Facebook adds shopping and services sections to Pages

Facebook has begun rolling out new sections for pages merchants design to promote their goods and services on the site. As more than 60 million businesses have a presence on Facebook, increasing incentive for you to buy from them is a priority, and these new sections could make that possible.

With the shop section, businesses can display products they’re selling on their page, which will enable customers to not only search for items, but to also make offers through Facebook Messenger. To start with, the feature will only be available to pages in Southeast Asia and other “high-growth and emerging markets,” such as Thailand, Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, India, Argentina, and Taiwan.

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The services section is available globally to professional services providers and will be rolled out to all Pages in “the coming weeks.”

These new sections are part of Facebook’s effort to convince businesses to maintain a presence on the social network. It’s also a clever ploy to showcase the potential of Facebook Messenger, the app the company has touted as the next step in how we interact with businesses.

While these Pages aren’t exactly showstopping, they are notable, particularly for business that may not have their own website. With a Facebook Page, they’re able to have real estate on the web in a place visited by more than 1 billion people daily, especially on mobile. Enabling merchants to show off their goods and services right on their business page can, at the least, lead to more conversions and interest.

Update, Aug. 3 9:40 a.m.: VentureBeat reader Clement Tang shared these screenshots with us of what the shopping experience was like within Facebook’s mobile app:

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@thekenyeung just saw your article on VB covering FB Shop Section, and here's a screenshot on the App. pic.twitter.com/vC47aNXsWS

— clementtang.eth｜GTG ⚔️? (@Clementtang) August 3, 2016