go-Digital Blog on Digital Marketing

Facebook is rolling out a new way to sell things. 

It’s letting certain stores sell their products directly through the social network via a “buy” button on their Pages, BuzzFeed’s Alex Katrowitz reports. 

Although Facebook’s just testing its so-called “shop section,” the move makes sense, given its recent introduction of peer-to-peer payments capabilities, new ways to let stores communicate with people via messages, and its increasing dedication to keeping people within the Facebook ecosystem as much as possible. 

This isn’t the first time Facebook has taken a stab at ecommerce. 

Back in 2011, Facebook allowed a bunch of different brands like Gamestop, Gap, JC Penney, and Nordstrom to open stores on the site.

They all closed within a year. 

At the time, several merchants said that they decided to close their shops because consumers preferred shopping on their regular sites, so there wasn’t a big enough return on investment. 

Of course, ecommerce has swelled hugely since then and its become much more normalized for people to buy things on their phones. Google, Pinterest, and Twitter now all have their own buy buttons too.

Facebook told BuzzFeed it won’t take a cut of sales. 

Don’t expect to see a bunch of buy buttons cropping up right away.

“We are planning to expand the test in coming weeks to include more businesses, but it will remain very small for now,” a spokesperson told Business Insider. 

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