Chatbot commerce: Ottawa's Shopify offering virtual assistant free to merchants

Would you like to read a story about why Shopify is making its chatbot marketing assistant free to merchants? Type'yes,' send a thumbs up emoji, er, well actually, just scroll down to learn more. Techopia may not yet be run by bots (deep down, we're paranoid luddites) but Shopify believes it can reduce price barriers to growing a business by giving all of its merchants its first employee for free. Kit, which Shopify acquired last spring, is an automated assistant that can set up marketing campaigns, re-engage with customers via email, refresh social channels and run reports, all through Facebook Messenger or text message conversations with merchants. Before today, businesses on Shopify had to pay $10 per month for Kit's services, but the Ottawa e-commerce giant announced today that the firm would make its virtual assistant free to all merchants on its platform.