So earlier today, I got a notification that Mark Zuckerberg was live and quickly I rushed to go see what was happening this time around. Sometimes recently Facebook introduced Messenger Rooms that allows you host a conference with about 50 people much more like a replacement/alternative for Zoom you can read more about it here.
Now back to the announcement made today, Facebook introduced an online shopping feature rolled out across Facebook and Instagram that allows businesses list and sell their products via their Facebook and Instagram accounts with plans to allow selling through Whatsapp, Messenger and even through Live streams in the future.
For now, below are some of the features to expect from the new Facebook E-commerce feature – First like almost all of their other products, Facebook shops is free to use and according to Mark the core belief is that in the long-term, Shops and other e-commerce products could help Facebook drive more ad sales, so rather than charge businesses for Shops, if Shops are valuable for businesses they’re going to in general want to bid more for ads.
Another point worthy of note is the fact that much as Facebook Shops will make it easy for companies to list their products on Facebook, in most cases users will have to leave Facebook and head to a company’s website to complete the purchase except for businesses participating in Facebook’s Checkout, an invitation-only program that Facebook is testing.
These invited businesses will be able to conduct transactions on the social network where Facebook charges a selling fee for sales completed through Checkout but has declined to disclose the amount or nature of that fee because that program is still in beta.
No doubt this new feature will be a big boost to the e-commerce industry as right now we are already working on setting up a Facebook Shop so make sure to subscribe to my youtube channel here where I shall be uploading a free tutorial on how to set this up in the coming weeks.
Next steps? well I guess this means you should update your Facebook and Instagram apps on your devices right away and get ready to turn your Facebook and Instagram to a new set of store fronts anytime soon.
