FRONT OFFICE AI FOR RETAIL — THE COMPARISON

Compare us to anything a store is offered.

Retailers are sold one of two models: a commerce-and-service suite your care team and associates operate from a console, or AI agents you assemble and configure per channel, priced per conversation. No logos needed, because the same packaging habits dominate the market. Front Office was built on three different principles — and every answer to a shopper comes from your approved catalog, policies and connected order data only.

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Try it free 7 days on your own business · no credit card · per company, never per seat

REAL AI - the whole Front Office is AI, not old software with an AI button. Give it your website: it learns your company, works from your approved knowledge and gets better with every answer you approve.

Live on this site right now — the assistant in the corner is the product · Award-winning AI — CES · ISE · TMCnet

Zanus Front Office dashboard — the AI at work

One dashboard doing the jobs the others only track.

Three habits of the market — three different principles here

1 · Pricing scales per seat

Across most of the market, every hire raises the software bill — the price follows your headcount, not the work getting done.

2 · The AI is often metered on top

Credits, "AI actions", per-conversation fees, usage tiers. On many platforms the AI arrives as a second bill on top of the seats.

3 · Most AI was built to assist teams

Enrich, draft, score, summarize, coach — designed to make YOUR people faster. Newer autonomous agents go further, but are typically configured per channel and priced per usage.

Front Office was designed from the start on three different principles: one integrated product, priced by plan — not by seat-math · the AI performs complete front-office workflows, not only assists them · every answer grounded in your approved knowledge, with Protection capping the spend.

The scoreboard: how each model delivers the job

Fourteen store jobs, three delivery models. The difference isn’t whether a capability exists somewhere — it’s what you must assemble, license and operate to get it. Descriptions reflect typical published product models, Aug 2026.

The job	Traditional CRM model	Agent & copilot platforms	Zanus Front Office
Answer the care line and store phones 24/7	Your care team answers from a console; store associates answer from the floor	Configure a voice agent, channels and usage separately	✓ Built in — order status, stock, hours and returns, 40 languages, Cyber Week and Sundays included
Answer “where is my order?”	A rep opens the order on one screen and reads it back	An agent you connect to order data and maintain per channel	✓ Answered by the AI from your connected tracking data; the lost parcel filed as a case
Start the return inside policy	A portal the shopper must find, then a rep who opens a case	Agent invokes return actions you configure	✓ Eligibility checked, label sent in the conversation; outside the window goes to a person
Say what is in stock at my store	An associate checks a device and calls back	Inventory lookups you wire in per channel	✓ Grounded in the stock data you connect; no source, no claim, no invented delivery date
Book the fitting or the delivery window	Phone tag between the store and the shopper	Agent invokes calendar actions you connect	✓ Booked inside the call — right store, right associate, carrier route rules respected, confirmed the day before
Call back the store hang-ups	Nobody has time between the register and the floor	Possible if you build the workflow	✓ Automatic: every abandoned call to any store line is called back with your greeting
Quote the corporate or bulk order	A B2B storefront project and a separate quoting module	Agent invokes processes you configure	✓ Native: from your price list and tiers, payable link or PO upload, polite follow-up
Handle exchanges, damaged deliveries and lost parcels	Usually a separate case product and seats	Support agents configured separately	✓ Filed complete — order, item, photos — routed to care, carrier desk or loss prevention, nights too
Chase the cart, the quote and the back-in-stock list	Journeys your marketing team builds and triggers	AI drafts; sending policies vary	✓ Sequences you approve, with the size answer the cart stalled on, stopping the moment the shopper replies
Brief the head of shopper care	Dashboards you open and read	A to-do list for your reps	✓ A did-it-for-you list: overnight queue cleared, per store, the three cases needing a person
Train the six-week seasonal hire	Shadowing during the busiest week of the year	A rep assistant inside the console	✓ Role-play on your own return policy before the first shift; an assistant on the associate’s phone
Keep refunds, fraud and safety with your people	Depends on the rep’s authority that day	Best effort, disclaimers apply	✓ Your rules: exceptions, suspected fraud and safety complaints are filed and routed to a person, with the transcript
Call your shoppers before they call you	Reminder calls made by staff when there is time; otherwise a text	Build an outbound flow, connect telephony, meter the minutes	✓ Auto-Call: an event, a funnel or a list triggers the call; the AI announces or converses, on your rules — Hi Jessica, this is Oak & Vine Home: your order is ready for pickup at the Downtown store, open until 8 tonight.
The bill	Per seat; grows with every seasonal hire	Per seat and/or per usage: credits, actions, conversations	✓ One plan, chosen by outcome — your shoppers are never counted or charged

Already running a big CRM suite? Read the story: the old way vs the AI way — keep the CRM, add the AI Front Office → And the chat below will compare us to any product you name, from its published pages.

Comparing something specific? Ask the Zanus AI below — it compares us to any vendor you name, point by point, from their published pages. Our plans are public: see pricing → Then do your own math →

The one question that cuts through every comparison: after you pay, who answers the shopper asking where the order is? With Front Office the answer is: the AI does — from your catalog, policies and connected order data — and your people take the handshake, the refund exception and every safety complaint.

Questions, answered

Why don’t you name the other products?

Because the comparison is about the model, not the logo. A service console your reps operate plus metered AI agents is the norm across retail software; naming brands adds nothing. If you are evaluating a specific product, ask the chat — it compares us to any vendor you name, point by point, from their published pages.

Is this comparison fair to commerce and service suites?

Every description of other models comes from typical published product pages, read August 2026, and describes what a retailer must assemble, license and operate to get the job done — commerce, service, order management and their integrator. Where a vendor differs, the chat will show you.

Do we have to replace our e-commerce platform, OMS or POS?

No. Your e-commerce platform, order-management system and POS stay the record; the Front Office is the system of work in front of them. Calendars sync natively; webhooks, a read-only API and an MCP server feed the order, stock and catalog data you authorize — and write cases, bookings and contacts back.

Try it free on your own store. 7 days. No credit card.

Give it your website. It learns your company. Then call it, chat with it, e-mail it — and decide. Nothing to install, nothing to cancel.

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