Facebook introduced its e-commerce platform, Shops, to Instagram in July of last year after unveiling the service two months prior to help businesses sell their products online. Today, the social networking site announced that Shops will be coming to WhatsApp.
The upcoming integration will make it easier to purchase products via Shops in select countries. Meanwhile, in the U.S., Facebook will add Shops to Marketplace in order to help businesses sell their products to more than one billion monthly visitors worldwide.
It's one of the new updates Facebook unveiled today as part of its e-commerce push. The company also revealed that it will display product ratings and reviews on Shops in Instagram over the next few months, with additional details like photos and videos from the community coming soon as well.
Another update is the launch of Shops ads, intended to give people a personalized shopping experience based on their shopping behavior. The new experience will "send shoppers to where they are most likely to make a purchase" based on their shopping preference.
On Instagram, Facebook will test an AI-based capability called Visual Search over the coming months to help people upload their own photos in order to search for similar products. For example, users can tap on an image of a pair of denim jeans to find similar items.
For shoppers who prefer to shop for items virtually, Facebook is making it possible to virtually fit or try on a product before buying it, courtesy of a new augmented reality-based experience that's rolling out to Shops. The new feature is thanks to new API integrations with Modiface and Perfect Corp. Business will also be able to add AR product catalogs to their ads with new upcoming tools. Today's announcement highlights Facebook's growing focus on revamping the way people shop on its apps.
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