Facebook is introducing new ways for online retailers to get their products discovered by more customers and increase sales.
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From its original goal of being a peak social media space, Facebook is quickly evolving into a discovery tool to find new products for customers.
Data suggests that 74% of
Facebook users use the platform and its sister apps to discover brands and/or products online.
With updates rolling out from Facebook down to Instagram and WhatsApp, some of the new features that will help retailers get their products noticed and placed in front of more customers for increased sales are highlighted below:
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Marketplace
Facebook Marketplace is fast becoming a force to reckon with in the
eCommerce world. More than one billion people already use Marketplace, each month.
But to emerge in many other market demographics, it will have to improve its user experience. This is why with Facebook’s additions, they are making it easy for businesses to reach more people via their shops into Marketplace.
With Facebook Shops setup, products are eligible to appear in the Shop tabs on Instagram and Facebook.
Businesses that are on the lookout for additional sales channels can get the same across demographics. In addition,
businesses in several countries can showcase their entire Shop, on WhatsApp.
For instance, right from the WhatsApp interface, users can browse a Shop’s inventory to get more information about products as they communicate with the seller about specific items before making a buying decision.
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Customer Reviews
Facebook will be aggregating their reach on WhatsApp and Instagram by using reviews and customer ratings to expand products in Shops on those platforms.
Reviews and ratings on merchant profiles will help guide people in making more informed decisions on what to buy. It will also serve as a form of feedback to let businesses know if they are meeting customer expectations.
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Personalized Shop Ads
Facebook Ads are only rivalled by Google’s Adsense wider reach. But quite an improvement is coming to serving Ads to users of Facebook.
Facebook announced that it will be launching a new model of personalizing the shopping experience through Ads that point customers toward a Shop’s curated collection. Shops on the Marketplace will be enabled to send shoppers to timelines where they will, most likely, be able to make a purchase based on prior shopping activity.
Another way that Facebook might be looking to help businesses is by providing special offers or promotions to select customers to further personalize their Ads.
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AR Try-On Feature
Augmented Reality (AR) is gradually increasing the possibilities of the marketplace. The magic of in-store shopping allows customers to experience products virtually before making a buying decision.
Facebook is approaching AR in the marketplace with the approach of developing new APIs that will make it easier, faster, and cost-effective for brands to bring AR content or advert into their catalogues.
The AR addition will also be automatically showing relevant products to Facebook users based on their interests.
This feature is still under testing and it will be available to more brands by year-end.
Featured Image Source: Search Engine Journal
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