Shopify Introduces New Bridge Between Online and Offline Commerce

As the lines between online and offline commerce blur, merchants need to find every opportunity to reach their customer base wherever they are.

To that end, leading commerce platform Shopify is again expanding how its merchant clients can sell to their customers.

On Wednesday (Nov. 1), the company introduced what it’s calling Buy Online for Shopify POS.

The company bills the feature as a way for merchants to turn showrooming – viewing products in-store then buying them online – into an opportunity.

With Buy Online, in-store staff can help customers create an online shopping cart if they’re not ready to make their purchases in the store. They can then email the shopper a link to the cart, enabling them to buy the items later if they choose.

The feature gives credit for the sale to the sales representative who sends the link, enabling them to be compensated for their customer service as they would if the purchase was made in the store.

And earlier this week, Shopify introduced a new integration that allows its sellers to list their products directly on eBay.

With the eBay partnership, sellers can create an eBay listing simply by syncing their product information to the eBay sales channel, the company said in a blog post.

This enables the sellers to manage their catalog within their online store as well as an eBay channel and any other Shopify channels they use in one place, without having to manually enter duplicate product information.

Users will also be able to manage fulfillment and communicate with eBay customers from within Shopify. At the same time, however, users will have the ability to set unique prices for their eBay listings.

“This new integration will bring more great products to eBay buyers, while offering Shopify merchants the ability to seamlessly drive their business and brand at scale by tapping into our vibrant marketplace,” Bob Kupbens, vice president of Global Trust and Seller Experience for eBay, said in the announcement.

Shopify has a similar integration with other web sites, including one with Amazon that was announced in January. According to the company’s blog post, eBay has 171 million active buyers.

The new integration is currently available to U.S. sellers in USD.