WASHINGTON — (CNN) Facebook has been testing all kinds of ways to get people to buy stuff on its platform, and it added yet another coal to the fire on Monday.
The company’s latest strategy involves transforming News Feed ads into a virtual store window for advertisers, as well as creating a dedicated “Shopping” News Feed.
Here’s how Facebook described the first feature, announced Monday: “After clicking on an ad, people will see a fast-loading, full-screen experience where they can browse through a variety of products, before going to the retailer’s website to purchase.”
Because final payments aren’t made on Facebook, the company isn’t competing directly with advertisers’ existing e-commerce platforms.
The new function is also aimed more at brands with bigger marketing budgets.
Earlier this summer, Facebook introduced a way for smaller businesses to promote and sell their merchandise directly to users.
That plan involves giving Facebook Page owners the ability to catalog their products online, and process payments directly through Facebook.
As for the new “Shopping” News Feed, think of it as an aggregation of these small business pages.
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