Tough times may be ahead for online marketplace eBay, as Facebook is currently testing out a new news feed option that shows a unified view of items on sale across user groups. It also adds a search function so that Facebookers can look for goods across public groups. These new functions can be paired with Facebook’s “buy and sell” groups, which allow users to attach prices, locations, photos and descriptions to posts about items for sale.
By adding “all sales groups” as an option, Facebook’s next level commerce effort displays items available for purchase across all groups a user belongs to so as to create a unified clearing house for commerce. That clearing house is backed by a Facebook search engine that provides the ability to search for items across public groups and filter results based on a category. That search engine is not yet fully operational, according to The Next Web, but is expected to rollout in full over the next few weeks.
With the move, Facebook is directly encroaching on the turfs of sites like eBay and Craigslist – especially since Facebook, as of now, is offering their service without fees to sellers.
That lowered expense is apparently a notable feature, as according to TNW’s reviewer, the Facebook buying service is “much faster, cheaper and overall easier than going to eBay.” However, that speed is potentially balanced by security concerns, as the reviewer noted that using the site as both a buyer and a seller “feels decidedly more shady ” than selling on eBay.
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