Shopify Inc . the leading cloud-based, multi-channel commerce platform designed for small and medium-sized businesses, announced earlier this month an integration with the new Messenger Platform.

This allows merchants to provide live customer support, automatically send order confirmations, shipping updates, push notifications, and more, all within Facebook Messenger.

“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,” said Brandon Chu, Senior Product Manager at Shopify.

“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.”

Additionally, Shopify is said to be building commerce bots for Messenger, a project that will allow merchants to have more interactive and engaging conversations with customers.  Bots for Messenger and the Messenger Platform were announced at this year’s F8.

Over the last two years, Shopify has seen messaging apps grow in popularity and start to outpace social networks when it comes to where consumers are spending their time. With an expanding developer ecosystem, messaging apps are reaching beyond simple messaging to connect customers privately and directly with their favourite businesses.

For more information, please visit: https://shopify.com/messenger