Shopify has announced that Kit, its platform that manages social marketing through SMS, will now be available to all Shopify merchants for free.
Shopify currently has 400,000 merchants on its platform. Kit, which Shopify calls a “virtual employee,” connects to a merchant’s associated Facebook account and other social media. It proactively notifies merchants to run Facebook ads, market products, update customers, run reports, and send emails to new customers.
To date, Kit has had over 3 million conversations with merchants since joining Shopify in April 2016, when the San Francisco-based company was acquired.
Kit can also be upgraded with the Kit Skills Library for other integrations, such as assisting merchants with inventory, SEO, Facebook dynamic product ads, and product photos.
Shopify has been making a push to boost its all-around services for users on the platform. It recently announced the launch of Shopify Pay to tackle cart abandonment, and launched its own POS card reader for ecommerce merchants that do festivals and pop-up shops.
The company has been bullish on its mobile focus; in its last financial report, mobile traffic to its merchants’ stores reached 69 percent, and made up 55 percent of orders.