As part of its eCommerce efforts, Facebook is bringing a new
range of tools for shopping and discovery on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
CEO of the social company, Mark Zuckerberg, acknowledged that
Shops on Facebook and Instagram get over 300 million visitors a month. Facebook
released its Shops feature just a year ago, and it has already become widely
used with over 1.2 million monthly active Shops.
The company is therefore expanding Shops by bringing it to
WhatsApp now. With the help of Shops on WhatsApp, businesses can exhibit their
shops within the app, hence providing a more convenient way for customers to
discover products of their interest and acquire relevant information related to
the brand.
Shops is likely to get more user engagement on WhatsApp, as
the messaging platform is the most widely used one all over the world. Facebook
is planning to create more business tools for the app, so as to broaden its
usage, especially in growing digital markets like India, that has more than 500
million WhatsApp users.
Moreover, Facebook is going to allow businesses to set up
their Shop only once and have it connected to all three platforms, WhatsApp,
Facebook, and Instagram.
Facebook is also adding Shop Listings to its Marketplace, hence
enabling businesses to connect with interested shoppers. Brands with existing
Shops wouldn’t have to do much to display their products on Marketplace.
According to Zuckerberg, new, personalized Shop ads will
also roll out soon. The ads will display products based on users’ individual
shopping preferences and past buying behaviors, and will direct them to a
Shop's curated collection.
Lastly, Instagram is getting a Visual Search tool featuring AI,
to help users with figuring out how to get a product that they like, by
scanning a real world item, or using an uploaded photo or video, and finding
similar product listings.
