With an increasing number of people relying on the internet to buy things, it's just a matter of time before Facebook realizes the money-making potential.
Amid the 'COVID-19' coronavirus-induced e-commerce trend, the first thing the social giant did, according to its blog post, is introducing a tab in its main app called 'Facebook Shop'.
This feature is seen as Facebook's major re-entry to the e-commerce business. The second, is Facebook in expanding the 'Checkout' feature on Instagram.
The idea is that, Facebook can offer a marketplace for creators and brands across its apps, and giving them an easy way to conduct business and reach their potential buyers.
By owning the main platform, the photo- and video-sharing social media, Facebook is tying everything up with messaging.
For convenience, Facebook allows messaging through Shops to combine the in-store experience of being able to ask a salesperson questions with the convenience of online shopping.
First, is Facebook Shop.
Previously on Facebook, users could only see these Pages selling items they might be interested in. But before, they might be required to visit their websites in order to buy them. This time with Facebook Shop, users can do the e-commerce transaction directly through the Facebook app.
Facebook’s AI team has applied various models on this service to also include computer vision to categorize each product by identifying the brand, color, design, and style. This way, when users search for a particular item with a specific color, Facebook can show pretty accurate results.
Along with this, the company is also introducing more tools for businesses to customize their pages on Shops.
With the new layout for featuring single or group of products, for example, and the new insights page, as well as the real-time preview of collections design.
The second, is Instagram Checkout.
The feature allows brands and customers to complete transactions through the app.
According to Facebook, Checkout "makes it easy for people to make a purchase in just a few taps, without leaving the app."
To use this feature, businesses must first have Shops and use Facebook Commerce Manager or its partners Shopify and BigCommerce.
"We’ll support more platform partners soon," said Facebook.
Because of the coronavirus, and to also help promote the feature, Facebook said that transaction fees will be waived through the end of 2020. Facebook updated its commerce eligibility requirements to make sure authentic businesses were the only ones selling products, instating one possible qualification of maintaining a “sufficient follower base.”
Then there is a Live Shopping feature.
"We’re making it easier for people to shop in real time. We’ve been testing this feature on both Facebook and Instagram, and now Facebook Live Shopping includes new features to help businesses easily set up a live experience featuring products from their Shop and sell directly from the video"
Initially, the features are rolling out to users in the U.S..
The company noted its own study to point out that 85% of people worldwide are shopping online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This according to the company, is the main reason it's expanding its e-commerce feature.
"We want to make shopping easier for people and empower anyone, from an entrepreneur to the largest brand, to use our apps to connect with customers and grow their business. That’s why we’re creating new ways for people to shop on our apps and providing tools to help businesses sell online," Facebook said.
And rolling out the shopping features means that at least some of those people living in the U.S. might buy a thing or two through its platforms.
All these product updates and expansions point to Facebook’s seriousness about shopping as a business line.
After all, where there are users, there is data, and where there is money, there should be some percentage Facebook can earn from those transactions.
Facebook (and its properties) are already benefiting from a lot of brands and users. By introducing a way for them to conduct transactions without having to leave Facebook' apps, the social giant is seeing a major victory. Besides data to power ads, e-commerce could someday help diversify Facebook's revenue in a big way.
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he expected commerce and payments to be the future of the company in 2019. With these features, Zuckerberg is making good on that promise.