Facebook enters the marketplace.
Facebook is waging war on the marketplace giants!
Amazon and e-Bay have been global leaders in marketplace development for many years, now Facebook has joined the party.
Facebook is making a big push to become a global platform for online shopping. Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the new Facebook Shops feature on a livestream on the platform last week.
The service will allow Facebook pages to set up a shop for free, upload their catalogues, and feature specific products. Facebook users will then be able to browse these shops, and then save or eventually purchase products directly on the
social media platform
.
Some of these features have been available on Facebook in some form, but they have now been redeveloped into Shops. Mark Zuckerberg knows that keeping the traffic in-platform will eventually lead to revenue. This is a big move towards becoming a genuine player in the
e-commerce
industry.
Zuckerberg Says:
“This is really the first very major push that we’re going to be making into that next step around commerce,” Zuckerberg said. “All these tools are open for business even when your physical storefront can’t be.” Zuckerberg said he has been meeting with Facebook’s small business commerce team every day during the pandemic, and these features will help SMEs make it through the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.
“As many businesses are creating and strengthening their digital presence, we’re building new tools to help make online shopping seamless,” the company said
in a blog post
.
“That’s why we’re launching Facebook Shops and investing in features across our apps that inspire people to shop and make buying and selling online easier.
“Facebook Shops is a mobile-first shopping experience where businesses can easily create an online store on Facebook and Instagram for free.
“Shops let you choose which of your items you want to feature, merchandise with product collections and tell your brand story with customisable fonts and colours.”
Facebook has partnered with major CMS providers on the project including
Shopify
,
BigCommerce
and WooCommerce
Through
Facebook
Shops, businesses will be able to connect with customers through Facebook’s family of integrated platforms, including WhatsApp, Messenger or Instagram Direct. It will also be available on Facebook and
Instagram
live, allowing users to buy products being featured on live streams.
“It’s one simple and consistent experience across this family of apps, which means it is easier for people,” Zuckerberg said. “That of course means there’ll be higher conversions and more sales for small businesses.”
In App Shopping:
This is the first major play at creating an integrated m-commerce platform (mobile commerce). A fully immersive in-app
shopping
experience. If this is to come to fruition, Facebook will drive coupons, banners, specials, sponsored content, loyalty programs and more. This investment into a Facebook Shops platform marks a renewed focus from the tech giant to get people to actually buy things on the platform, rather than to just redirect them to other sites through ads.
For the moment, most purchases will still be made away from Facebook and on the company’s actual website, although the tech giant is trialling Checkout, a currently invitation-only program that can conduct transactions on the site.
Facebook will take commission on purchases made through Shops, but the real lucrative area for the company is through driving more ads on the platform.
“Our business model here is ads, so rather than charge businesses for Shops, we know that if Shops are valuable for businesses they’re going to, in general, want to bid more for ads,” Zuckerberg said. “We’ll eventually make money that way.” The in-app experience will also reduce friction in the buying process. By creating a consistent purchase flow in the Facebook Shop platform theoretically ads should convert more efficiently.
Why Now?
The launch of Facebook Shops was accelerated in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Facebook Australia director Naomi Shepherd said.
“Over the past three months businesses of all sizes have been forced to change their business models and adapt to selling online, Shepherd told the
Sydney Morning Herald
. “We’ve seen this and worked hard to fast track new products to give businesses a better way of connecting with consumers, and helping businesses who don’t have an online presence to drive sales online.
“We want to make it easy to set up a single online store for customers to access on Facebook and Instagram. If you visit someone’s shop, you’ll be able to learn that business’ story, see their featured products, and buy them in our apps.”
Thanks for reading.
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Ryan Jenkins - Chief Eagle