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Facebook starts testing online stores

Hopefully, this version of the buy button campaign will be the one to hit the jackpot, because Facebook and shopping are truly a match made in heaven.

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To do this, the social network will help businesses transform their Facebook pages into e-commerce sites. Facebook pages have always been known to have potential as an avenue for lucrative product sales.

Another report on Business Today also confirmed that Facebook will be using its portal to host e-commerce websites.

“There was a lot of anticipation that Facebook would turn into a new destination, a store, a place where people would shop”, says Forrester Research analyst Sucharita Mulpur, via Bloomberg.

During its F8 conference earlier this year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that users will be able to chat with businesses and track packages within Messenger, and transfer money between friends. The advocacy it can generate from users gives brands additional credibility but so far, companies have struggled to drive direct revenue from their social activities.

Things have certainly moved on since 2011, with mobile at the fore, along with Facebook’s other features including peer-to-peer payments via the network and brand messaging, but it remains to be seen whether the F in F-commerce will once again stand for “Fail”. This is especially important for ad targeting.

“Facebook now has a few partners it is working with but is not opening up about who its launch partners would be.”>.

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An executive for the company, quoted by BuzzFeed news, explained that adding the shop feature to Facebook pages will bring the retail experience to users more directly, without requiring them to click through to an external site to complete a transaction.

Facebook's Popularity Is Preventing Its Success In E-Commerce But The Buy Button Won't Quit