Facebook Announces Free Virtual Storefronts on Platform

We all know that Facebook is the place to go if you want to get inundated with ads for creepily relevant products. Now, they’re stepping it up a notch and letting you shop right through their platform.

As an adaption to the e-commerce boom we’re going through right now, Facebook is allowing businesses to set up a full-fledged online store with all of their products. Customers can go to either the Facebook page or Instagram profile of their favorite stores and browse the entire catalog.

Although Facebook had its eye on e-commerce for a little bit, and dipped its toes in the water a smidge with Facebook marketplace and allowing limited product listings, they decided that now is the time to go all in. In a live stream, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg said of the quick adaptation that small businesses have had to make to doing business online, “for a lot of small businesses during this period, this is the difference between staying afloat an going under.”

It is completely free to create a storefront on Facebook, but a small fee is charged on each purchase. Facebook’s goal, however, is that the more people use Facebook as a way to drive direct revenue, the more ads they will buy. That’s where the money-making happens.

So far, almost 1 million businesses have set up a storefront on the platform.

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