HomeChoice’s Richard Eberlein on Building for Complexity and Letting AI Help

At a time when most retailers are simplifying, South Africa’s HomeChoice is doing the opposite with purpose. The 40-year-old brand operates five distinct sales channels: call centres, showrooms, remote field agents, digital, and chat commerce. Richard Eberlein, Managing Executive: Customer & Growth, describes it as “not retail-first, but relationship-first.”

That complexity is now driving the company’s biggest transformation to date: a headless commerce overhaul designed to unify the customer experience while preserving the adaptability each channel requires.

Rethinking tech from the inside out

Richard came to Shoptalk Europe with a mission to identify the modular commerce technologies that could flex across HomeChoice’s sprawling infrastructure. Most retailers think about omnichannel as merging online and offline. For Richard, it’s more like orchestrating five unique engines under one customer-facing system.

One takeaway from the show? Vendors often underuse their own capabilities. “If a search optimization tool personalizes for web,” he noted, “why can’t that same logic feed our agents in the call centre too?”

AI that acts, not just answers

HomeChoice is going beyond traditional chatbot use cases. The team recently shifted from command-based AI (“Do X, then Y”) to objective-led agents telling the system what output is needed, and letting it determine the best way to get there.

One example: account onboarding. Rather than guide users through a step-by-step checklist, the AI agent now works dynamically to gather required ID, documents, and info all based on the desired end state.

To train it, Richard’s team ran 100 real call centre recordings from high-performing agents through the model to fine-tune intent and tone.

A human-centered AI shift

Internally, the goal isn’t replacement it’s capacity creation. Richard was clear: “We’re not using AI to cut people. We’re using it to do more.” He’s pushing for company-wide adoption with a cultural shift that reframes AI as an amplifier, not a threat.

One story stuck. A team member initially feared AI would make her role obsolete. But her mindset changed: “I’m not going to lose my job to AI. I’m going to lose it to someone who uses AI better than I do.”

For Richard, that’s the shift that matters most across every level of the business.

Marketing to pride, not just product

HomeChoice’s customer base predominantly African women aged 35–55 is deeply invested in creating homes they’re proud of. Richard emphasized that their brand strategy is less about features and more about emotional value. “In South Africa, the home is a place of pride. We’re here to help people show up for that.”

Looking ahead

The business is in double-digit growth and operating on momentum. The next 12 months are about deepening that: embedding AI into every team, rolling out a unified commerce engine, and building digital experiences that still feel human.

As Richard put it, “AI doesn’t limit how I think. It lets me follow a thought to the end and then gives it structure.”

Independently Created. Not affiliated with Shoptalk.

Unofficially Shoptalk is a ClickZ Media publication in the Events division