A Blockchain-based commerce platform has bold plans to simplify online shopping, while also offering meaningful rewards for loyalty and helping consumers turn their households into businesses by keeping their item inventories and suggesting them when to sell second-hand goods.

With even the savviest shoppers struggling to track down the best deals, Eligma believes its AI-driven system will help people save precious time in their quest for the perfect product. Simultaneously, the company is determined to make cryptocurrencies easier to spend by encouraging consumers to use this payment method even if their chosen online store hasn’t adopted it yet.

Eligma’s technology will be put to the test at one of Europe’s biggest shopping centers in mid-April, with the BTC City complex in Ljubljana being transformed into “Bitcoin City,” the company has said.

Pillars of purchasing power

Eligma says three pillars will underpin its platform: discovery, inventory and loyalty.

Through discovery, shoppers will be able to use a product recommendation engine which scours stores for items that suit their requirements based on factors such as price/quality ratio, shipping times and delivery costs. Alternatives which the consumer may not have considered are also displayed.

A multilingual chatbot will guide users on their journey and once a decision has been reached, payment can be made through a unified account which brings items from different online stores into one shopping basket. The company hopes this intuitive system will save shoppers from the arduous process of registering new accounts with every website they shop at.

Inventory is the second pillar, which aims to give consumers an overview of all the products in their home. Through the platform, they will be able to see each item’s predicted value now and in the future. When someone decides to sell a used product, Eligma’s system automatically generates and publishes listings in second-hand stores and it can even offer recommendations on a replacement. The company says this stops valuable, no longer used items from gathering dust.

The third and final pillar is loyalty. Eligma plans to launch a universal loyalty program where customers are rewarded with the platform’s utility token, ELI, when they shop with any online store through the platform. The company hopes this will encourage merchants to create innovative loyalty programs while putting an end to disjointed and inactive loyalty schemes. From here, ELI tokens can be put towards further purchases and used to unlock some of the features on the platform.

Wooing offline shoppers

Most Generation X consumers and millennials love online shopping, but Eligma wants to attract shoppers of all age groups to choose e-commerce over brick-and-mortar stores. The company is planning to launch a tool which will allow offline shoppers to scan a barcode and find better deals for that product on Eligma.

Its technology will soon be part of a pilot project at BTC City- a complex which attracts 21 mln customers a year through its 450 stores and 70 restaurants. The trial enables shoppers to pay for items using fiat and cryptocurrencies. Eligma hopes this venue becomes the world’s first cryptocurrency shopping center. This testing phase is going to be used to improve its technology and concept further in the coming months.

Public presale is already open

Dejan Roljic, Eligma founder and CEO, stated: "Eligma is a powerful synergy of creative minds and the latest technology. For this reason, the Eligma team and our renowned advisors are excited to launch our presale. It is only with the help of our supporters and contributors that Eligma's transformation of commerce can begin."

Eligma’s public presale runs from March 20 to April 10, followed by a crowdsale between April 17 and May 8. The proposed token exchange rate for one ELI token is $0.10, and 60 percent of the company’s 500 mln token supply is up for sale. Eligma’s platform is being presented at Blockchain innovation events in Germany, France, Switzerland and Hong Kong in the coming weeks.