This Tuesday, Facebook has announced a new feature that will help its users to buy and sell things on the site. Facebook is making it a little easier for its members to sell things on its social network. If you are not aware, Facebook has a feature called For Sale Groups that is for buying and selling certain types of items. For Sale Group members can select the Sell feature when creating a post and can give a description about the product selling and can include delivery or pick-up location and quote a price for the product and even upload a photo of the product.
The new feature adds an option to the “post” button inside the groups that allows users to share items directly via a ‘sell’ button. Sellers can also mark posts as ‘Available’ or ‘Sold’ and easily view their catalog of items previously sold. Facebook’s For Sale groups get new Craigslist-like buying and selling tools. The newly added “Sell” feature will help to fill out the necessary information in a more structured manner than before. This will definitely lessen the work of the group admins. The group members will also be benefited as they will no longer need to ping the owner for minute descriptions.
The drawback of the older structure is the requests for the information. The old post may jump up to the Group page or the post you want to see may get lost. So it’s quite irritating for the members who want to purchase items because it lacks basic information.
Ann Chen, an admin for one local group of 1000 members in a San Francisco Bay Area said people prefer it to Craigslist because Facebook profiles provide a sense of security, rather than an anonymous online post. She said, “It’s attached to your name and it feels like these are real people. These are people in your community. It’s not just about selling things. You can ask about kids’ classes or for a good handy man.”
This feature is a very good alternative to Craigslist and can bang the small business that doesn’t have so much online facilities. It is heard that Facebook is not actually facilitating the payment, it is just providing a platform through which people can interact about their items So, E-commerce can now interlock with Facebook’s payments plans. This new feature will definitely draw a larger mass on its mobile app all the time and will help it to get most of the advertising revenues.
Facebook says the “sell” feature will roll out on iOS, Android, and online in the coming months. Group Admins who would like to participate can apply for early access.
Facebook assures it will continue adding more new features that will enhance these For Sale Groups in the months ahead that will help members to business with each other, browse and search for products more easily.
Source: Facebook Newsroom
