While millions of businesses globally are still trying to figure out a viable means to stay afloat during the pandemic and even after, Facebook has just come to the rescue. On Tuesday, the world’s largest social networking company announced that it is launching Shops, a service that will allow businesses display and sell products on its platforms, including Messenger and Whatsapp. Shops will be aimed primarily at businesses, allowing them to sell to customers on the app. The feature will be powered by third-party services, including Shopify, BigCommerce, and Woo, and will most likely pose a threat to e-commerce rivals such as Craigslist, Etsy and even Amazon.
“If you can’t physically open your store or restaurant, you can still take orders online and ship them to people,” Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg said during a live stream session. According to Verge, Facebook is betting that bringing more local businesses online will help them to endure while also creating big new business opportunities for Facebook itself. Because Shops are free to create, it will be widely adopted and create significant new business opportunities for Facebook in advertising, payments, and other services. Zuckerberg said he believes Facebook Shops could become the primary online presence for many small businesses, including some of the 160 million small businesses that already use Facebook to market their products.
We know that if Facebook Shops are valuable for businesses they’re going to in general want to bid more for ads. We’ll eventually make money that way,” he said, noting that small businesses make up “the vast majority” of Facebook advertisers.
Mark Zuckerberg
In Facebook’s virtual mall, Shoppers can buy products either through links to the businesses’ own websites or by using Instagram’s checkout feature, which enables purchasing within the app. Items that businesses have made available for purchase will appear within the shop, and users can either save items or place an order. The company says Checkout will become available on Facebook in the future.
The feature is currently available in the United States, but there’s is no word yet on when it will be available in African markets.
