Facebook introduces Marketplace to boost local buying and selling

Pretty soon there will be very little reasons for users to leave the Facebook ecosystem, Facebook is introducing Marketplace, which facilitates buying and selling between people.

The social media giant proclaims more than 450 million use its Buy and Sell Groups feature each month, most of which are small local businesses or international traders or collectors catering to a niche audience. 450 million is too big a number to ignore and thus cometh, Marketplace.

Buying and Selling on Facebook could rake in huge revenue for Facebook through advertisements once Marketplace takes off, which judging by the looks of the feature offered by Facebook, seem very likely.

Facebook users can stay in touch with their friends and family, know what's trending across the world, admire the lives of their celebrities, watch your favourite videos, read news and sports score updates, avail discounts and promotional offers from businesses AND now buy and sell just about anything they wish all within your favorite social media platform.

No wonder the social media giant's user numbers racked up to more than 1.7 billion, but there is still lots to achieve for the ambitious creator Mark Zuckerberg's equally ambitious website turned corporation, Facebook Inc.

After taking on fellow social media platforms such as Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and messaging platform WhatsApp, online video portal YouTube, by taking over or strategically replicating what they couldn't beat, Facebook has set its sights upon ecommerce (person-to-person was previously exclusive to sites such as eBay and Craigslist).

Facebook Inc. now owns Instagram and WhatsApp, whilst holding the upper hand against Snapchat, Twitter and YouTube. Anyway, you get the picture, so let's talk about Facebook Marketplace;

It has been developed to boost local buying and selling, where users can easily search for a desired product by category, price or location. Categories ranging from electronics to furniture to apparel, price as per your requirements and you can use the built in location tool to pinpoint your exact location.

Upon finding a product you are interested in, we move on from Discovery to Buying. Tapping upon the image of a product you wish to purchase, yields information about the product, the seller, and you can choose to make an offer or message the seller to negotiate or what have you. The product can also be saved for future references or purchases.

To prevent unscrupulous dealers from committing fraud or any sort of duping, Facebook has excluded the online payment part from Marketplace, which means both the interested parties will have to meet in person, verify the product and then complete the transaction.

Voila! Just stay on Facebook is all.

Also, if you wish to be the seller, you can do so by taking a picture of the item you wish to get rid of, enter the product description, picture and price, confirm your location, post it and then you wait.

You can choose to post the listing of your product directly onto Marketplace or a specific Buy and Sell Group at the same time. If you have multiple items listed for selling, you can keep track of it in the Your Items section.

Marketplace has been made available to Android and iPhone users in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, ONLY TO USERS ABOVE 18 YEARS OF AGE. It is a good move to prevent mischief which children as we all can agree, are capable of.

Other countries are a part of Facebook's eventual launch plans and so are Desktop users all over the world, and can expect Marketplace in the next few months.