Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced plans to integrate new eCommerce features and new shopping discovery tools on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. These are updates on Facebook Marketplace, Shops on WhatsApp, Instagram Visual Search, and Shop Ads.
In line with his company’s growing eCommerce focus, these innovations were initiated and integrated into its popular social networking and messaging applications to support small and big businesses and make online shopping easier than ever.
Here is what to expect on Facebook’s next stage eCommerce push.
Instagram Visual Search
Everyone using Pinterest is familiar with this tool. With the Visual Search, you can find the products you see on videos or photographs using what’s basically Pinterest Lens and Google Lens visual search tool.
With this new offering, business owners will highly benefit from this as it will show similar products to what potential customers search. Simply put, recommendations.
What’s more, you can scan real-world items with the Visual Search. Meaning, whatever piques your interest, you can just simply pull out your smartphone, scan or take a photograph of the item and Instagram will do the rest for you. In this way, you will not spend countless hours on shopping websites figuring out its name.
As Mark Zuckerberg highlighted, shopping discoveries begin with visual discoveries, and that is what Visual Search promises.
Shops on Marketplace
With more than a billion Facebook users utilizing Marketplace each month, people are likely to use an online application with multiple functionalities where they can share their thoughts, events in their lives, and do online shopping at the same time. With this great potential, Facebook is bringing Shop listings to Marketplace for easier setup of online shops to reach even more people.
This additional feature added on Facebook Marketplace will enable business owners to connect with interested shoppers. As a result, Facebook will provide more ways to encourage browsing and buying activity of interested shoppers online.
What’s even more convenient is that Shops won’t have to go the extra mile to have their products listed on Marketplace and in related searches. As Facebook is still testing its advanced functions, this new update will be an opportunity for businesses to widen their scope of potential customers.
At the moment, Shops’ inventory in Marketplace is only available in the U.S. for businesses with on-site checkouts.
Shops on WhatsApp
Mark Zuckerberg made the biggest announcement during his recent livestream to integrate businesses on its popular messaging app — the Shops on WhatsApp!
With this update, businesses can present their entire shop within the messaging app soon. Interested shoppers can view businesses on Shops on WhatsApp where they can also chat with them before buying something. This will give users a broad range of options to find relevant products and easier ways to connect with businesses to ask for more information about the product.
What’s even greater, business owners will only need to set up their Shops once to have it work across all platforms: Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
Shop Ads
Zuckerberg also announced Facebook’s Shop Ads. This function will display items based on people’s shopping behaviors and preferences.
Shop Ads will let customers have personalized experience that will put them to Shop’s curated collection. This will entirely be based on their past shopping behaviors, as well as history.
Facebook’s eCommerce push will definitely change the buying behaviors of customers online. As more people are becoming accustomed to purchasing products online, this will surely transform the way people use Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. This, of course, will be good not only for social media users, but also for consumers who are developing a new kind of buying habit.
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