The acquisition will accelerate Shopify’s focus on growing trend towards conversational commerce
Shopify Inc. the leading cloud-based, multi-channel commerce platform designed for small and medium-sized businesses, has announced it has agreed to acquire privately held Kit CRM Inc., a virtual marketing assistant that leverages messaging to help businesses market their online stores. The acquisition will bolster Shopify’s focus on the growing trend towards “conversational commerce,” paving the way for mobile and messaging platforms to help merchants run their businesses.
“We believe messaging apps are the gateway for the internet on mobile, and conversational commerce represents a huge opportunity for Shopify,” said Craig Miller, Chief Marketing Officer at Shopify. “Kit addresses a real pain point for merchants and is one of our most highly rated apps in the Shopify App Store. We look forward to having the Kit team join Shopify and help us define the future of conversational commerce together.”
Founded in 2013, Kit acts as a virtual marketing assistant that helps manage a small businesses’ marketing tasks so that entrepreneurs can focus on other aspects of their business. Kit allows businesses to run targeted ads on Facebook and Instagram, post updates to their Facebook Page, make recommendations based on store activities, and more, all via text messages. Last month, Kit also introduced an API that allows it to interact with other apps in the Shopify App Store.
“As an entrepreneur, you dream of building a company that makes an impact. Our partnership with Shopify has helped us positively change how businesses run in more than 30 countries,” said Michael Perry, Founder and CEO of Kit. “We’ve witnessed first-hand Shopify’s commitment to business owners, and it is a privilege to be a larger part of it. This is a big step, and incredible opportunity for Kit to be joining Shopify. We couldn’t be more thrilled about making our impact felt amongst business owners everywhere.
“The acquisition of Kit, along with Shopify’s integration with the new Facebook Messenger Platform announced yesterday, further supports our focus on helping entrepreneurs embrace conversational commerce.”