Facebook takes a deeper dive into e-commerce, launches Shops for online businesses

Facebook has made a significant move in e-commerce through the launch of its Facebook Shops. These Shops will help businesses to set up free online stores for customers to access on both Facebook and Instagram. Users will be able to choose the products they want to feature from their catalog and then customize the look and feel of their shops with a cover image and accent colors that showcase their brands.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced this through his Facebook live video saying Facebook Shops will come handy right now as many small businesses are closing physical stores and struggling to move their businesses online to deal with the economic fallout resulted from the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Our goal is to make shopping seamless and empower anyone from a small business owner to a global brand to use our apps to connect with customers,” Zuckerberg said in the live video.

When you set up your shop, it will appear on your Facebook and Instagram accounts, and will soon show up on Messenger and WhatsApp. People can find Shops on a business’ Facebook Page or Instagram profile, or discover them through stories and ads. If you visit someone’s shop, you’ll be able to see their businesses’ stories, their featured products, after which you can buy from them directly on Facebook. Just like when you’re in a physical store and need to ask someone for help, in Facebook Shops you’ll be able to message a business through WhatsApp, Messenger or Instagram Direct to ask questions, get support, track deliveries and more. Tech company says users will soon be able to view the Shops and make purchases right within a chat in their owned-messaging apps; WhatsApp, Messenger, or Instagram Direct.

The company is building a bunch of features across all their apps to help people discover things from the online stores that they might want to buy.

“We’re building a dedicated shopping tab on Instagram and a destination inside Explore, where you can find and buy products you might be interested in. Soon, we’ll also be launching new Live shopping features across Facebook and Instagram, which will allow you to shop on Live in real-time” said Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.

Mark said in the near future, Shops will use artificial intelligence and augmented reality tech to create better shopping experiences. The Shops will automatically identify and tag products in feeds so people can easily click-through to purchase when they find things they like. Small businesses will also be able to personalize their storefronts to first show products that are most relevant to them and use augmented reality to let customers virtually try on things like sunglasses, lipstick or makeup to see how they might look on them before purchasing, or how furniture might look like in their living rooms.

Facebook Shops are currently available in some locations and will be rolled out globally in the coming months.