Ivana Marsic of Myrio Solutions Talks about the “Ultimate Virtual Personal Shopper Experience”

Myrio, a startup company that has developed a digital shopping assistant to help sales personnel creating a more efficient shopping experience is part of Startbootcamp and founder Ivana Marsic answered some of the questions Fashinvest had about the digital shopping advisor.

The company offers a service that features a digital shopping aid “through the use of touch screens, tablets, mobile phones and interactive shop windows”, Marsic explains and adds “Myrio brings an online experience to the offline world and provides a real time interaction with sales personnel creating a more efficient shopping process.” The advantage of having such a service at hand lays in the fact that “the Myrio increases both the retailers’ in-store cross & up selling capabilities and customers’ satisfaction as well as the new and fun way of shopping.”

With the Myrio gathering valuable data, no other source can gather at the moment, Marsic wishes to target her product to mono as well as multi brand retail stores, department stores and wholesalers. “On the other hand our mobile applications is targeting end customers-shoppers”, she adds.

In terms of marketing her start-up company she answered that “We are focused on a certain market niche so we are combining both, traditional and innovative marketing strategies.”, and furthermore explains: “ We have a PR strategy that emphasizes awards for innovation that we are getting, like a Tesla gold award for example.”

Myrio Solution, funded by the Business and Innovation Center Croatia through a supportive program focusing on innovative startups, has recently also been funded by a business angel named Gordana Popovic.”We are in the process of growth, establishing strategic partnership and acquiring retailers interested in innovative projects. Funds will be used for international expansion, sales and marketing, product roadmap development and strengthening the overall team.”

As Fashinvest asked Marsic how the concept was formed she answered that the “initial idea for Myrio solution is a result of the personal shopping experience and identification of shortfalls in the existing shopping process. “ She analyzed that “retailers face the challenge of increasing sales in a more targeted way, being unique and always appealing to shoppers.” For Marsic “both shoppers and retailers are facing missed purchase and sales opportunities.”

“I found myself many times in situations that I had a wrong size in the fitting room and that there was no help from sales personnel, or I couldn’t simply find something in the store so I just left without making any purchase.” The solution to the problem came to her when an idea crossed her mind: “ If there is a tool helping me in the fitting room or shop area I would have made more purchases…and the shopping process would have been more enjoyable…”

Ivana Marsic’s team is made up of a people that complement each other in the sense that they are able to develop a “beautifully designed engineering product.” Ivana Marsic graduated in electrical engineering at the University of Split, Croatia and holds an MBA from the Simmons School of Management in Boston which she received in scope of the Ron Brown Fellowship program. After attending executive education at Harvard University as well as ASCI, Hyderabad, India she joined the committee of the Croatian Business Angel Network-CRANE. Some of her previous jobs included working as the Head of Department for the Investment Promotion Agency and in addition to that, she was also managing foreign direct investment projects, leading investment process and implementation. Ivana’s partners and cofounders of Myrio Solutions both provide efficient experience in electrical engineering and Gordana Popovic, a business angel recently joined the team.

“This ultimate virtual personal shopper experience is brought in stores through the use of touch screens, tablets, mobile phones and interactive shop windows”, Marsic explains and believes that with this tool “ a new and fun shopping experience “ is created “ by helping customers to be more confident in their decision.” Myrio offers a smart matching suggestion for outfit combinations and accessories and based on an item’s label reading the gadget will help shoppers to confidently select items on the spot. “Myrio provides an efficient interaction with sales personnel because customers interact with sales personnel from the fitting room through touch screens and Myrio in-store and mobile application.”

The company makes its application available on Windows, Android and iOS platforms and after a successful product launch at a Diesel Store in Zagreb, Croatia established relationships also exist with leading retailers such as New York & Company, Pepe Jeans and Lisca.

In terms of what vision the founder has for her company in the future she answered that “Myrio is ready to be implemented at different stores around the globe and is looking for innovative retailers around the globe who want to be different.” She also adds that the company joined partners with Zensar Technologies which is one of the top 10 Indian companies focused on the US retail market. “I believe in the potential of Myrio and honestly whenever I enter any shop I simply see touch screens and shoppers interacting with interactive applications on touch screens, tablets, mobile phones and interactive shop windows. That picture in my mind was actually driving me to start this and motivates me to continue,” she explains and continues by saying that she has high hopes that “ in the next 3-5 years all shops will have touch screens or tablets allowing shoppers to interact more efficiently with store, sales personnel and social communities.”

by Melanie Marusic 

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