How Caitlyn Minimalist Uses Shopping Assistant To Turn Single Purchases Into Jewelry Collections

Challenge: As a fast-growing jewelry brand, Caitlyn Minimalist faced a flood of time-sensitive questions about metal quality, tarnish resistance, allergy safety, engraving, or birthstone customization, especially during peak gifting seasons. Without instant answers, high-intent shoppers abandoned their carts, and the brand missed valuable upsell moments, such as suggesting a protective jewelry box or a matching piece to complete a gift set.

Solution: Implementing an AI Shopping Assistant empowered Caitlyn Minimalist to deliver fast, tailored responses around the clock. It clearly explains the differences between similar SKUs, makes great gift recommendations, and naturally upsells complementary pieces when the time is right, turning pre-sales questions into revenue.  

About Caitlyn Minimalist 

Jewelry is the perfect gift for so many occasions—birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and everything in between. But finding the perfect piece isn’t always easy, especially when there are too many options to count. 

For Caitlyn Minimalist, helping customers find the perfect piece or jewelry set has always been a priority. As the brand scales, attracting more customers and launching more items, Caitlyn Minimalist’s team needed a way to offer virtual shopping assistance at scale. 

The challenge: Leaving cart value on the table with missed upsell and cross-sell opportunities

As Caitlyn Minimalist grew, so did its product catalog. This meant more potential to boost average order value through thoughtful add-ons and product pairings. 

For instance, if a customer added a freshwater pearl choker to their cart, there was a clear opportunity to recommend the matching earrings and bracelet. The challenge was making these tailored, one-to-one suggestions in real-time around the clock, before customers dropped off. 

The difference between a sale and a bounce often comes down to timely, knowledgeable, and personalized assistance. For Caitlyn Minimaist, those one-on-one conversations were a powerful driver of revenue, increased basket size, and loyalty.

Caitlyn Minimalist offers a wide range of customizable pieces with nuances in material, care, and personalization. Shoppers often had last-minute questions before making a purchase, and failing to answer them didn’t just lead to lost sales—it led to lost opportunities to recommend: 

• A velvet jewelry box to protect a necklace
• A matching bracelet to complete a gift set
• An additional pair of earrings to round out a personalized order

These are conversion-critical moments, but answering them quickly at scale strained the human CX team, especially during peak traffic periods like Black Friday or summer sales. Delayed responses led to drop-offs, and agents were tied up with repetitive inquiries instead of valuable chances to upsell or cross-sell shoppers.

The solution: An AI-powered Shopping Assistant that increases cart value with every conversation 

Caitlyn Minimalist adopted Gorgias’s AI Shopping Assistant to turn customer questions into higher-value purchases. 

Shopping Assistant is designed to:

• Handle product-specific inquiries in real-time, 24/7
• Educate customers on materials, sizing, and care
• Recommend add-ons and jewelry bundles based on context and behavior 
• Route complex or sensitive issues to human agents with full context

By engaging customers with helpful answers and timely product suggestions, Shopping Assistant transforms casual chats into high-intent, higher-value orders. 

"Shopping Assistant has become an intuitive extension of our team, offering product guidance that feels personal and intentional.”

—Anthony Ponce, Head of Customer Experience at Caitlyn Minimalist

Shopping Assistant turns FAQs into upselling opportunities

By utilizing one AI Agent that can resolve support inquiries and provide sales assistance, Caitlyn Minimalist can convert every conversation into a sales opportunity. 

When customers reach out to ask how to care for their jewelry, Shopping Assistant provides detailed care instructions along with a contextual upsell—jewelry boxes. 

For example, a shopper requests additional assistance after receiving the automated care instructions in Caitlyn Minimalist’s chat. Shopping Assistant then follows up to recommend three of their velvet jewelry boxes to help protect the pieces. 

