PRESS RELEASE
SHOPLINE Enables Seamless Selling on Facebook Shops and Instagram Shopping
Over 250,000 SHOPLINE Merchants Can Now Harness the Power of Social Commerce in Just a Few Clicks
Press photos available here.
HONG KONG, 21 DECEMBER 2020 – SHOPLINE, a global smart commerce platform, today announced the availability of a Facebook Business Extension integration enabling over 250,000 SHOPLINE merchants to sell on Facebook Shops and Instagram Shopping instantly. As social commerce grows in popularity with the pandemic pushing small and medium enterprises to move online, the new feature will help SHOPLINE merchants become front-runners in the growing social commerce battlefield.
Social Commerce Gains Momentum as Omnichannel Becomes Mainstream
In 2020, the total revenue of social commerce grew 25% year-over-year, and the global social commerce market is expected to reach USD 2 trillion by 20241. Studies have shown that over 30% of online shoppers have adopted social media as their main shopping platform. Since the pandemic, more than one-third of all U.S. small businesses have moved completely online2. Without question, merchants are now racing to social commerce.
In May, Facebook launched its brand-new service, Facebook Shops, in an effort to expand its eCommerce offering and help small businesses ride out the pandemic. Facebook Shops allows brands to showcase their products on their Facebook page and Instagram profile in a way that feels native and tailored to their brand image. It also gives brands the ability to create custom collections by grouping items in their inventory, making it easy for customers to discover products.
SHOPLINE Merchants can start selling seamlessly on Facebook Shops & Instagram Shops in Just a Few Clicks
SHOPLINE is one of the first few Facebook partners in APAC to offer Facebook Business Extension integration that allows merchants to set up their Facebook Shops in just a click of a button. Products, inventory, and operation data will stay in sync with their SHOPLINE store, so merchants can run their businesses in one place while selling on different sales channels. Merchants who run Facebook ad campaigns can activate Conversion API through the same Facebook Business Extension and gain access to user insights that will help improve their overall advertising efficiency.
Fiona Lau, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of SHOPLINE said, “We are thrilled to work with Facebook to offer direct access to Facebook Shops. It has always been our mission to help our merchants grow. Recognizing the potential and importance of omnichannel sales, we believe this partnership will significantly help our merchants expand their sales channels, increase consumer touchpoints and ultimately, grow sales.”
Tapping into Facebook’s Extensive User Base to Embrace Conversational and Discovery Commerce
Establishing presence on Facebook Shops not only helps merchants expand their sales channels, but experience and embrace Conversational Commerce. By enabling merchants to connect to customers via Messenger and WhatsApp, Facebook Shops makes real-time communication possible. The enhanced catalog integration with Facebook also helps increase the visibility of a business’s products and lead more people to their Shops. SHOPLINE merchants will now be able to sync more data fields, such as age and gender of target customers, brand and material of products, Google product category and Facebook product category, from the SHOPLINE platform to and from Facebook, helping shoppers discover and shop for things they love with high-quality and relevant product information.
SHOPLINE’s Wide Array of Features to Help Merchants Kick-start Social Commerce
Earlier this year, SHOPLINE launched its livestream tool for merchants to engage with customers real-time and make sales. Integrated with Facebook, the tool allows merchants to manage livestream and customer comments on both SHOPLINE LIVE and Facebook through one single backend system.
SHOPLINE has also added new features to help merchants convert marketing platforms into sales channels. The chatbot feature notifies customers via Facebook Messenger of any updates on their order and shipping status. SHOPLINE merchants can also automate the journey by setting up a chatbot decision tree to lead users through the conversion funnel.
Looking ahead to 2021, SHOPLINE will continue to drive the development of a complete eCommerce ecosystem and be the trusted partner for brands looking to build their omnichannel presence.
1 Social Commerce Market by Device and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2020-2024 by Technavio
https://www.technavio.com/report/social-commerce-market-industry-analysis
2 Facebook Survey Shows 31% of Small Businesses Stopped Operating by Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-18/facebook-survey-shows-31-of-small-businesses-stopped-operating
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About SHOPLINE
Founded in 2013 and a member of the Silicon Valley-based 500 Startups accelerator in 2014, SHOPLINE is Asia’s biggest smart commerce platform, with offices in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok, Guangzhou, Kuala Lumpur, Shenzhen, and Singapore.
SHOPLINE always prioritises its customers and aims to support brands of all sizes to achieve local and international growth together with an omnichannel presence. To date, SHOPLINE has helped over 250,000 merchants open their online stores, including well-known brands such as Durex, Bee Cheng Hiang, and Hiwalk.
Official website: https://shopline.hk/
Official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ShopLineApp/
Media Contact
The Hoffman Agency (www.hoffman.com)
Natasha Arora
Email: narora@hoffman.com
