1-800-Flowers.com Continues To Innovate The Customer Experience As Valentine's Day Gifting Begins

CARLE PLACE, N.Y., Jan. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- With Valentine's Day quickly approaching, 1-800-Flowers.com® is unveiling further innovative enhancements across its digital and voice channels as it continues to reinvent the gift-giving experience. Through its ongoing integration of artificial intelligence, new augmented reality functions, additional payment options, mobile app upgrades and elevated service features, 1-800-Flowers.com is raising the bar in its commitment to delivering a best-in-class shopping experience.

"As customers prepare to find the perfect gift for their Valentine, we are pleased to introduce new and unique ways to interact with 1-800-Flowers.com while providing a significantly enhanced shopping journey," said Tom Hartnett, President, 1-800-Flowers.com. "We believe gift-givers will enjoy the increasingly-sophisticated and highly-personalized experience they'll encounter as they look to express, connect and celebrate with those they love in the coming weeks – and well beyond."

Enhancements being unveiled in time for Valentine's Day shopping are detailed below:

Intelligent Virtual Assistant Streamlines the Customer Service Process
1-800-Flowers.com has integrated an Intelligent Virtual Assistant (IVA), seamlessly combining artificial intelligence and human understanding to provide exceptional service for callers:

• Voice-Based Self Service – Provides another avenue for solving self-service queries 24/7 without the need for agent support, making it quick and easy for callers to track order statuses, apply order modifications, browse FAQ's and more with the simple use of voice.
• Faster and More Efficient Solutions – New, hybridized customer care system quickly recognizes customer intent and communicates with live agents to eliminate wait times and ensure queries are routed and solved efficiently.
• Continuous and Personalized Customer Experiences – A highly-adaptable, AI-powered agent learns with each customer interaction, using order history and phone number recognition, to provide increasingly-personalized service to returning customers over time.
• Natural Language Processing (NLP) – Exceptionally-skilled at understanding human conversation, NLP comprehends even the most complex alphanumeric phrases with accuracy. This allows the customer to speak naturally and communicate seamlessly using voice.

Redesigned Mobile App Makes it Even Faster to Shop On-The-Go
With a fresh user experience design and a streamlined gift buying flow, the completely revamped 1-800-Flowers.com mobile app helps gift-givers find the perfect expression of love for their sweetheart.

• One-Tap Buying – In the new 'Trending Gifts' section, on-the-go app shoppers can enjoy a speedy one-tap buying experience that brings them directly to checkout.
• "Just for You" – This newsfeed enables customers who are signed-in to their accounts to receive highly-personalized updates on product introductions, promotional offers, calendar reminders and more.
• Seamless Customer Service – Those who choose to shop on the mobile app can use TrackMyOrder and solve other self-service queries with ease, or instantly interact with the 1-800-Flowers.com gift concierge via Apple Business Chat for rapid customer service support through iMessage on iOS.
• Gift Finder – This ever-popular tool is now available via the mobile app. Users are prompted to input order information based on their recipient, the occasion and local availability to receive tailored product recommendations.

New Desktop Enhancements Elevate the Shopping Experience for Gift-Givers
With a relaunched Progressive Web App (PWA) desktop website, 1-800-Flowers.com is providing an elevated experience to online shoppers as they look to deliver smiles for Valentine's Day.

• Lightning-Fast Experiences – This responsive, full-width desktop website provides faster loading times and a cutting-edge image optimization tool that enhances site speed and performance while depicting clearer and more vivid imagery to users.
• Revamped Checkout – Streamlined checkout forms, a seamless shipping information page and address auto-complete with Google Maps make the checkout process simple.
• Complimentary e-Cards – Customers can now send complimentary e-cards to their sweethearts and "galentines" via the 1-800-Flowers.com desktop homepage, where they can choose from a wide variety of themed layouts and craft a custom, personalized message.
• One-Click Log-In – A new silent authentication process makes it easier for desktop customers to log in to their accounts conveniently with one simple click.

3D and Augmented Reality Product Visualization Brings Beautiful Bouquets to Life
1-800-Flowers.com has introduced a cutting-edge 3D and augmented reality feature that enables web shoppers to preview top-selling Valentine's Day arrangements in 3D and then in their own spaces with augmented reality using their mobile devices. Shoppers can bring their arrangements to life before they even purchase them with this innovative feature. On Apple Pay-enabled devices, gift-givers can also seamlessly check out and pay within the augmented reality experience.

Integration of Venmo Offers Mobile Shoppers More Payment Options
1-800-Flowers.com is now accepting payment through Venmo for all mobile web transactions. Additionally, for the first time, Venmo and other digital payment wallets including Apple Pay and Google Pay, can be used in continuity programs, such as the 1-800-Flowers.com Bloom of the Month® Club.

Customers can also save on their Valentine's Day gifting needs by becoming members of the Celebrations Passport® loyalty program, which offers free standard shipping and no service charge for one full year on all purchases made across the 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. family of brands.

About 1-800-Flowers.com®
For more than 40 years, 1-800-Flowers.com has offered truly original floral arrangements, plants and unique gifts to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, everyday occasions and deliver comfort during times of grief.  Backed by a caring team obsessed with service, 1-800-Flowers.com provides customers thoughtful ways to express themselves and connect with the most important people in their lives. 1-800-Flowers.com is part of the 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. family of brands. Shares in 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. are traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market, ticker symbol: FLWS.

FLWS-18F
FLWS-CX

SOURCE 1-800-Flowers.com