Easy AI x Viettel Store: Scaling Sales Consultations for 57,000 iPhone 18 Pre-Orders
On September 12, 2026, retailers across Vietnam opened pre-orders for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. In less than 24 hours, Viettel Store recorded 57,000 pre-orders, placing it among the retailers with the highest pre-order volumes in the market.
This surge in demand created significant pressure on customer consultation and service operations within a short period. It also provided a real-world opportunity for Easy AI to demonstrate how artificial intelligence can support sales operations at scale, helping Viettel Store’s Sales and Customer Service teams serve more customers during peak demand.
This case study explores how Easy AI was deployed at Viettel Store and the value of AI-powered sales consultation during the iPhone 18 launch.
1. What Gives Electronics Retailers an Advantage in Converting Customers?
In consumer electronics retail, particularly for high-value products such as the iPhone, consultation quality and response speed directly influence the shopping experience. When choosing between multiple models, price points, and promotional offers, customers need accurate and timely information to make informed purchasing decisions.
A study published in Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, analyzing data from 29,801 consumers and 6,517 live chat conversations, found an association between online interactions with sellers and purchase likelihood. Response speed, interaction frequency, and the relevance of consultation content were among the factors examined in the purchasing process.
These pressures intensify during the launch of highly anticipated technology products, when inquiries about product variants, pricing, promotions, and stock availability can rise sharply within a short period. When demand exceeds a team's processing capacity, retailers face the challenge of scaling customer consultations while maintaining consistent information and service quality.
In this context, AI is becoming an operational advantage for electronics retailers. It can handle multiple inquiries simultaneously, provide consistent information, and maintain consultation availability during peak hours. These capabilities help retailers expand service capacity, improve the customer experience, and create more opportunities for conversion.
2. Viettel Store’s Challenges During the iPhone 18 Launch
During the iPhone 18 launch, these operational pressures intensified. Customer interest surged within a short period, while inquiries covered a wide range of topics, from product specifications and pricing to promotional offers, pre-order policies, and related products.
Before expanding its use of AI, Viettel Store relied heavily on its staff to handle customer conversations. During sudden spikes in demand, this operating model created four key bottlenecks.
Sudden demand spikes overwhelmed consultation capacity: During product launches and peak shopping periods, customer inquiries can increase rapidly, leaving consultation teams struggling to keep up. Longer waiting times, backlogged messages, and missed consultation opportunities can cause customers to switch to competitors that respond faster. Scaling human support capacity also increases recruitment, training, and operating costs.
Frequently changing product information increased the risk of inaccurate advice: Prices, product variants, stock availability, promotional offers, and sales policies often change throughout a launch campaign. When information is scattered across multiple sources, staff may provide inconsistent advice, share outdated details, or spend additional time verifying information before responding. These issues can undermine the shopping experience, brand trust, and conversion performance.
Personalizing consultations became more difficult as customer volumes grew: Each customer has different budget constraints, needs, and purchasing criteria. Effective consultation requires sales teams to understand these needs, retain conversation history, and recommend suitable products. As conversation volumes increase across multiple channels, maintaining context becomes more difficult. Customers may need to repeat information, recommendations may become less relevant, and conversion opportunities may be lost.
Potential customers were missed outside business hours: Customers may research products, check prices, and consider purchases in the evening, on weekends, or during public holidays. When staff are unavailable, inquiries can remain unanswered for too long, reducing purchase intent and increasing the risk of customers turning to competitors.
These challenges raised a broader strategic question for Viettel Store:
How can the business expand consultation capacity alongside its Sales and Customer Service teams, serve more customers during peak periods, and generate additional sales opportunities from each conversation?
3. Viettel Store’s AI-Powered Sales Solution: Combining AI Chatbot and Live Chat
The solution combines AI Chatbot capabilities with Live Chat support. AI handles high volumes of routine conversations, while human agents take over cases that require deeper consultation or specialized expertise.
This model establishes a clear division of responsibilities: AI provides scalability, while human agents focus on complex needs and high-value customer interactions. As a result, Sales and Customer Service capacity can expand in response to demand while preserving the essential role of the human team.
3.1. Building a Knowledge Base for Accurate AI Consultations
Easy AI uses a structured knowledge base organized by operational category, allowing the AI system to retrieve relevant information for different consultation scenarios.
The knowledge base includes:
Product information: Product names, specifications, device families, models, and available variants.
