Shopify merchants are now expected to sell more items to potential customers online since they can now directly communicate with clients through Facebook Messenger.
Although it was previously reported that Facebook already allowed businesses to use Messenger to interact with their customers, the one that involves Shopify merchants is regarded as the more successful move to use the platform since the problems that affected the first attempt were definitely ironed out.
Based on reports, the integration provides customers with the "Shop Now" option right after they start making conversations with some of Facebook Business Page stores via Shopify Messenger sales channel. The feature will then bring up the entire product catalog of the merchants and allow the buyers to browse and purchase.
It was also revealed that the new integration allows the customers to complete their purchases using the Shopify checkout portal, which, of course, operates within Messenger. Thus, the entire buying process is simplified, and the buyers are no longer required to walk through other sites since the purchases are completed using Messenger.
To start using the newly established Messenger channel, online businesses are required to add the channel to Shopify, connect this to their Facebook Business Pages and come up with the lists or catalogs of the products that they wish to sell via Facebook Messenger.
The good thing with this is that the Messenger sale channel is currently offered for free to Shopify merchants in Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and the United States.
Given the said features, the collaboration between Shopify and Facebook Messenger is expected to boost the sales of thousands of Shopify merchants since this will not only allow them to sell more but also to conveniently connect and know their customers better. In addition, this can also help the merchants to offer their customers with real-time and more personalized services.
Aside from the mere collaboration with Shopify, this particular move from Facebook is considered as part of its plan to enable companies to establish chatbots and smaller artificial intelligence programs to allow them to interact with the users of Facebook Messenger.
The said interaction allows users to send and receive messages from customers, and it also enables them to process emojis, images and other contents for more personalized interactions.
This collaboration is not the first between Shopify and Facebook, as they previously teamed up in 2015 to test the buy button, which enables Shopify merchants to sell their products directly from their own Facebook profiles.
