Ottawa-based Shopify is helping Facebook launch a new way for users to shop on the ubiquitous social network.
Over the next couple of weeks, Shopify merchants will be able to showcase and sell their wares directly on Facebook. They’ll also be able to choose whether consumers are able to complete their purchase on Facebook or if they’re redirected to a storefront — either way, the shopper won’t taken away from Facebook’s website or mobile app.
Consumers, on the other hand, will have the option to save their payment information to Facebook to expedite future purchases.
The service is also different in a couple of key ways from the e-commerce experiences that have come to Facebook in the past. The first and most important difference is that this functionality works on Facebook’s mobile app. Moreover, Shop pages will appear as an integral part of a merchant’s Facebook page, not as a separate tab as was previously the case. Lastly, consumers are able to subscribe to a storefront so that they can get notifications anytime a merchant adds new items to their Facebook store.