Facebook Shops
Emailed on May 22nd 2020 in The Friday Forward
Facebook is making a major new push into e-commerce. The company this week announced the launch of Shops, a way for businesses to set up free storefronts on Facebook and Instagram.
The shops, which will be powered by third-party services, including Shopify, BigCommerce, and Woo, are designed to turn the social network into a top-tier shopping destination.
Businesses can handle customer support issues through Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Eventually, the company plans to let you browse store catalogs and make purchases directly from the chat window. It also plans to enable shopping from live streams, allowing brands and creators to tag items from their Facebook catalogs so that they appear on the bottom of live videos.
Here's a prediction: "Buy with Facebook" will become a de facto payment option across all non-Amazon eCommerce stores, similar to how "Login with Facebook" is a de facto authentication to many SaaS applications.