Facebook announces developments to improve shopping

Facebook has announced new ways to shop across owned apps, along with solutions for businesses to personalize shopping with ads, and investments in technologies that will shape the shopping experiences going ahead.

The accelerated launch of Shops on Facebook platforms would be further supported with these new developments for shopping, and product advertising.

Expanding Shops

Businesses in select countries would soon have the option to showcase their Shop in WhatsApp. In the US, Facebook will enable businesses to bring Shops products into Marketplace.

Over the next few months, Facebook will also expand ratings and reviews to products in Shops on Instagram. Users will see photos and videos from the community too. These changes are designed to allow users to make more informed decisions on what to buy, and let businesses know if they are meeting customer expectations.

Also Read: Facebook advances shopping features through AI

Personalized Shopping Ads

The platform is introducing Shops ads solutions that provide ad experiences based on people’s shopping preferences. For example, Facebook is testing the ability for businesses to send shoppers to where they are most likely to make a purchase based on their shopping behavior, such as curated products that users might be interested in from a Shop or a business’ website. In the future, Facebook will explore ways to help brands further personalize their Shops ads by providing special offers or promotions to select shoppers.

This builds on existing tools for businesses that help them find the right audience like Shopping Custom Audiences and ads with product tags, which enable businesses to send people to their Shop directly from an ad.

New Technologies

Facebook is investing in immersive technologies like augmented reality and artificial intelligence, with new visual discovery tools on Instagram, users would find new products, and with AR experiences users can visualize items before they buy.

This year Facebook will start testing a new visual search powered by AI. Visual search helps people find similar products – like floral print dresses – by tapping on an image of a dress they like. In the future, Facebook would make it possible for people to take photos from their cameras to start a visual search. While it’s still early, we think visual search will enhance mobile shopping by making even more pieces of media on Instagram shoppable.