Customer story · FreshMart
How FreshMart grew orders 44% with Chatref
An online grocer used Chatref to recover $110k in abandoned carts every month and resolve 87% of delivery questions automatically in two languages.
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FreshMart is a regional online grocer serving roughly 600,000 monthly shoppers in the Midwest. By deploying Chatref, a no-code AI chatbot platform, on their website, mobile app, and SMS channels, FreshMart increased completed orders by 44%, recovered approximately $110,000 in otherwise abandoned carts every month, and saved around $72,000 monthly in support staffing. Before Chatref, 14 human agents could not keep up with Sunday meal-prep rushes and holiday peaks: response times stretched past six hours, cart abandonment hit 75%, and agents repeatedly answered the same questions about delivery windows, substitution policies, product freshness, and order minimums across email, SMS, and phone. The FreshMart team uploaded delivery zone maps, product catalogues, substitution rules, and past support transcripts to train Chatref on their own content, and the bot went live in 14 days on the mobile app, website, and SMS in both English and Spanish. Chatref now handles 87% of customer questions without a human, nudges abandoned carts 30 minutes after drop-off, and escalates complex dietary or substitution disputes to trained agents – all on pay-as-you-go pricing with no per-agent fees.
$50 free credit · no card required · all features included
At a glance
FreshMart in a nutshell.
44%
More orders
$110k
Carts recovered / mo
87%
Auto-handled
4 wks
Payback period
- FreshMart delivers fresh produce and pantry staples to 600,000 monthly shoppers across the Midwest.
- Before Chatref, weekend cart abandonment hit 75% and support response times stretched past six hours during Sunday meal-prep rushes.
- Chatref went live on the website, mobile app, and SMS in 14 days, in both English and Spanish, trained on delivery maps and past support transcripts.
- The bot resolves 87% of customer questions automatically and recovers roughly $110,000 in abandoned carts every month via 30-minute nudges.
- Completed orders rose 44%, customer satisfaction jumped from 80% to 97%, and Chatref paid back in four weeks on pay-as-you-go pricing.
The story
How it played out.
The challenge
FreshMart serves 600,000 shoppers a month across the Midwest with same-day and next-day grocery delivery. Fourteen human support agents handled the inbox during business hours, but the real volume hit on Sundays and holidays: meal-prep shoppers, Thanksgiving cookers, and last-minute birthday planners all needed instant answers about delivery windows, substitution rules, minimum order totals, and product freshness.
Cart abandonment climbed to 75%. When a shopper could not confirm whether the 6pm slot was still open or whether the organic strawberries would be replaced with conventional, they closed the tab. Response times on weekends stretched past six hours. Agents spent their day answering the same five questions across email, SMS, and phone, while complex dietary concerns got stuck behind trivial ones in the queue.
Why they chose Chatref
FreshMart piloted three chatbot platforms over three weeks and picked Chatref on four criteria that map directly to grocery operations:
- No-code answers from their own content The team uploaded delivery zone maps, substitution policies, product catalogues, and thousands of past support transcripts. Chatref organised and indexed everything – no engineering work required.
- Multilingual out of the box Roughly 30% of FreshMart shoppers prefer Spanish. Chatref answers in the shopper's language automatically, grounded in the same source documents, without maintaining a second knowledge base.
- Pay-as-you-go pricing Credits are consumed per response (1-5 per reply based on length), so heavy Sunday traffic scales naturally without a bigger plan. FreshMart topped up once and got $50 free credit on signup.
- Clean handoff to human agents When shoppers ask about allergen substitutions or dispute a missing item, Chatref escalates with the full transcript attached so agents resolve in one message instead of asking the same questions again.
How the rollout worked
Rollout took 14 days. In the first week, FreshMart uploaded 62 source documents – delivery windows by ZIP, substitution rules, refund policy, minimum order totals, product attribute data – plus a year of anonymised support transcripts so the bot learned the team's actual phrasing. Chatref indexed everything overnight.
Week two, three support leads ran an internal beta against their 50 most common Sunday questions, flagged a gap in holiday delivery policy, uploaded a correction, and fine-tuned tone. The bot launched on the website first, then the mobile app via the Chatref JavaScript widget, and finally the existing SMS number so shoppers could keep using the channel they already knew.
Cart recovery was configured as a scheduled follow-up: 30 minutes after a shopper abandons a cart, Chatref sends a context-aware message highlighting items that may go out of stock and offering express delivery slots, with a deep link back to checkout.
Results after 90 days
Ninety days in, Chatref was handling 87% of inbound customer questions without a human. Average response time dropped from six hours on peak Sundays to under three seconds. Cart recovery messages brought back 33% of abandoned carts, adding roughly $110,000 in monthly revenue that would otherwise have closed the tab. Completed orders rose 44% year-over-year, and basket size lifted 19% thanks to recipe-aware upsells.
Support costs fell by about $72,000 per month. Customer satisfaction rose from 80% to 97%. Chatref's cost was covered in four weeks of operation.
Chatref revolutionised our customer experience. We are completing more orders, spending far less on support, and our shoppers get instant answers whenever they need help.
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What does FreshMart do?
FreshMart is a regional online grocer serving roughly 600,000 monthly shoppers in the Midwest.
What problem did FreshMart solve with Chatref?
Before Chatref, weekend cart abandonment hit 75% and support response times stretched past six hours during Sunday meal-prep rushes.
What results did FreshMart see?
FreshMart reached 44% more orders, with $110k carts recovered / mo. The bot resolves 87% of customer questions automatically and recovers roughly $110,000 in abandoned carts every month via 30-minute nudges.
How long did it take FreshMart to go live?
FreshMart launched quickly and started seeing results within the first weeks. Chatref trains on your existing content, so most teams go live in days, not months.
How much does Chatref cost?
Chatref is pay-as-you-go. You start with $50 of free credit, then pay only for what you use. There is no subscription, no per-seat fee, and every feature is included.
Can I get results like FreshMart?
Yes. Train a chatbot on your own docs, FAQs, and past tickets, deploy it on your website and other channels, and let it answer the routine questions. Start free with $50 of credit.
Recover carts like FreshMart
Upload your product and policy docs, launch in two weeks, and let Chatref answer the questions that make or break a checkout.
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