hagebau × homie AI: "hagen" – when the online shop becomes your personal DIY advisor

The Complexity of One's Own Four Walls

Anyone who has ever tiled a bathroom, built a terrace, or plastered a wall knows: the biggest challenge is often not the work itself – but the question beforehand. Which material? What quantity? Which product suits my project? Questions that one can simply ask a staff member in a physical DIY store. But in the online shop? There, product search and filters must be perfectly aligned and leave no questions unanswered. Often, however, that is still not the case.

This is exactly what hagebau aimed to change. As one of the most well-known DIY store groups in Germany, hagebau connect GmbH & Co. KG operates the online shops hagebau.de and hagebau.at – with a vast range of products and customers who want to know what they are buying. The ambition: the quality of advice should also be right online.

When the Range Becomes Too Large for a Search Bar

An online DIY store is no simple task. The range is enormous, the products often require explanation, and the differences between similar items can be crucial for the success of a project. What can be resolved in the store with a quick chat with a specialist advisor quickly becomes an obstacle online:

• Customers do not know which product is suitable for their specific project

• The search for the right item takes time – and does not always lead to the desired result

• Without personal advice, the purchasing decision often does not happen

Meet "hagen": AI-Powered Advice that Truly Advises

Together with homie AI, hagebau developed the assistant "hagen" – an AI-supported advisory chat that automatically and personally supports customers in the online shop. The Hagebot analyses users' individual concerns, suggests suitable products, and relies on current stock and price data from the markets. Even more practically: It directs customers directly to services such as the Click & Collect function – making the journey from chat to purchase completion as short as possible.

Primarily, customers use hagen for needs-based advice followed by product recommendations. Exactly what one would otherwise only get in-store.

Information Directly at the Product

Furthermore, hagebau uses the product question feature from homie AI to offer direct inquiry options for some products without needing to open hagen. Customers can choose from a series of predefined questions, or simply enter their own and receive tailored answers related to the specific product. A real benefit for customer loyalty.

Clear Figures

Just after six months, hagebau drew a clear conclusion: Over 80 percent of users are satisfied. The personalised delivery of information is especially appreciated – and that within seconds. Customers do not perceive the interaction with hagen as a detour, but as genuine assistance while shopping.

The result that matters: Those who use hagen are more likely to make a purchase than customers who were browsing the shop without chat support.

The positive interim results were also reported by the trade magazine "diy".

Advice That Scales

What hagebau demonstrates with hagen is: even in the complex, explanatory-intensive range of a DIY store, AI-supported advice can create real added value – for the customer and for conversion. Personally tailored, in real time, around the clock.

For homie AI, this is one of the most exciting dimensions of this collaboration: not just integrating a chatbot, but creating an assistant that actually improves the shopping experience – measurable and sustainable.

See for yourself: Visit hagebau.de and test hagen with your next project question. Your personal DIY store advisor is already there.

Want to use homie AI for your shop too? Start for free now