Project Brief: Phase 1 - AI-Powered Sales Chatbot for WooCommerce Marketplace 1. Project Overview & Our USP We are a multi-vendor niche marketplace built on WordPress/WooCommerce using the WCFM plugin. Our entire unique selling proposition is an AI chatbot that acts as a personal expert, helping people to choose the perfect gift. We are building a custom AI solution to replace our current unreliable chatbot. This is Phase 1: development and integration on our website. The core requirement is 100% accuracy. The chatbot must never hallucinate product details or links. It must interact with our live WooCommerce database via the REST API to provide real-time, accurate product recommendations, prices, and links from our various vendors. 2. Core Technical Requirements & Scope of Work (Phase 1) • Platform: The chatbot must be built as a custom, standalone application (e.g., Python/Flask/FastAPI). It will be hosted separately from our WordPress site (e.g., on Replit, DigitalOcean, or Heroku) for performance and scalability. • WooCommerce Integration: The chatbot must integrate solely and directly with our WooCommerce REST API. It must be able to: o Perform real-time product searches based on extracted user criteria (age, interests, budget, occasion). o Return accurate product names, prices, images, vendor info, and correct product URLs. o Handle the structure of a multi-vendor marketplace (WCFM). • AI Integration: The chatbot must use the OpenAI GPT-4 API for natural language processing. The developer will be responsible for: o Prompt Engineering: Creating a robust "system prompt" to consistently extract user requirements (age, interest, budget, occasion) from the conversation and output them in a structured format (e.g., JSON). o Orchestration: Designing the logic flow: User Input -> OpenAI (parameter extraction) -> WooCommerce API (product search) -> OpenAI (friendly response formulation) -> User. • Front-end Chat Widget: Implement a simple, clean, and fast chat widget on our WordPress site. The chatbot's personality should be developed as a friendly and engaging character named 'Buddy the Bear'. This widget will communicate with our custom back-end API via a defined endpoint. It should display product images and links neatly within the chat interface. • The "Closing" Feature: After recommending products, the chatbot must employ persuasive techniques to close the deal: o Leverage Live Data: Use actual stock levels (e.g., "Almost gone! Only 2 left!") and pricing from the WooCommerce API to create urgency. o Overcome Objections: Have prepared responses for common hesitations like "I need to think about it." o The chatbot should be capable of generating and offering personalized, time-sensitive discount codes to encourage conversion. E.g. “10% off if you buy it in the next 30 minutes” etc. o Strong CTAs: The final message must include a strong, clickable Call-to-Action like "This is the perfect gift! Click here to buy it now." that leads directly to the product page. 3. Future-Proof & Multi-Channel Ready Architecture (Critical) The architecture must be designed for future growth. The core application logic must be completely separate from our website's codebase. • Platform Agnostic: The chatbot must use the WooCommerce REST API as the only data source, not WordPress-specific PHP functions or database calls. This ensures that if we ever migrate to a new e-commerce platform, the chatbot can be adapted by only changing the API endpoint and authentication credentials. • The architecture should support a seamless handover protocol to connect users to a human agent on their current platform (e.g., WhatsApp) when the AI is unable to help. • Channel-Agnostic Design: The architecture should be designed with future multi-channel support in mind (e.g., WhatsApp, Instagram Messenger). The core logic must be separate from the channel-specific connectors. The solution should be a central API that can be easily connected to other messaging platforms in Phase 2. 4. Key Deliverables (Phase 1) 1. A fully functional and documented back-end application (e.g., Python/Flask) hosted on a live server with a public URL. 2. A front-end chat widget integrated into our WordPress site. 3. Complete source code and documentation delivered via GitHub. 4. A setup guide for how we can update API keys and maintain the system. 5. What We Provide • Read-only access to our WooCommerce REST API. • An OpenAI API key. • Detailed information about our product categories and target audience. 6. Budget & Timeline • Budget: Please provide a fixed-price quote for the complete Phase 1 project based on the scope above. Proposals with a clear breakdown of hours/stages will be prioritized. • Timeline: We expect this to be a 2 week project.