What happened
Shares of Shopify (SHOP 1.80%) climbed 6.5% to a record closing high of $1,432.99 on Tuesday after the online retail platform said it would bring its rapid checkout system to Facebook (FB +0.25%) and Instagram.
So what
Shopify will roll out its Shop Pay service to all of its merchants that sell their wares on Facebook and Instagram in the weeks ahead. Consumers will be able to use Shop Pay as a payment option, like PayPal, when perusing the popular social media sites.
By pre-populating shoppers' billing and shipping information, Shopify says its checkout system can be as much as 70% faster than competing platforms. These speed and security benefits, in turn, tend to boost its merchants' sales conversion rates.
Investors bid up Shopify's shares to new highs on Tuesday. Image source: Getty Images.
"People are embracing social platforms not only for connection, but for commerce," Shop General Manager Carl Rivera said in a press release. "Making Shop Pay available outside of Shopify for the first time means even more shoppers can use the fastest and best checkout on the internet."
Now what
More than 1.8 billion people use Facebook every day. Increasingly, the social media giant's users are buying goods while scanning through Facebook's and Instagram's mobile sites. Shopify's faster and more secure checkout service should accelerate this trend. The more goods people buy on Facebook via Shopify's payment platform, the more profits both companies stand to make.
