Dive Brief:

• Online retailer Everlane was one of Facebook Messenger's first two brand partners at launch in 2015, but it announced it will no longer use the app for transactional notifications such as order confirmations and shipping details, as reported by Recode.
• The retailer decided to stick with email notifications for now, though it will continue to use Messenger for customer service queries.
• Everlane's move could be an indication of the difficulty brands have with turning Facebook's messaging app into a commerce channel. Everlane emailed its customers about the policy change but didn’t comment on the reasoning behind the move to Recode.

Dive Insight:

Facebook has been interested in building out Messenger to become a one-stop online shop for users, with chatbots and services like that previously provided by Everlane as the foundation of its strategy.

Though brands and Facebook alike are interested in pushing Messenger beyond the user-to-user experience, Everlane’s move might be seen as a major setback, especially given that it was such an early adopter and had significant time to develop and test its Messenger product.

The retailer's move carries quiet echoes of Twitter's killing off of its social commerce 'Buy' button earlier this year, which initially saw a lot of chatter but ultimately little use where it mattered.

Last year, Facebook started beta testing the ability to make in-app payments, opening the door for more mobile commerce within Messenger. But while brands like Everlane still find apps such as Twitter and Messenger useful for customer service and queries, getting users to trust them for transactions, notifications and more personal information is likely proving a challenge.

At the end of the day, most shoppers still prefer brick-and-mortar anyway.