How D2C shop added AI to their custom product business and quickly saw widescale efficiency improvements. ‍

Situation: 

Magnuson Custom an e-commerce direct-to-consumer product company where customers frequently request customized designs. Because there isn’t direct sales staff, Magnuson Custom found their designers were spending nearly half their time valuable time explaining basic concepts and choices to customers. This increased reliance on designer bandwidth was slowing down order fulfillment and leaving an expanding list of waiting customers. Magnuson needed to make a choice: either staff up with salespeople and hope increased revenue offset the expense, or think outside the box.‍

Solution: ‍

While searching for a solution, company founder Nic Magnuson, came across many chatbot services, but none of them offered a tailored workflow that suited the company’s bespoke needs. the y needed a more powerful solution. With MindStudio’s AI applications, Magnuson Custom was able to design and deploy AI to streamline the design process and eliminates 95% of the back and forth between designers and clients.  ‍

MindStudio Wins:

• Image generation and display
• Ability to both lead a Q&A as well as provide informed recommendations
• Ability to forward templated outputs to design staff
  

Magnuson Custom’s MindStudio AI suggested common design options, helped the client determine style and subject matter, and displayed visual examples to clients that brought the design concept to life.  By presenting the design visually to the client in an automated and near-instant fashion, the customers were able to just submit their order and buy online, and the designers received finalized product packs directly from the AI tool, so they could get to laying out the design and submitting to production. 

With this AI up and running successfully, Magnuson Custom added an extra layer in the application that automatically recommends sizing curve insights and complimentary add-on products based on historical sales data. ‍

Looking Forward:‍

Magnuson Custom’s design team now receives finalized order specs straight in their product management software with relevant design files attached to the product, and can move them straight into production. This incredible efficiency gain has increased production throughput by 3x and shortened lead times from 4 weeks to a few days. By lifting revenue and simultaneously avoiding headcount additions, Magnuson Custom doubled the business’s net income percentage.  

Magnuson is now exploring ways to implement MindStudio AI on the backend of their business to further automate the production and after-sale support of her customers.