Ecommerce continues to grow every day, but there’s something missing amongst all the hype. Since the beginning of time, commerce has been a conversational experience. Businesses have to talk with customers and relate to them in order to make a sale, and according to Michael Perry, Director of Product at Shopify, this conversation “magic sauce” got lost with the growth of ecommerce.
Shopify, an ecommerce platform for online retailers, recently launched on June 21st a free app called Shopify Ping that allows businesses to manage all of their customer conversations in one spot. Instead of losing your mind trying to keep track of conversations on multiple different messaging systems, Shopify Ping keeps everything organized in one app and notifies you when a customer or business partner sends you a message. “We take the push notification aspect very seriously,” Perry said. “If a teammate messages you, the notification sounds different than if a customer messages you. This is meant to bring the merchant’s attention to the customer as if they just walked into their store. It’s all hands on deck to make that sale.”
Shopify Ping is fairly simple to use and will be easy to catch on to for those who aren’t so tech-savvy. The “home” screen is actually your inbox, separated into customers’ and teammates’ conversations. It looks just like the Facebook messenger app, where you can chat with people real-time. Everything is saved in the app so you can go back later to look at conversations so you don’t forget that very important detail about a sale or new business project.
The app also has an AI “employee” called Kit, pre-built in to help you with all of your marketing strategies. Kit will run Facebook and Instagram ads, email marketing, retargeting campaigns, and more on your behalf. Want to find new products for your online store? Kit can do that for you, no matter where you are. Simply send a message to Kit through the app and it’ll help you to get the job done. “Kit can help you run your store entirely,” Perry said. “It’s a great way to get small businesses up and running.”
The most important thing for independent retailers is their power to create a personalized experience for customers; to make them feel special and keep them coming back. For online retailers, this is harder to accomplish because there’s no way to bring a customer into your store with a friendly smile or a great story to lure them in. That’s why this new app is perfect for small online retailers – it gives them a better chance to cater to their customers’ every need and make sure they get the full personalized experience they crave.
“We’re really excited about getting back to the inception of commerce done by two people trading and completely conversational,” Perry said. “It’s powerful and impactful. Big companies have been really successful with this, and so now this app will help small business owners to get more online sales.” You can learn more about Shopify Ping and download it for free by going to https://www.shopify.com/blog/shopify-ping.