Difficult times are coming for many businesses and all the help is little to try to give it a boost and revive it after the great first wave of the coronavirus. A good one is the one that Facebook now offers, which has just announced the launch of a new tool so you can create an online store on its platform in a matter of minutes.
Electronic commerce: the key during the pandemic
Our world has changed. Much. The COVID-19 pandemic, which has hit a large part of our planet, has caused an unprecedented break in our society and has put the brakes on all kinds of businesses, large and small. Many of them (especially the latter) are going to need to reinvent themselves and the key seems to be in an online service while people continue to practice staying home more often than before.
This was stated today by Mark Zuckerberg , CEO of Facebook, at an event (via streaming, of course), in which he assured that electronic commerce (e-commerce) will be tremendously important to rebuild the economy while the pandemic continues. So much so that the social network has begun to notice a significant growth in the presence of businesses that connect for the first time : “If you cannot physically open your store or restaurant, you can still accept orders online and send them to people.”
With that idea in mind he has launched Shops, a tool that allows users who have a business to open an online store within Facebook for the sale of products, in true Etsy style (whose income, by the way, has doubled in his last years).
Shops, Facebook’s online stores
The idea of the great firm of Zuckerberg is to attract especially small businesses that have not yet made the leap to digital and who do not know very well how to start. These stores will be able to have their space (free), customize it as they wish -their editing panel is the one you have under these lines-, buy advertising on Facebook to make themselves known on the social network and, of course, accept payments (which is why is an online store) of buyers interested in their products – although the option to act as a gateway for the transaction to take place on the store’s brand website will also be available.
For its part, Facebook will provide businesses with a better experience in the management of this type of platform, for example, by storing the payment credentials of users, so that they can then use them in other stores that are on Facebook or Instagram. . You can also save favorite items for later purchase.
When serving customers, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp will serve as communication channels so that the user can contact the company for any question or track their order. In the future, loyalty programs could also be integrated, so that buyers accumulate points and discounts.
This new store concept will also be extended to Instagram, owned by Facebook, where the store can be the profile of the business and proceed in a similar way. Currently in this social network it is already possible to see product and price information, but it is still a showcase that ultimately directs you to the brand’s online store to make the purchase. The idea is that this disappears and you can do everything from the social app.
Today, Shops will begin to be enabled in the US, on Facebook, to gradually expand into other markets. Instagram will not arrive for a few months.
