One of the most exciting and innovative features from this summer internship consists of a conversational commerce feature. The team and i wanted to think outside of the box to incorporate both offline and online integration to bridge the gap between the store and online to build a 1-on-1 relationship and drive more traffic and sales to the store. We saw mobile as the best medium to create an omni-channel experience, especially because the Tory Burch website currently doesn't allow users to do that. The stores have excessive inventory, so we wanted to figure out how we can get users to buy more products from the stores. Also, because the sales associates obtain commission, this conversational commerce feature also helps the sales associates get more. The feature leverages sales associates as personal shoppers and stylists because they have the expertise.

The feature begins with a store locator page which lists all of the user's nearby stores by using their real-time location. Pressing on the store of their choice leads them to a store page which consists of the store's vital information as the different sales associates working at the store, directions to the store, the store contact information, and the store hours. The thumbnails of the sales associates helps users know which store associates are busy (red dot) and which are available (green dot). Here in the prototype image to the left, the "concierge" is a bot and the team is currently building fake sales associates. The way this function works, is similar to Uber, where there are two different interfaces (one for the sales associates speaking with the customers so they can indicate their availability status, search different products, and chat with the customers, and one for the customers as visible in the images to the left).

Pressing on the sales associate of the customer's choice brings them to a page where they can easily message them, taking them to an inbox page. We wanted to create an interface that looks similar to any other messenger app (like Facebook Messenger), so the users are comfortable with and familiar with the new Tory Burch app. It presents all the ongoing conversations and consists of two different bots: the shop bot (helps users who are looking for more personalized help such as stylist ideas and products to recommend) and the order bot (helps users find information regarding their order confirmation or order status).

The actual chat includes many innovative features itself. One which allows the user to upload photos of videos of items they like in the store or on the street. By taking a picture of a certain item or its tag, the bot or sales associate would be able to use image recognition to provide the customer with a variety of different products to choose from. If the customer doesn't have a photo, they can also as the bot or sales associate about a certain item in which they will be responded with a carousel consisting of 6 different products that the customer can press on to take them to the item's product description page. The chat feature is very important as it allows real sales associates to talk to real customers, thus building a loyal customer base, and a 1-on-1 relationship. If a customer decides to purchase a product, they can tell the sales associate in the chat messenger box. The sales associate can then create an order on behalf of the customer, in which the customer can then receive their order receipt and view details regarding their order. This is another omni-channel feature, as customers also have the option to go into the store to pick-up their item or have an item shipped to them. We also wanted to incorporate the use of Apple Pay since it is very easily and now widely used.