How Plum handled a 12x Birthday Sale surge with 94% peak AI resolution
India's vegan beauty pioneer runs support across WhatsApp, email, web chat, and voice with Ananya, a Sagepilot AI employee trained on Plum's catalog, policies, brand voice, and order systems. Ananya resolves close to nine in ten tickets end to end, and held the line when Birthday Sale volume jumped 12x.
94%
peak AI resolution during Birthday Sale
88%
AI resolution across the month
98%
of replies generated by AI
Challenge
Support volume at a scale most consumer brands never reach, patterns repeating relentlessly, and sale weeks where daily tickets jump 12x, a swing no human roster can flex up for and then unwind.
Solution
Ananya, an AI employee across WhatsApp, email, web chat, and the phone line, connected to order, logistics, and returns systems so she resolves instead of only replying.
Results
- 88% AI resolution across the month, 86-94% through the surge
- 98% of replies AI-generated
- 4 in 5 AI email tickets closed within two replies
Clean beauty, at national scale
Plum was built on a clear promise: 100% vegan, cruelty-free beauty that is honest about what goes in the bottle. From green tea skincare to the BodyLovin' range, Plum grew into one of India's most loved clean beauty brands, selling online and on shelves across the country.
Every order brings a customer who may ask about a parcel, a refund, a routine, or a skin concern, and beauty customers expect the answer while they are still in the moment.
Then sale weeks arrive
Plum's support runs at a scale most consumer brands never reach, across WhatsApp, email, and web chat. The patterns repeat relentlessly: shipping and delivery, order and payment, returns and refunds, and a steady stream of delivery-failure cases where every quiet hour makes a return-to-origin more likely.
During the Birthday Sale, daily tickets jumped 12x, the kind of swing no human roster can flex up for and then unwind a week later.
Connected, not just conversational
Plum deployed Ananya, an AI employee trained on Plum's catalog, policies, and voice, across WhatsApp, email, the website widget, and phone support. She is connected to Plum's order, logistics, and returns systems, so she does not only explain what is happening.
She checks live tracking, schedules reattempts, initiates returns, answers product and ingredient questions, and routes the cases that genuinely need a human with context already attached. Plum's human agents work Indian business hours; Ananya covers nights, weekends, and the gaps between shifts.
The surge that didn't knock the system
Across a recent 30-day window, Ananya resolved 88% of the tickets she touched end to end. 98% of Plum's replies were AI-generated, and email became one of the fastest channels: 4 in 5 tickets handled by Ananya closed within two replies.
The sale surge did not knock the system backward. During the Birthday Sale, AI resolution held between 86% and 94%, with the best days of the month landing mid-surge.
- 88% AI resolution across the month, 86-94% through the surge
- Voice runs as a blended operation, AI and humans on the same line
- The majority of calls handled by Ananya
The sale week that held steady
Plum's Birthday Sale pushed daily tickets to 12x a normal day. Ananya absorbed the surge across WhatsApp, email, web chat, and connected order workflows, with AI resolution holding between 86% and 94% through the peak fortnight.
12x
peak-day ticket surge
94%
best AI resolution
86%
surge-week floor
Failed attempts, caught before returns
Delivery failures are where support becomes revenue protection. Ananya reads the live shipment status, confirms whether the parcel is still in the courier network, and books the reattempt before return-to-origin becomes unavoidable.
- Live failed-attempt status checked
- Redelivery requested before return-to-origin
Advice from the shelf
Plum customers do not only ask where their order is. They ask what goes together, what to start with, and how to build a routine. Ananya answers like a trained beauty advisor, with product context and caution built into the reply.
Oily-skin brightening routine
Niacinamide first · vitamin C next
Routine shared · product links ready
Routine shared · product links readyEmail that closes in two replies
Refund and order-status emails arrive after hours, but Ananya already has the order context. She verifies the payment and return state before replying, so most AI-handled email threads never need a third message.
Refund status email · 11:00 PMWhere is my refund for order #PLM-2841? It has been a few days.
- Order and return pulled from source systems
- Refund timeline verified before reply
- Complete answer sent in the first response
AI and humans, on one line
Plum's phone support runs as a blended call centre. AI handles the front line and the human team sits beside it for judgment-heavy calls, with handoffs carrying the context instead of making customers start over.
Majority
of calls handled by AI
24/7
AI coverage on the line
One
line shared with human agents
Going live
Phase 1 · AI support on chat
Ananya went live on WhatsApp and the website widget, trained on Plum's catalog, support policies, and brand voice.
Phase 2 · Email
The support inbox joined the same brain, turning a slow channel into one where most AI-handled tickets close within two replies.
Phase 3 · Connected actions
Order, logistics, and returns integrations let Ananya resolve, reattempt, and refund instead of just replying.
Phase 4 · Voice
Ananya moved onto the phone line, handling most AI-managed calls while human agents stayed in the same blended operation.
Today · Peak-proof
88% of tickets resolved by AI, a blended voice operation on one shared line, and sale weeks that no longer need a war room.
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