Pricing and promotions: Retail prices, promotional offers, and time-sensitive sales programs.
Bundles and related products: Accessories, complementary devices, and Viettel service plans.
Store information: Store locations and essential details for customers planning an in-store visit.
Customer service policies: Guidelines, procedures, and instructions for handling common customer scenarios.
With this knowledge foundation, AI can handle multiple categories of repetitive inquiries simultaneously, delivering faster and more standardized responses. Its role extends from providing product information to helping customers move closer to a purchasing decision.
Key tasks supported by AI include:
Providing product information and purchase guidance.
Comparing products, models, and configurations.
Advising on models, colors, and product variants.
Recommending bundles and related products.
Suggesting complementary products and identifying upselling and cross-selling opportunities.
Explaining service plans and sales policies.
Providing store information.
Assisting with the ordering process.
3.2. AI Upselling and Cross-Selling to Increase Value per Conversation
A core strength of the solution is its ability to move beyond information delivery and actively support the sales process. Based on the needs expressed during a conversation, AI can identify customer requirements, recommend suitable products, explain differences between available options, and guide customers toward the most appropriate model or variant.
For example, when a customer is considering an iPhone 18, AI can suggest related products such as phone cases, screen protectors, chargers, headphones, or smart wearables based on the customer's needs and current interests. This extends the consultation from the primary device to complementary products, creating additional opportunities to generate sales within the same conversation.
The approach supports two key sales strategies:
Upselling: Recommending a higher-value model or product option when it aligns with the customer's needs and budget.
Cross-selling: Introducing accessories or complementary products related to the item the customer is considering.
3.3. Seamless Handoffs Between AI and Human Agents
AI handles inquiries that can be automated, while human agents take over cases requiring specialized advice, exception handling, or attention to high-value sales opportunities.
When human intervention is needed, the system transfers the conversation to Live Chat so that an agent can continue the interaction within the same conversation thread. This preserves the context and customer information already provided, reducing the need for customers to repeat themselves.
This model creates a clearer division of work. AI manages high inquiry volumes, while human agents concentrate on situations that require expertise, flexible problem-solving, and direct customer interaction.
For a large-scale retailer such as Viettel Store, this approach provides a way to expand service capacity while maintaining the contribution of Sales and Customer Service teams at critical customer touchpoints.
3.4. Shortening the Journey from Consultation to Purchase
Another key benefit of the solution is the integration of sales support directly into customer conversations. Instead of ending a consultation and requiring customers to search for products and place orders through a separate process, the shopping journey can be supported more continuously within the chat channel.
Easy AI supports a range of activities, including product consultation, promotional recommendations, ordering assistance, and order status inquiries. These capabilities help connect pre-purchase consultation with transaction support and post-purchase service within a more cohesive customer journey.
4. Implementation Results
More than 15,000 inquiries handled by AI in a single day: The system processed over 15,000 inquiries in one day, helping Viettel Store respond to substantial demand for iPhone 18 information, maintain continuous consultation availability, and reduce pressure on its Customer Service team during the peak period.
A foundation for next-generation AI Sales capabilities: The deployment established an initial foundation for expanding AI adoption across the customer journey, from product consultation and information delivery to customer support and purchase decision assistance.
Demonstrating Viettel Store’s ability to scale customer service: The project demonstrates how AI and human teams can work together to expand service capacity in response to demand and maintain a consistent customer experience during peak periods. This approach supports Viettel Store's position in the technology retail market.
5. Easy AI: Enterprise-Scale AI Capabilities for Business Growth
Easy AI is a Revenue AI OS, an AI-native platform that connects AI, customer data, and workflows within a unified operational layer. The platform supports major businesses, including Viettel Store, Rang Dong, MediaMart, Laptop88, Pico, and Casper.
With an in-house AI engineering team and core technologies developed for enterprise environments, Easy AI delivers industry-specific AI solutions tailored to real operational challenges. Its capabilities span customer consultation, customer service, sales, and workflow automation.
In addition to enterprise deployments, Easy AI offers a SaaS model for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), enabling businesses to adopt AI at an accessible starting price of just over VND 1 million per month, depending on their operational needs.
>>> Explore Easy AI pricing and find the right solution for your business
From large-scale enterprise AI deployments to the day-to-day operational needs of SMEs, Easy AI aims to make AI a practical business capability that drives revenue growth and improves operational efficiency.