Facebook Shops

Facebook announced its new push into the e-commerce sector with Facebook Shops that will become a way for the businesses to set up the storefronts on Instagram and Facebook. The shops will be powered by third-party services including BigCommerce, Shopify, and Woo that will turn the social network into a top-tier shopping destination.

Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement that the move comes in light to rebuild the economy while the pandemic continues. This will help the businesses take orders from the customers even if the stores aren’t allowed to open and ship the orders from shops or restaurants directly to the customers. This move has seen many first-time small business owners who never had online businesses get online.

The step comes in light of the fact that the eCommerce firms have seen a record surge in their orders in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. This also has a flip side to the coin where the small businesses have been devastated where some have already shut up while the others might be forced to follow the footsteps if the lockdown continues.

The Facebook Shops are free to create and they could generate a significant amount of new business opportunities for Facebook in advertising, payments, and other services. The businesses will have to upload their catalog, choose the products that they want to feature in the shop, and then customise it with a cover image and accented colours. The visitors will be able to visit the shop, browse, save, and order products. They can message a business through WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram Direct for support and tracking deliveries.

Facebook will charge a small fee from the businesses on every purchase whereas the real money will come from monetisation of the ads. The company also plans to make the experience seamless across their family of apps where the user will be able to browse and save the product from Facebook, place the order from Instagram, and make the payment and track the orders via WhatsApp.