Ecwid, Inc, the leading Facebook storefront provider by number of active users, and Payvment, the social commerce platform with the most Facebook storefronts, announce an agreement whereby Payvment will refer its subscribers to transfer their Facebook stores to Ecwid’s Facebook platform. As a result of this agreement, Ecwid will strengthen its position as the leader in social commerce software.

Ecwid will be adding to its existing community of over 250,000 merchants in 174 countries by acquiring sellers referred by Payvment, which announced today it would be closing its social commerce service on February 28, 2013. Payvment established the partnership with Ecwid to ensure that its customers have a smooth transition, and can continue selling successfully on Facebook and other online properties.

“Payvment’s sellers are pioneers in social selling, creating loyal relationships with Facebook customers by using the latest social media technology and techniques,” says Jim Stoneham, CEO of Payvment. “Ecwid’s e-commerce technology will not only enable our merchants to keep selling on Facebook, but also allow them the opportunity open up new channels by placing a store anywhere their customers shop online.”

Ecwid’s cloud-based e-commerce widget can be embedded into any web, blog or Facebook page in minutes. Using Ecwid’s Facebook app, merchants can add a full-featured store to any Facebook page with a few clicks, enabling their customers to discover products via social media and make purchases without ever leaving Facebook.

“Payvment has helped Facebook commerce mature and become a productive marketplace for retailers, particularly small businesses,” says Jim O’Hara, president of Ecwid, Inc. “We are excited to partner with Payvment, and are anxious to support their sellers as they begin doing business through their Facebook stores using Ecwid’s platform.”

Growth in Facebook Commerce: Aggregate data from all merchants using Ecwid’s Facebook application has shown strong, consistent growth over the last year. For example, in the holiday shopping period from October thru December, 2012, total sales from all Ecwid-powered Facebook stores grew 65 percent from the previous quarter. Data from the same period also showed that referral (inbound) links from Facebook to Ecwid-powered stores accounted for as much as 8.5 percent of purchases during the holiday shopping period, demonstrating the influence of social referrals on purchase transactions.

Ecwid is integrated with all major payment gateways including PayPal, FirstData, Google Wallet and Authorize.net. In addition, Ecwid’s global partner program makes it easy for hosters and service providers to integrate Ecwid to offer a world-class e-commerce solution to their respective customers.

“It’s exciting to be in the sweet spot of the expanding social commerce trend, as we see our merchants create successful businesses on their Facebook storefronts,” comments Ecwid CEO and founder Ruslan R. Fazlyev. “The Russia-based technical team that built Ecwid is the same group that created F-Cart, the world’s first PHP store builder (which later became X-Cart). Twelve years later, we’ve shown again that a group of upstarts from the freezing Russian midlands can gain market leadership with the right product and proper persistence.”

About Ecwid: Ecwid is an affordable (free plan is available) yet full-featured cloud-based store-building widget, compatible with any existing web, mobile or social site and payment system. The Ecwid Facebook app is the world’s leading shopping cart application on Facebook by active users, with more than 40,000 Facebook stores globally. Ecwid has over 250,000 registered merchants in 174 countries, and is available in over 43 languages.

Ecwid is a trademark of Ecwid, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.