Overview
The Bart Group runs one of Australia’s most established multi-brand furniture and bedding retail groups, with Sleeping Giant, James Lane and sister brands operating across a large store network and a growing online presence.
As digital traffic grew and customer expectations shifted, the group needed a way to deliver instant, accurate product advice at scale without losing the consultative feel that defines their in-store experience. Every unanswered product question was a potential lost sale, and every repetitive ticket was pulling skilled team members away from higher-value work.
At a glance
~2,000
customer conversations AI handled per month
3
full-time agents freed up to move into sales roles
24/7
instant product answers, in and out of store hours
The Challenge
Across Sleeping Giant, James Lane and the broader Bart Group portfolio, customer questions were arriving faster than the support team could comfortably handle. The result was a set of compounding pressures on the business:
- High and growing volume of customer conversations across web chat, email and social channels, with clear peaks tied to promotions and new collections.
- Repetitive product questions sizing, materials, delivery windows, warranty, in-store availability absorbing the majority of the support team’s time.
- Shoppers dropping off when they couldn’t get an answer on the spot, particularly outside store hours.
- Talented support agents stuck in reactive, transactional work instead of the product-led selling the group is known for.
- Limited visibility into which questions were driving or blocking revenue across brands and channels.
Without a scalable way to answer customers instantly and consistently, the group risked leaving both revenue and team potential on the table.
Our Approach
Gravity CX partnered with The Bart Group to design and deploy a customer-facing AI agent that could answer product questions and support enquiries in real time, across the group’s retail brands.
Key capabilities included:
- A customer-facing AI agent trained on The Bart Group’s product catalogue, policies and brand voice across Sleeping Giant, James Lane and sister brands.
- Instant, on-the-spot answers to product information, sizing, materials, delivery, warranty and store-availability questions.
- Seamless handoff to human team members for complex, high-value or escalation conversations.
- Consistent tone and accuracy across channels, so an online shopper gets the same quality of advice they’d expect in a showroom.
- A continuous feedback loop to identify knowledge gaps, refine responses and surface high-intent buying signals back to the team.
This shifted the group from a reactive, ticket-driven support model to a proactive, always-on customer experience layer that works alongside the existing team rather than replacing them.
The Impact
Within a short period of going live, the AI agent was handling nearly 2,000 customer conversations every month across The Bart Group’s brands with measurable outcomes across customer experience, revenue and team structure.
Three outcomes stood out:
- Improved overall customer satisfaction shoppers get accurate answers on the spot, day or night, instead of waiting on a ticket queue or a store callback.
- Accelerated revenue the AI agent answers product questions at the moment of intent, removing friction from the buying decision and helping convert browsing into purchases across e-commerce and in-store journeys.
- A reimagined support-to-sales career path by absorbing the bulk of general, repetitive tickets, the AI freed up three full-time agents to evolve into sales roles. This delivered a strong return on investment for The Bart Group and created a meaningful growth opportunity for the team members themselves.
What the Team Said
“The AI agent didn’t just take tickets off our plate, it gave our people a new career path. Three of our support team moved into sales roles because the AI was handling the volume, and our customers are getting answers the moment they ask. That’s been huge for us as a retailer.”
— Jamie Howe Head of Customer Operation – The Bart Group
Why It Matters
For omnichannel retailers like The Bart Group, speed of answer is speed of revenue. By deploying a customer-facing AI agent with Gravity CX, the group turned its busiest, most repetitive support conversations into an always-on commercial advantage lifting customer satisfaction, accelerating sales and unlocking career growth for its team at the same time.
