WASHINGTON — Social networking giant Facebook said it’s rolling out its e-commerce integration ‘Shops’ feature to instant messaging platform WhatsApp and Marketplace as it expands into e-commerce.
Facebook launched Facebook Shops last year for businesses to set up stores online to sell through Facebook and Instagram.
“New commerce features coming to support businesses and make shopping easier: Shops on WhatsApp and Marketplace, Instagram Visual Search and Shops Ads,” Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said in a post on the site.
“More than 1 billion people use Marketplace each month, so we’re making it easy for businesses to bring their Shops into Marketplace to reach even more people.”
One billion use visit Facebook Marketplace every month, and there are more than 1 million monthly active Shops with over 250 million monthly Shops visitors, the firm said in its first-quarter results ended March 31, 2021.
Businesses using the WhatsApp Business API are sending more than 100 million messages per day, Facebook had said.
The upcoming integration on WhatsApp will benefit both users and sellers as it will make it easier for the users to get products through shops in selected countries.
Meanwhile, in order to assist businesses to sell their products to one billion monthly visitors worldwide, Facebook will add ‘Shops’ to the US marketplace too.
“Last year, when Covid-19 shut down local economies, we accelerated the launch of Shops to help businesses sell online,” Facebook said in the announcement.
“We believe the shift to online, social-first shopping is not temporary. One in three shoppers globally say they plan to spend less time in-store even after the pandemic is over, and almost three-quarters say they get shopping ideas from Facebook, Instagram, Messenger or WhatsApp.”
The company plans to make further investments in Shops and will waive fees for sellers through June 2022.
Facebook also revealed that it would display product ratings and reviews on ‘Shops’ on Instagram with additional details like photos and videos from users.
Another update that has been introduced is ‘shop ads.’ The advertisements on ‘shops’ are intended to offer people a customized shopping experience based on their shopping behavior.
The new experience will “send shoppers to where they are most likely to make a purchase,” supported by their shopping preference.
Facebook will also test an AI-based capability called Visual Search on Instagram over the approaching months to assist people in uploading their own photos to look for similar products.
The social networking platform will also make it possible to fit or try the product before buying it, keeping in mind the shoppers who prefer to buy items virtually.
(With inputs from ANI)
(Edited by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan and Amrita Das)
