Facebook is adding shopping to your mobile app

By Allison Matyus August 25, 2020

You can now shop for items directly within Facebook’s app through a new shopping tab that rolled out Tuesday called Facebook Shop.

Facebook Shop is where customers can discover businesses and products within the app. You can find the new feature in the main menu in Facebook’s app.

Facebook Shop lets customers discover new Facebook Shops or specific items they are looking for. It works in tandem with Facebook Shops, which rolled out in May as a tool that lets small business owners set up an online storefront for free.

Facebook

The Shops look and feel like a Facebook page where business owners can easily list their items. Customers can make a purchase directly through Facebook Shops.

Part of Tuesday’s new Shop tab includes the ability for customers to participate in live shopping (where customers can shop products during a Facebook Live) and loyalty programs for shops that customers frequent the most.

“We want to make shopping easier for people and empower anyone, from an entrepreneur to the largest brand, to use our apps to connect with customers and grow their business,” Facebook announced on Tuesday. “That’s why we’re creating new ways for people to shop on our apps and providing tools to help businesses sell online.”

In March, the company announced an investment of $100 million toward small businesses to help them through the financial struggles of the coronavirus pandemic. Facebook said it would give financial support to 30,000 small businesses in 30 countries in the form of cash grants and free ad credits.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Allison Matyus is a general news reporter at Digital Trends. She covers any and all tech news, including issues around social…

Social Media

Reels are about to show up in yet another Facebook feature

A smartphone with the Facebook app icon on it all on a white marble background.

As its answer to TikTok, Reels is clearly a particularly important priority for Meta. Which is why a number of its platforms' recent feature updates often involve Reels. And today's announcement was not exempt from Meta's push to make Reels just as competitive as TikTok.

On Thursday, Meta announced that it would be bringing Reels to Facebook Groups, mentioning it as one of three new ways for users to "to connect over shared interests." Facebook group members and admins will be able to add "audio, text overlay and filters on top of their videos before sharing to bring their stories to life."

News

PayPal’s new Rewards feature adds Honey shopping discounts

PayPal

PayPal acquired rewards platform Honey several years ago and this week it announced it's folding Honey's features and services into its own platform as part of the new "PayPal Rewards" offering.

Honey is a popular browser extension that trawls the web in search of deals, coupons, and promotional codes. It means that from this week, all earned points, gift cards, and PayPal shopping credits acquired in Honey will now be viewable in a new Rewards section in the main PayPal app, making it easier for users to manage their related finances while also taking advantage of new ways to earn points.

Social Media

What is a Facebook Pixel? Meta’s tracking tool, explained

Meta, formerly Facebook.

If you have a website for your business and you're wondering how well your ads are reaching prospective customers, you'll probably want to be able to measure that to make sure that the money you've spent on advertising for your business is money well spent. Meta (the parent company of social media platforms Facebook and Instagram) offers a tool that can measure that by capturing how your customers interact with your business' website.

At one point, this tool was known as a Facebook Pixel. But since the technology company's recent rebranding to Meta, the tool also underwent a name change and is now known as the Meta Pixel.