What is the difference between Ateliq and Tulip?

Tulip, which merged with Salesfloor in March 2026, is a clienteling platform whose AI helps store associates with client summaries, drafted messages and next-best actions. Ateliq puts an AI stylist in front of the shopper on a mirror and a counter screen, with live try-on, answers from the store's own stock and prices, and a record of what was tried, asked for and left behind.

Does Ateliq integrate with Tulip?

Ateliq has no native Tulip integration. It sends shoppers who opt in, and what they did in store, to Klaviyo or any CRM through a signed webhook, so a brand that runs Tulip can route that activity into its own customer systems. Ateliq is not a clienteling app or a point-of-sale system.

How does Ateliq credit the associate who helped?

When a shopper taps Buy, Ateliq creates a hand-off code that carries the visit and the associate who helped. The shopper finishes with a hold in store, a Razorpay or Stripe pay link, the brand's online cart, or at the counter, where staff mark it paid. The screens never take payment.

Ateliq vs Tulip: shopper AI vs clienteling AI

Tulip and Ateliq both put AI into the store, but they point it at different people. Tulip, which merged with Salesfloor in March 2026, gives AI to the associate: client summaries, drafted messages and next-best actions inside a clienteling app. Ateliq puts an AI stylist in front of the shopper on a mirror and a counter screen, records what was tried, asked for and left behind, and turns that into a credited sale and opt-in follow-up. For a brand's first in-store AI investment, Ateliq covers the moment Tulip does not: the shopper on the floor, on their own.

Ateliq is our product, so this is our view. Everything we say about Tulip comes from Tulip's own announcements and pages, linked inline, as of November 2026. Everything we say about Ateliq is something it does today, as listed on our product page.

What is Tulip after the Salesfloor merger?

Tulip and Salesfloor announced their merger on 24 March 2026, combining under the Tulip brand with Tulip's CEO, Ian Rawlins, leading the company. The release says the two together support about 100 enterprise retail clients, and names COACH, Jimmy Choo, Versace, Ferragamo, Michael Kors, Pandora, Mulberry, Saks Fifth Avenue and David Yurman. Tulip brought clienteling, online assisted selling and mobile point of sale; Salesfloor brought clienteling, virtual shopping and conversational AI.

Since then Tulip has kept building on the associate side:

In August 2026 it described Tulip AI as customer summaries, automatically updated preferences, AI-generated outreach, product-to-customer matching, recommendations, next-best actions and a unified customer timeline. "Every recommendation remains under human control."
Tulip Messaging AI drafts one-to-one messages from purchase history and important dates, and "will never send a message until the sales associate approves."
In September 2026 it launched an AI-assisted Integration Builder and added multi-region and Shopify Markets support to its Shopify Connector.
In October 2026 it added a Unified Inbox for email, SMS and WhatsApp, a Shared Inbox so any associate can pick up a conversation, and team client books in Outreach Plus. The same release lists appointments, LookBuilder, Endless Aisle, Pay by Link and mobile point of sale.

It is a strong product, centred on the associate's device and the client book.

Associate AI or shopper AI: what is the difference?

Clienteling AI makes a known client relationship work better. It helps an advisor remember, write and act. It works best when the shopper is already in the book and an advisor is free to serve them.

Many visits do not look like that. Shoppers browse alone, staff are busy at peak hours, and a first-time visitor is in nobody's book. Then a clienteling app has nothing to work with.

Ateliq is AI-native in the plain sense: it was built from day one around an LLM stylist and a set of agents, not as a client book with AI added later. The stylist speaks to the shopper directly, in the brand's name, and answers from this store's catalogue, sizes, prices and offers. It completes a look with at most two add-ons, compares two pieces side by side and always offers a "just this" exit. Shoppers need no app and no sign-in.

We found no public evidence of a shopper-facing in-store screen, mirror or kiosk in Tulip's product. Salesfloor did launch Maestro AI in March 2024, a conversational AI associate for shoppers on e-commerce sites. That is shopper-facing, but online, not on the shop floor.

Ateliq and Tulip at a glance

Capability	Ateliq	Tulip (with Salesfloor)
Who the AI talks to	The shopper, on a mirror and a counter screen	The associate, in the clienteling app
Live try-on in store	21 kinds of piece, garments and jewellery	No public evidence found
Answers from live store stock and prices	Yes, per store, with offers	Product matching and recommendations for associates
Jewellery priced from today's metal rate	Yes, with stale-rate lock-out	No public evidence found
What was tried, asked for, left behind	Recorded per store, weekly reports	No public evidence found for in-store try and ask data
Credit to the associate who helped	Hand-off code carries visit and associate	Sales within a set window after a clienteling action
Follow-up	Opt-in, agent-queued, approved templates	Associate-approved drafts; retailer chooses automation
Client book and associate app	Not a clienteling app	Core product, with team books
Point of sale	No; hand-off to pay link, cart or counter	Mobile POS, Pay by Link, Tap to Pay
CRM connection	Klaviyo or any CRM by signed webhook	Shopify Connector, Integration Builder
Public pricing	Design-partner pre-order	Not published

What does the shopper actually see?

