Shopify Commerce Comes To Messenger

SHUTTERSTOCK

Shopify is taking its business to Facebook.

Specifically, the eCommerce platform announced yesterday (April 12) that it has become the first company of its kind to integrate with the Facebook Messenger platform.

As part of the new Messenger Platform — which allows merchants to exercise within Facebook Messenger a number of capabilities, including providing live customer support, automatically sending order confirmations, shipping updates and pushing notifications — Shopify, a press release explains, will foster the development of stronger, one-on-one relationships between U.S.-based merchants and their customers.

“Messaging apps are enabling us to rekindle the conversations we are used to having in person with retail businesses and recapture some of the lost intimacy that comes with shopping online,” Brandon Chu, senior product manager at Shopify, stated in the release. “Our decision to integrate with Messenger and build commerce bots is designed to help merchants develop deeper relationships with their customers and give them an opportunity to reinforce their brand’s personality.”

Shopify is also building commerce bots for Messenger, with the goal being similarly focused on facilitating more robust — i.e., interactive and engaging — conversations between merchants and consumers.

Bots for Messenger and the Messenger Platform, the press release adds, were announced at this year’s F8.

The release goes on to share Shopify’s perspective that the integration with Facebook Messenger is an opportunity for the eCommerce platform to take advantage of the growing popularity of messenger apps, which possess the capability — beyond just messaging — to connect consumers privately and directly with the businesses they prefer.