- Facebook Shops tool to be rolled out within a month
- Shops will be easily accessible for businesses and brands to help engage consumers to shop online
- A major challenge for the rival Amazon (whose sales had a decline in the lockdown period) and Google (made its shopping ads free)
Facebook announced the launch of a free Facebook Shops tool to build up its e-commerce offering for direct to consumer brands. It will enable brands and businesses to build a single online store on Instagram and Facebook for users and it will be accessible widely within a month. Mainly Facebook had positioned this for small business owners who are forced to close their shops, restaurants, etc in the rising pandemic situation of Covid-19 infection.
The Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook Shops will empower small business owners to the global brand along with free access to Shops and make shopping seamless for customers. It is also assumed to increase the dropped advertisement sales in the lockdown period for Facebook.
Brands can choose their required features from the catalog, customize the look of the Shop using a cover image or accent colours according to your creativity and interest. You can also contact businesses and brands to clear your doubts, track your deliveries, and solve your other concerns through Instagram, Messenger or WhatsApp. The idea of selling is online is very effective in this period of Covid-19 where people are forced to stay indoors.
Facebook has also planned to launch live shopping features where sellers could tag their products featured in live videos helping viewers to purchase directly, along with loyalty programs. Shops tool is built-in, Facebook’s largest engineering office in London and the company is also aimed to increase their ads engineering team to support and help their new initiative. About 160 million brands use their app every month and many of them are struggling to change their model and sell online. Facebook Shop will be a major challenge to the rival Amazon whose sales had dropped recently
Facebook is also working on their digital currency project Libra which can also be used for in-app purchases.