With Tulip, the shopper sees an associate. With Ateliq, they also see two screens running the same stylist. A full-length mirror near the rails shows dresses, jackets, sarees, lehengas and kurtas on the shopper as they move. A counter screen shows earrings, jhumkas, nose pins, rings, bangles and watches at close range. On request, Ateliq makes a photo of the shopper wearing the exact catalogue pieces, made from the brand's own product photos, sends it to their phone and deletes it after 30 minutes.

For fine jewellery the counter screen does something a client book cannot. It prices gold, silver and platinum from net weight, purity and today's metal rate, plus making charges, stones and 3% GST in India, and shows the price with its parts. A rate older than 48 hours never prices a piece: the piece shows "Price at the counter" instead. We covered the counter in more depth in trying on fine jewellery without opening the case.

What data does each one capture?

A clienteling book holds what the advisor knows and what the till recorded: purchases, preferences, notes and messages. Tulip's AI keeps it current and summarises it.

What a book rarely holds is the visit itself. Which pieces a shopper tried and put back. Which size they wanted and could not find. What they asked for that the store does not carry. That information usually leaves with the shopper.

Ateliq records it as part of the visit:

Tried, bought, kept and returned, store by store, in a report every Monday from the analyst agent.
Asked for, not carried: what shoppers asked for that the store does not stock, grouped by phrase and store, to download or send to a planning system.
Most tried and least bought, jewellery attach rate, step-up rates and time to decide, in the store view.

For a first-time shopper, this is the only record there is. Our guide to capturing unmet demand in the store explains how to use it in buying.

How does a screen session become a credited sale?

Associates worry that a screen will take their sale. Ateliq does the opposite. When a shopper taps Buy, Ateliq turns the look into a hand-off code that carries the visit and the associate who helped. The shopper then holds the pieces in store, pays with a Razorpay or Stripe link on their phone, finishes in the brand's online cart, or pays at the counter, where staff mark it paid. The screens never take payment.

If the shopper wants a person, one tap on "Call a stylist" brings someone from the floor team, and Ateliq records who went and how long the shopper waited. Floor staff are a code and a first name, used for "who helped" and "paid at counter". With Shopify orders, an ERP or a payment provider connected, each hand-off later shows as kept, partly returned or returned.

Tulip credits associates too, in its own way. Its analytics count "Tulip Influenced Sales" within a 14-day window after a clienteling action, which retailers can change. That credit starts with something the associate did in the app. Ateliq credits the associate for a sale that started with the shopper on a screen, a moment the app never saw.

Who follows up, and how?

Tulip's follow-up is associate-led, with AI drafting and the retailer deciding what to automate. That suits brands whose advisors own their clients.

Ateliq runs follow-up itself, for shoppers who choose it. Shoppers opt in on their phone and confirm with a six-digit code. The clienteling agent queues follow-ups daily, with up to three in-stock pieces each, and never sees a name, email or phone number. There are three reasons to write: a piece they tried and did not buy, a piece back in their size, or a look they saved. Every message uses a template a person approved, at most two a week, never between 9pm and 9am, with stock checked first and a one-click unsubscribe. Programmes start switched off.

The same opt-in shoppers, and what they did in store, can go to Klaviyo or to any CRM through a signed webhook. Deleting a shopper in Ateliq deletes them there too.

Where is Tulip strong?

The associate's toolkit. Client books, team books, appointments, a shared inbox and outreach across email, SMS and WhatsApp, in one app.
Selling and paying anywhere on the floor. Mobile point of sale, Pay by Link, Tap to Pay and Endless Aisle. Ateliq is not a point-of-sale system and does not write back to a POS or ERP.
Enterprise luxury customers. COACH, Jimmy Choo, Versace, Pandora and David Yurman are named in Tulip's own releases.
Scale and integrations. Tulip says it serves more than 100,000 sales associates across 70 countries, with a Shopify Connector and an Integration Builder.
Its own evidence for clienteling. Tulip's 2025 benchmark report, cited in the merger release, says customers who get personalised outreach make 49% more purchases and spend 63% more per month. These are Tulip's figures.

If your best clients already buy through named advisors and you have no clienteling tool, Tulip solves a real problem.

Can a brand run both?

Yes. Ateliq does not replace a clienteling app, and it has no native Tulip integration. What it has is a signed webhook that sends consented shoppers and their in-store activity to a CRM. A brand that runs Tulip can route that into its own customer systems, so the store's screen activity reaches the record the advisors work from. Settle two things early, as we explain in clienteling in 2026: one client profile, and one owner for follow-up messages, so nobody gets three messages for one visit.

Which should you buy first?

For in-store AI, start with Ateliq. A clienteling app makes the relationships you already have more productive. Ateliq serves every shopper who walks in, including the ones nobody knows yet, and gives the business what the store has never had: a record of what was tried, asked for and left behind. It hands the sale to the associate who helped, follows up only with consent and under rules a person approved, and feeds that into the CRM you already run.

It is delivered end to end, from screens and catalogue onboarding to staff training and support, in India and the United States. Twelve agents behind the glass draft trend boards, concepts, shoots, store reports and follow-ups, and a person approves anything a shopper or the public will see.

Ateliq is new, and we say so. We are taking design-partner pre-orders from a small group of fashion and jewellery brands. See the stylist working on a real catalogue in our live demo, then pre-order as a design partner.

Ateliq vs Tulip (with Salesfloor): shopper-facing AI vs associate clienteling