WhatsApp To Become A Shopping Platform In Future

Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg has announced that the shopping functions of the social network will be more extensively interlinked with the WhatsApp and Instagram platforms in the future. In this way, the company’s own marketplace, dealers, and customer support are to be strengthened.

While Facebook and the messaging subsidiary WhatsApp are criticized in this country due to changed general terms and conditions, the first goal is now to be found in the more in-depth transfer of personal data between the two platforms. Zuckerberg personally announced four new eCommerce functions that will “make shopping” easier in the near future. We are talking about Shops on Marketplace, Shops on WhatsApp, Instagram Visual Search, and Shop Ads.

Shopping on Facebook and WhatsApp getting easier

As can be seen from the simple names of the new services, with the help of Shops on Marketplace it is made easier for retailers to set up their own online shop directly on Facebook. With Shops on WhatsApp, communication, advice, and possibly also recruiting of customers should take place in the same breath via the messenger. The Instagram Visual Search, on the other hand, makes it possible to find products in (presumably) Facebook shops that influencers put on photos or online retailers present before the sale.

Finally, Shop Ads on Facebook and WhatsApp use the personal data of their users to adapt advertisements – that is, advertising – to the needs of the users and to “improve the shopping experience”. We are also talking about curated collections from unspecified retailers. Shop Ads will be one of the first features Facebook will introduce in Europe, according to Cnet. Marketplace shops, on the other hand, are only to start in the USA for the time being, while the WhatsApp shops have been announced for “different countries”. Further details, including the rollout of the Instagram search, are not yet known.