No mere bots, these. Consider them fashion bots, or “fashbots” for short.
As TechCrunch noted, fashion brand Tommy Hilfiger has teamed up with Facebook’s Creative Shop and bot maker msg.ai to fashion (no pun intended) a chatbot that the site deemed “worthy to point to.”
This effort comes after past efforts to create bots via developers fizzled; this time around, the bots took a bow with Saturday’s (Sept. 10) launch of the Tommy Hilfiger capsule fashion line tied to Gigi Hadid via both shortlink URL and QR code, said TechCrunch.
The bots themselves allow for different perspectives on the line’s runway event, with the ability to shop for items from the fashion line. The payment functionality is one where shoppers are directed to the Tommy Hilfiger website to enter card details and complete transactions. One catch, according to TechCrunch, is that being redirected toward the site may, in fact, reduce conversion rates, even as Facebook thus far does not have payments ability in Messenger.
The bot is designed to answer consumers’ queries and give what TechCrunch described as a “more immersive, responsive” experience than might otherwise been seen online. Hilfiger told the site that, even as the experience may not be a tactile one, “I think if you’re an established brand and the consumer is familiar with the brand, they have confidence that that certain cotton or cashmere or denim is the quality that would be acceptable, that they would be confident that the fit would be OK. There’s a lot of different reasons why people shop online. Now, they can receive shipments, try on items and send back what they don’t accept. They don’t necessarily need to touch and feel.”
