Facebook is expanding its push into e-commerce with new ways for shopping across its apps. Businesses in select countries will be able to showcase their shops in WhatsApp, and in the US, the Shops format will be available on Facebook's Marketplace. The company said it already gets over 300 million monthly Shops visitors and over 1.2 million monthly active Shops on its other apps.
The Shop concept was first launched last year on Facebook to take advantage of more people shopping from home during the pandemic. Facebook said it expects the trend of spending less time in stores to continue even after the coronavirus crisis, and almost three-quarters of its users say they already get shopping ideas from Facebook, Instagram, Messenger or WhatsApp.
The Shops platform will remain free for businesses to try until June 2022.
Facebook is also expanding features, such as adding more reviews, ratings and user photos within shops. Businesses will also get new ways to advertise their shops with unique ads based on people’s shopping preferences and soon can add personalised promotions based on that data.
In addition, Facebook is exploring new tools like AI and AR to enhance the shopping experience. On Instagram, later this year users will be able to click on a photo and be shown similar products for sale, using the AI-powered Visual Search. This will later be extended to their own photos as well. New API integrations with Modiface and Perfect Corp will make it possible to 'try on' clothes and other items in shops using the augmented reality apps.
