The introduction of Facebook Shops could be the end of e-commerce websites as we know them. On Tuesday, May 19, 2021, Facebook launched Shops. A new e-commerce feature aimed at helping small businesses create shops on Facebook and Instagram where they can upload their catalog. 

This will bring an Instagram shopping tab, shoppable live stream, and more. 

The shops will be powered by third-party services such as BigCommerce, woo-commerce, and Shopify. It is clearly Facebook is aiming to turn the social network into an all-in-one shopping destination. 

In a Facebook Live, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, “We are seeing a lot of small businesses that never had an online business get online for the first time. He also added,” if you can’t physically open your store or restaurant, you can still take orders online and ship them to people. 

This innovation has come at a perfect time where there is a surge in internet use with people looking for things to buy online while staying at home. 

What does this mean to e-commerce websites? 

It’s obvious that Facebook is eyeing big on e-commerce by bringing dawn to social shopping. The platform comes with features to enable a user to complete payments within Facebook without the need to leave the platform. 

Could this be the death of e-commerce websites? If people will be empowered to shop and engage with their friends within one place, what will happen to classified platforms and other e-commerce sites? The competition will take an entirely new heightened level. 

But here is the thing, while shops are free you’ll probably need to spend a few dollars to push your products to reach more buyers. In this case, you probably still need to list your product on other established buy and sell platforms. 

Reaching people on Facebook isn’t free anymore, you can prove that by observing the dwindling engagement in Facebook pages.

Facebook Shop has begun to roll out in the USA, expecting to reach other users sometime this summer.