Post #231

Shopify is entering chatbots and voice assistants game. It wants for their 500,000 merchants to be able to run their business almost entirely through the use of bots or voice apps like Alexa. The ability to run a business through a conversational interface at Shopify began with Kit, a text-based marketing virtual assistant Shopify acquired in April 2016 a day after the launch of the Facebook Messenger platform. “We have a vision of really simplifying the way a merchant starts their day like getting up, having a cup of coffee and just being able to ask: What is the context I need to know to start my day off well, and how many orders do I need to fulfill right now? What are those products, and how many sales did I have the day before?”. The company will also consider the launch of services on other text or voice bot platforms such as a Google Assistant action or Cortana skill. https://venturebeat.com/2017/08/04/shopifys-plan-to-let-400000-merchants-run-their-business-via-alexa-and-bots/