Facebook Marketplace brings online shopping in-house
Facebook has officially launched its buying and selling platform Marketplace in Australia, New Zealand, the US and UK.
Everyone over 18 years old in these countries will be able to access Marketplace on the Facebook app for iPhone and Android in the next few days. Users can then tap on the shop icon at the bottom of the app to browse items for sale and post items to sell themselves.
This feature brings in-house an activity that was already occurring on Facebook through community-based buy, sell and swap groups. According to the social media giant, over 450 million people visit such groups each month, from families in local neighbourhoods to collectors around the world.
“In recent years we have seen more people using Facebook to buy and sell with each other, so we’re launching Marketplace, a convenient destination on Facebook that makes it easy and sell with people in their local community,” said a Facebook spokesperson.
Marketplace opens with photos of items listed for sale in your vicinity. Users can search at the top and filter results by location or price in categories including household, electronics and apparel.
To make a purchase, users send a direct message to the seller through the app to hammer out transaction details. Facebook doesn’t facilitate payment or delivery of items posted on Marketplace.
Facebook said it will continue expanding to additional countries and make Marketplace available on the desktop version of the social media site in coming months.
A version of this story first appeared on our sister site, Inside Retail Australia.
Comment Manually
You must be logged in to post a comment.
No comments