The shopper can then browse each product directly in the chat and compare options. As a result: 

• The customer feels supported with actionable care tips
• The upsell feels relevant and helpful, not salesy
• Shopping Assistant adds value by suggesting how to protect the original purchase 
• There is a potential AOV increase from the complementary product 

“As a result of Shopping Assistant, we've seen a measurable lift in AOV through more meaningful customer interactions. Our clients are provided the right information at the right time, creating a seamless experience that builds trust and drives confident purchases."

—Anthony Ponce, Head of Customer Experience at Caitlyn Minimalist

Reducing hesitation while simultaneously raising the value of each sale 

Caitlyn Minimalist customers often shop with purpose—whether it’s for a birthday, anniversary, or milestone gift. But with so many personalized options and lookalike styles, it’s easy for shoppers to pause mid-journey when they’re unsure about details like chain style, gemstone settings, or engraving differences.

Shopping Assistant steps in with clear, friendly explanations that feel like expert advice from someone who truly understands the collection. 

For instance, a shopper viewing the Dainty Baguette Birthstone Bracelet page reaches out in the chat to ask, “What is the difference between the Dainty Baguette Birthstone Bracelet and the Baguette Birthstone Bracelet?”

Shopping Assistant concisely explains the differences, including gemstone customization options, chain length, and finish options. It then gives the shopper the option to view each product, select their preferences, and add the item to their cart, directly from the chat. 

This immediate explanation educates the shopper, reduces hesitation, and guides them toward the best product. 

With customizable sales settings, brands can train the Shopping Assistant to be more persuasive. This turns repetitive product comparison questions into a natural upsell every time.  

Conversational AI that customers actually appreciate 

Many of Caitlyn Minimalist’s customers aren’t just shopping for one piece—they’re curating a meaningful collection over time. Whether it's stacking rings, mixing metals, or building matching sets, shoppers often have thoughtful questions about materials, quality, or proper care instructions. Without immediate answers, they may abandon their purchase and bounce from the site.

Shopping Assistant helps reduce bounce rate by answering these questions immediately in a tone of voice that authentically matches your brand. 

In this example, a customer mentions their allergy sensitivity to gold-plated earrings. Shopping Assistant quickly reassures the customers that the jewelry is made without nickel or lead, making it safe for sensitive skin. 

Then, instead of recommending just one option, it recommends three pairs of earrings based on the shopper’s browsing behavior and question: 

This chat felt like a conversation with a personal stylist, prompting the customer to explore multiple options to build a personal earring set.

When the customer followed up to ask if the earrings can be worn in the shower, Shopping Assistant explains proper care guidance and offers even more opportunities to add compatible pieces. 

This leaves the shopper satisfied, evident through their response: “Epic thanks, AI Caitlyn.” Given the timely assistance, the shopper signals high intent by asking a question about shipping and delivery dates.

Since Caitlyn Miniamlist’s Shopping Assistant is complemented by a Support Agent, it immediately answers this question too with standard shipping policy information. This creates a one-stop shop for the customer to get answers to all their questions and moves them closer to a purchase. 

The results: AI that doesn’t just respond—it raises AOV

Over 90 days, Caitlyn Minimalist tracked and compared the performance of human agent-only conversions with AI-assisted conversations. The results were clear. 

Shopping Assistant helped drive: 

• 2.5x higher conversion rate for AI-driven sales vs. human agents (20% vs. 8%)
• 18% click-through rate on product recommendations, often leading to multi-item purchases 
• +50% sales lift compared to human-only conversations

There weren’t just more checkouts though, there were larger purchases. 

One frequent scenario involved customers asking about jewelry care. Just like in the example above, after sharing detailed care instructions, Shopping Assistant suggests the Velvet Jewelry Storage Boxes as a solution. 

This small but strategic upsell became one of the most consistent AOV drivers, with 8.5% of those who clicked the recommendation completing a purchase.

Steal Caitlyn Minimalist’s blueprint for driving higher cart value with AI-assisted sales—see Shopping Assistant in action.