The day may soon arrive when consumers will be able to by the goods they see advertised on Facebook, all without ever having to leave the site. The company is testing a “buy” button that will allow customers to purchase items placed in the news feed or ads on the site with a click or two.
Small and midsize companies in the U.S. using the service will not be charged to do so, though, according to TechCrunch, Facebook has not disqualified the future possibility of so doing.
Purchases can be made by re-entering credit card information each time or using data saved with Facebook upon checkout. Facebook has also affirmed that users’ payment data will not be passed on to advertisers.
This is not Facebook’s first flirtation with eCommerce. Last year it enabled on-site payments to charities with its Donate Button and also attempted a Pinterest-style Collections feature with a buy button. Most recently, it’s been testing an “Auto-Fill With Facebook” which enters your payment details when you’re using a third-party ecommerce app to make a purchase.
If Facebook can get people buying by taking down the time and complexity of purchasing by keeping users in the walled-garden of Facebook for the entirety of an purchase, that will likely that something many merchants will want access to.
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