Facebook Shopping

Facebook really wants you to go from “LIKE” to “BUY”.

Facebook has recently launched a new feature aimed at making “Instagram” and “Facebook” a true shopping destination, by offering the small vendors or the struggling businessmen a new platform to sell products online. If successful, the initiatives would make it easier for Instagram and Facebook users to buy the products right from the app. This could also boost the Facebook’s business since it offers the retailers of all sizes to buy ads on two giant social networking sites.

This big new feature for online merchants is called Facebook shops. These customizable online stores, which live on Facebook and Instagram profiles, allow people to browse and purchase items without leaving the apps. Zuckerberg also said that in the coming months Instagram would be adding a dedicated shopping tab to the app’s main navigation bar, which would make it more obvious to the Instagram users that they can do more than swipe and “like” on the app.

“This is till now the biggest step that we’ve taken in E-commerce”, said Zuckerberg in one of his online live streams.

Facebook’s new initiative comes as online shopping has green significantly amid pandemic, as the non-essential vendors were forced to shut their shops and stay at home. Just before the pandemic, online shopping accounted for around 15 percent of total retail sales in the United States, but it now accounts for around 27 percent, according to Bank of America.

Facebook is also rolling out a tool to connect loyalty programs and a shopping feature showing product tags underneath live videos, allowing viewers to make purchases while watching. Zuckerberg said more than 800 million people engage with live videos daily across Facebook and Instagram.

“Our business model here is ads,” Zuckerberg said. “Rather than charge businesses for Shops, we know that Shops are valuable for businesses. They’re going to in general bid more for ads and we’ll eventually make money that way.”

Finally, Facebook says it’s testing ways to give businesses the ability to incorporate their loyalty programs into Facebook Shops, with features that allow shop owners and users to track and manage points and other rewards as purchases are made.

The company also plans to combine live video with shopping — a feature that’s coming to Instagram and Facebook “in the coming months” — which will essentially enable an influencer-lead version of QVC. Brands and influencers will be able to tag specific products before they begin a live stream and viewers will see prominent links to buy the items pinned to the bottom of the video. The move could also give Instagram’s biggest stars another reason to stick around, rather than depart for competitors like YouTube which offer influencers more ways to monetize their content.

In the US, from May 19, Facebook Shops are starting to roll out. Rollout will start sometime this summer on Instagram. Dedicated shopping tabs to the navigation bar will be added by Instagram later in 2020. In the coming months, Shops will be widely available