Facebook Introduces ‘Shops’, A Major Move To Boost E-Commerce Using Social Media

Social media giant Facebook comes up with ‘Shops’ in a bid to help small businesses “adapt” to a new world battered by the global pandemic. The Silicon Valley-based tech company says “Facebook Shops make it easy for businesses to set up a single online store for customers to access on both Facebook and Instagram.”

As small and medium enterprises suffer the most during the lockdown, Facebook said its an attempt to help them in these trying times. “Right now many small businesses are struggling, and with stores closing, more are looking to bring their business online. 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,” said Facebook in an official statement.

In simple terms, Shops is an online store which businesses can set up on the Facebook platform and the customers will be able to contact the businesses using WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger.

“People can find Facebook Shops on a business’ Facebook Page or Instagram profile, or discover them through stories or ads. From there, you can browse the full collection, save products you’re interested in and place an order — either on the business’ website or without leaving the app if the business has enabled checkout in the US.,” said Facebook.

“We’re starting to roll out Facebook Shops today, and it will be more widely available in the coming months,” said the world’s largest social network.

Today we're introducing Facebook Shops, which will make it easy for businesses to set up a single online store on both @facebookapp and @instagram, and soon @messenger and @WhatsApp too pic.twitter.com/bBloRGBFzP

— Facebook (@Facebook) May 19, 2020

The company also said that starting this summer in the US, they are introducing Instagram Shop for customers to discover and buy products through Instagram Explore.

“We’re also working more closely with partners like Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, ChannelAdvisor, CedCommerce, Cafe24, Tienda Nube and Feedonomics to give small businesses the support they need,” added Facebook and said that these organizations offer powerful tools to help entrepreneurs start and run their businesses and move online.