marathon shoes? Want help finding the right fit?”

And unlike traditional search, which depends on the shopper typing in exactly the right phrase, Rep starts a natural conversation. Ask for red Nike running shoes in size 11, and Rep will not only surface what’s available, it’ll guide you through the decision. It can even upsell, cross-sell, and apply logic based on your previous behavior.

From Chat to Checkout

This isn’t an overlay. It’s a full journey. Rep lets shoppers browse, compare, add to cart, and check out—directly in the conversation. Especially on mobile, the AI chat experience becomes the primary interface, reducing friction and lifting conversion rates.

In fact, brands using Rep report higher conversions compared to both traditional search and static chatbots.

Insights You Didn’t Know You Needed

One of the most powerful (and unexpected) outcomes? The data. Because shoppers speak naturally with the AI, brands get a firehose of insight into how customers actually talk about their products—what they’re confused about, what language they use, and what keeps them from buying.

It’s not just “zero results” from search. It’s contextual, qualitative data at scale. And it’s changing everything from SEO to pricing strategy to product descriptions.

As Yoav puts it:
“Brands don’t know what they don’t know. But their customers do. Now they’re finally telling them.”

Sales and Support, Powered by the Same Brain

Another key differentiator? Rep handles both pre-purchase engagement and post-purchase support—seamlessly. And it plays well with the rest of your stack. Whether you use Klaviyo, Gorgias, Yotpo, or any number of other Shopify apps, Rep integrates and enhances, rather than replaces.

And if a customer asks for a human? Rep can hand off to your support platform without skipping a beat.

Not Just for DTC

While most use cases today are Shopify brands, Rep’s AI is already delivering serious ROI for B2B merchants, especially those with complex catalogs. Think auto parts, electronics, industrial components—where the path to purchase is anything but straightforward.

With Rep, even highly technical products become accessible through conversation.

The Bottom Line

E-commerce interfaces haven’t evolved much in the past 15 years. But shopper expectations have. Rep AI is closing that gap—turning every visit into a guided experience, and every conversation into a conversion opportunity.

If your site still relies on menus and filters to do the heavy lifting, it might be time to start thinking like a store associate.

Because your customers already are.

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