Will Von Halsky transform e-commerce? The impact on the retail sector

Instead of browsing product lists, shoppers can now describe what they’re looking for, and the shopping assistant matches the products for them. Von Halsky is now available to all users of the InPost Mobile app. In the e-commerce sector, this raises the question of to what extent the way customers make purchasing decisions will change.

What is actually changing in online shopping?

The starting point of the shopping journey is changing. Customers can still enter a specific model or category and scroll through the results just as before. But they also gain another option: to describe their situation and expectations, and leave the rest to the shopping assistant, who will search through the available offers and suggest suitable options. This is an additional route alongside catalogue search – a conversation about their needs. For the seller, this means that the product must be findable not only by its name, but also by the context in which a customer might describe it.

From searching by name to discussing needs

Customers still use traditional search engines, but the number of those turning to AI tools is growing. As Gemius data shows, 53% of respondents already say they use such solutions¹. They can significantly reduce the time between first considering a purchase and making a decision - Von Halsky reorganises its product carousel after analysing customer needs in just a few seconds.

For retailers, this means a shift in how they need to think about the visibility of their listings. When shopping using AI search engines:

• The result isn’t a list of hundreds of offers, but just a few tailored suggestions,
• The selection is narrowed down as the conversation progresses, rather than through manual filtering,
• comparing parameters is much easier.

Scale that makes a difference

Von Halsky advises clients of an app used by over 17 million users. The new feature is therefore available from the outset wherever customers already are. It is precisely this scale that means the question of its impact on purchasing behaviour is no longer purely theoretical.

More than just a search

Using a shopping assistant is a new way of accessing product listings, which many users may find quicker and more convenient than browsing the results themselves. It doesn’t really matter whether the customer already has a specific requirement (a particular budget, a particular brand) or is only just defining it during the conversation – the assistant handles both scenarios equally well.

The customer may ask the assistant directly to:

• identifying the best-value option,
• to suggest alternatives if the first suggestion is not suitable,
• a gift idea when you’re stuck for ideas.

The entire process, from the initial enquiry, through to selecting an offer, right through to payment and delivery, takes place within a single application. This is a significant factor in the intuitiveness of the whole process.

Another need that has been identified is low delivery charge. Sellers operating within the Von Halski platform benefit from preferential delivery rates, which helps keep costs low for the customer – and this is one of the factors that has a real impact on whether a purchase is completed.

What does this mean for the customer’s shopping experience?

The biggest change concerns the number of decisions the customer has to make on their own. The accuracy of the result no longer depends on how precisely the query is phrased. The assistant compares prices and specifications, and then suggests suitable offers. Over time, Von Halsky also learns the customer’s basic preferences – such as sizes, colours and favourite brands – which means subsequent suggestions become more accurate.

For the customer, this means less need to filter results themselves and a quicker, often more accurate purchasing decision, which directly contributes to their overall satisfaction with the entire shopping experience.

Questions that this change leaves unanswered

The direction is already clear: potentially more decisions made on the basis of context, rather than just key phrases. This is a change that doesn’t require customers to learn anything new, and makes things much easier for them, so it may catch on more quickly than many previous e-commerce solutions.

Does that mean a lasting change in the way the entire e-commerce sector designs the shopping journey? The direction of the change is already apparent – its ultimate scope is only just becoming clear.

Are you wondering how your offering would fare on this new channel? Fill in the form to discuss joining merchant programme.

¹ Gemius, Polish Internet Research, IAB Polska, Kozminski University, E-commerce in Poland 2025, 2025, p. 33. The report is available at: https://gemius.com/documents/81/RAPORT_E-COMMERCE_2025.pdf