- Facebook Inc. is making another attempt to create a shopping empire by the introduction of Facebook Shops said the company in a blog post.
Facebook Inc. is making another attempt to create a shopping empire by the introduction of Facebook Shops — and this time it has the full participation of Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s top executive.
The Facebook chief executive announced a handful of updates Tuesday signaling the company’s commitment to online shopping and commerce, one of the areas he highlighted this year as a priority. The main product, called Shops, is a new version of an existing Facebook feature with a similar name and will allow retailers to upload product catalogs to their Facebook page or profile on Instagram.
Users can access these shops directly from the retailer’s page, or by clicking on an ad that will guide them to a Facebook shop instead of their own retailer’s website.
Eventually, Zuckerberg notes, these shops will be available across the Facebook ecosystem, including Messenger and WhatsApp, providing retailers with one product catalog to reach nearly 3 billion users of Facebook.
“This is the first really big push we ‘re going to make in the next trade step,” Zuckerberg said in a Monday interview. He also stressed the importance of Small Business Shops, almost all of which operate exclusively online during the Covid-19 pandemic. Facebook advertisers’ “vast majority” are small businesses, Zuckerberg said, so it’s also crucial for Facebook’s business to ensure they can run.
“All of these resources are available to business even though your physical storefront can not be,” he said announcing the latest functionality on a Livestream Tuesday. After the report, the Facebook stock grew more than 3 percent, adding to earlier-day gains.
Many small businesses are struggling right now and more are trying to put their company online with the closure of their shops. Our goal is to make shopping easy and empower everyone from a small business owner to a global brand to communicate with customers using our apps. That’s why we launch Facebook Shops and invest in features across our apps that inspire people to purchase and make it easier to buy and sell online.
We are also investing in updates across our apps such as Instagram Store, live shopping, and more that will be integrated with Facebook Shops to help consumers discover items they are interested in and make it easier to buy, said Facebook in a blog post.
