Dive Brief:
- Facebook will soon begin testing out several new e-commerce features for retail marketers, according to a blog post from the social network.
- The new features include a dedicated shopping feed that would enable users to browse aggregated products from retailers.
- Another new feature is a new immersive advertising unit that allows retailers to showcase catalogs of their products inside Facebook, not sending users to a mobile site instead. The feature is an expansion of the existing "Canvas" ad experience.
Dive Insight:
Nearly 50% of Facebook users come to the site to look for products, according to research from the social network. To serve that audience and grow its e-commerce footprint, Facebook has now announced it will be testing several new products, including a dedicated shopping feed. The feed and other features are part of Facebook's move to win a sizable share of the online shopping experience, especially on mobile devices.
The catalog feature is a good example of how Facebook is trying to do that. While the new option does not yet have buy buttons to make the shopping experience more seamless, the feature will allow shoppers to browse retailers' catalogs within Facebook, instead of having to load the retailer's website in a mobile browser.
“Browsing and consideration on mobile is tough,” Emma Rodgers, Facebook’s product marketing lead for mobile app ads and commerce, told TechCrunch. “We’re looking to solve that piece of funnel.”
Both the shopping feed and catalog feature are in limited testing, so most users will not be experiencing them.
