Happy Shopping : Facebook to launch a ‘Buy’ button
Facebook has a user base sprawling over 1.28 billion, which is 18 percent of the world’s population and by far the maximum user base any social media network can boast of and there is a popular saying about the internet, that when you have users you can achieve almost any feat. If gaining this large user base was difficult, maintaining it was even difficult because once people get used to something, they get bored after a while and then when you don’t innovate, you yourself are to be blamed for the debacle.
We share news, sports updates, fashion tips, food recipes, fitness expertise and what now. The only thing missing from Facebook was the ability to buy directly from Facebook and they are going to add this feature soon.
Introducing Facebook Buy feature
You don’t get extra points for answering the question as to what does Facebook’s Buy button will accomplish, of course it will enable the users to buy directly from Facebook and brands will get an option to sell their products instead of just advertising on their Facebook page, the overall proximity of a sale increases when the users do not have to move from Facebook to another website. For the first decade, Facebook focused mainly on advertising and earned big bucks through that channel and broke all the barriers in advertising. But again, that was an indirect solution from the Palo Alto giant and they are now ready to hit the bull’s eye with the ‘Buy’ button coming soon.
Will Facebook’s ‘Buy’ feature succeed?
With the buy feature coming soon, there is a huge pressure on Facebook to make it right as last time Facebook tried something close to this, they failed remarkably. Remember Facebook Credits? The very first attempt at virtual currency when FarmVille was at all time high. It came and gone within a short span but it was never the centre of the E-commerce scene but now Facebook is ready to take the flight to E-commerce.
Facebook might just change the way we buy things and it was destined to be one of the biggest shopping platforms in the world. Once Facebook starts the ‘Buy’ button, all Facebook pages will turn into an E-commerce store. How cool?
What is ‘Social Selling’?
What we see Facebook as will be a whole lot different, a year from now all thanks to the “Buy” button. The users will be able to buy any item instantly instead of watching the ads on Facebook and directed to another e-commerce store from there adding the item to the cart and going through the tiring process of the entire transaction.
What does this mean for Social Media Managers? It means that they will now have to focus on Sales too and not just getting the likes and shares on their posts and they might become a salesmen. They will always be driven by data and feel empowered when they will have a direct impact on the sale of a product.
Social Shopping is still in its early days and if everything goes as per planned we might never need to go to physical store and go through the hassle of waiting in lines at the delivery counter to get your bills paid. Till then, we can wait for Facebook to weave some magic with the help of this “Buy” button.
Dhruvil is a Writer & Marketeer for Nimblechapps, joining December 2014, based out of Sydney, Australia. He has worked briefly as a Branding and Digital Marketing Manager before moving to Australia. At Nimblechapps, he worked on Social Media Marketing, Branding, Email Marketing and Blogging. Dhruvil studies Business at University of Western Sydney, and also handles Operations for the company in Australia.