Shulou(Shulou.com)05/31 Report--

On Tuesday, Facebook announced its Facebook store, which will allow small businesses to set up a single online store that can be accessed from Instagram and Facebook.

Enterprises can choose the products they want and customize the look and feel of their online stores.

Consumers can find Facebook stores on the company's Facebook page or Instagram home page, or through stories or ads. They can browse the enterprise's collection and save the products they are interested in.

If the merchant has enabled checkout in the United States, customers can place an order without leaving the application, or they can place an order on the merchant's website if they wish.

Consumers can contact Facebook stores directly through WhatsApp, Messenger or Instagram to ask questions, get support and track deliveries.

Letting consumers send messages directly to small and medium-sized enterprises "is a way to increase participation, which is exactly what small and medium-sized enterprises need right now," said Mandile Mpofu, an editorial assistant at Clutch.

"consumers love this convenience, and it sounds like that's what Facebook stores offer," Mpofu said in an interview with the E-commerce Times. "my hunch is that consumers will be more engaged."

In a recent important survey, 34% of small and medium-sized enterprises measured the success of their social media activities by their participation.

Rebecca Weightman, head of Valoir, said Facebook stores "may make sense for companies that use Facebook and Instagram to connect with customers and have limited e-commerce business".

"Facebook didn't tell us how much the service charges," she told the E-commerce Times. "

Before Facebook announced the opening of its new store, the company released its "small Business status report" on Monday. The report lists the results of a survey conducted jointly by Facebook and the small Business Roundtable.

Although the future of small and medium-sized enterprises looks bleak, the report believes that the Internet may help:

The Facebook store opened on Tuesday.

"Facebook is making very slow progress in three key areas: payment, business and identity," said Wang Lei, chief analyst at constellation research. "

"they hope that their Libra project can be used as the basis for achieving this goal, but this goal has not been achieved because of regulatory approval," he said in an interview with the E-commerce Times. "

"when you have 1.5 billion users, all you do is make money from advertisements that have no commercial value, and you are at a disadvantage," Wang said. Amazon's commercial profits and advertising business have generated 10 billion dollars in advertising revenue. "

Facebook is working with partners such as Shopify, Bigcommerce, WooCommerce, ChannelAdvisor, CedCommerce, Cafe24, Tienda Nobusuke and Feedonomics to help small businesses build and develop their own Facebook stores and use other business tools.

However, Mark Lewis, chief executive of Netflix, warned that if Facebook tried to build its own e-commerce platform, it would alienate platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce or Magento.

Alibaba has taken advantage of some existing integration with partners, so it is "more like a direct revenue channel than an independent platform," he told the E-commerce Times. "now they just want to get as much business as possible on their platform, because this is the greatest potential of advertising sales."

Valoir's Wettemann commented that this could cost small and medium-sized enterprises, which are also sold on Google and Amazon, because "Facebook has a history of preventing its own technology from working well with others."

She points out that this may lead to technical problems that are difficult to solve.

Like Google, Facebook's advertising revenue is likely to fall, as both rely on small businesses to buy ads.

Netalico's Lewis says Facebook stores may be trying to fix the problem. Some of the content they announced is already available, such as launching products and paying on Facebook / Instagram. Once merchants have set up their own catalogs on Facebook, it's easy to advertise them on Facebook and Instagram. "

Facebook promises to protect the privacy of consumers who shop through Facebook stores.

However, Mr Willo's Mr Wittman says the company's motives are questionable.

"Let's face it, Facebook didn't do this because it's a charity," she said. "although there is some consumption.

People and small and medium-sized enterprises still believe that Facebook can process their data, but because of the current crisis, Facebook's short-term "help" to small and medium-sized enterprises is to collect more data and make more money. "given Facebook's record of data and responsibility, I am cautious."

In the future, consumers will be able to view merchants' stores and make purchases in WhatsApp, Messenger or Instagram Direct chats.

Mr Lewis predicts that social shopping in instant messaging apps "could be huge, just like Wechat in China".

This summer, Facebook will launch Instagram Shop, which allows consumers to find and buy products in Instagram Explore. It will add a new shopping tag to the navigation bar so that consumers can more easily access the Instagram store.

Facebook has begun testing a feature on Facebook and Instagram that allows sellers, brands and creators to mark products on Facebook stores or catalogs before launching. These products will appear at the bottom of the video, and consumers can click to learn more and buy.

The company is testing ways to link Facebook accounts to consumer loyalty programs. It is also exploring ways to help small and medium-sized businesses create, manage, and launch loyalty programs on Facebook stores.

"it's because Facebook connects dots more effectively and intentionally," said Liz Miller, chief analyst at Constellation Research (Constellation Research).

The "e-commerce experience" business that could be built before has gone bankrupt, she said in an interview with the E-commerce Times.

Facebook stores "promote sellers from stalls in the bazaar to stores in the mall," Mr. Miller said. "here, consumers are already contacting, participating and communicating with each other."

Richard Adhikari has been a reporter for ECT News since 2008. His research areas include network security, mobile technology, CRM, databases, software development, mainframe and mid-range computing, and application development. He has written and edited many publications, including Information Weekly and computer World.

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