The new feature allows businesses to transition more smoothly to the growing mobile commerce space by allowing consumers to do research and discovery on Facebook’s platform before ultimately converting on the retailer’s site.
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“For people, the mobile shopping experience is often hard to navigate”, Facebook wrote in Monday’s announcement.
But click on any one of those product images and you’ll be redirected to a different website, which can take a long time to load and may not be optimized properly for your phone. After clicking on an ad, people will see a fast-loading, full-screen experience where they can browse through a variety of products, before going to the retailer’s website to purchase.
StreetInsider.com has reported Facebook (FB) announced new shopping and ad features for mobile. “This is bad for people and bad for marketers”.
Unlike the product ads you probably ignore on your News Feed, this is a dedicated tab on Facebook – like “Groups” or ‘Photos, ‘ meant just for shopping.
Could this be the flawless combination of social media and e-commerce? The ads, unveiled at Cannes in June and now called Canvas, are an effort to jazz up the mobile ad-viewing experience.
An additional feature that has been live since September is Canvas advertising, which allows users to click an ad and view product information like sizing or color options in a new window which is still contained within Facebook, meaning you’ll never lose your place while scrolling aimlessly through your feed if you decide to check out a product.
At an event last week at its Silicon Valley headquarters, Facebook highlighted its success at helping 45 million businesses launch digital storefronts with Pages on Facebook’s app and site.
That plan involves giving Facebook Page owners the ability to catalog their products online, and process payments directly through Facebook.
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“We’re testing with a limited set of small businesses in the USA who are also testing the Shop section on Pages”, the company said. Facebook said it is looking into including other content within the shopping feed, including items listed for sale within Facebook Groups.
