Facebook Shops: Online Stores for Facebook & Instagram

8min Read 20th May 20 James Scullion

1 million businesses are now able to create a shop to sell products on Facebook and Instagram. The commencement of the Facebook Shops announcement has been accelerated and extended because… Read More

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1 million businesses are now able to create a shop to sell products on Facebook and Instagram.

The commencement of the Facebook Shops announcement has been accelerated and extended because of Coronavirus. From today, you’ll be able to purchase products straight from a business’ Facebook or Instagram Profile.

 

Covid – 19 has made customers even more likely to engage with Facebook and Instagram profiles as their go-to source of information on local stores. If your morning coffee stop has amended their opening hours, or pivoted to an online delivery or collection only. Then they’ve definitely taken that information and shared it on Facebook or Instagram. For convenience sake why not allow customers to purchase there and then on their Facebook and Instagram apps?

 

In a Facebook Live yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg described this as a way to help suffering businesses. He acknowledged it will not “undo all the economic damage.” Zuckerberg suggested that this will remain useful after the pandemic,

 

“I do think we’re going to continue living more of our lives online and doing more business online.”

 

While Shops are free to create, they could create significant new business opportunities for Facebook in advertising, payments, and other services. Businesses will be able to buy ads for their Shops, and when people use Facebook’s checkout option, it charges them a fee.

 

Zuckerberg said Shops will improve on the standard web commerce experience by storing users’ payment credentials in a single place that they can then use on any Facebook or Instagram storefront. There are currently more than 160 million small businesses using the company’s apps.

 

Shops can be found on businesses’ Facebook pages and Instagram profiles, and they can also appear in stories or be promoted in ads. Items that businesses have made available for purchase will appear within the shop, and users can either save items or place an order. (Some businesses enable users to make purchases directly on Facebook, while others will take you to the business’s website to complete the transaction.)

 

Shops will begin rolling out on Facebook today in the United States and are coming to Instagram sometime this summer. Instagram will showcase brands on its existing shop account, which already highlights items that are available for purchase. Later in the year, it plans to add a dedicated shopping tab to its navigation bar.

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8mins 20th May 20 James Scullion