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Introducing Facebook Shops

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Re: Introducing Facebook Shops

#111

Post by machbio »

jameslk wrote: post #45
jameslevy wrote: post #2

"We’re also working more closely with partners like Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce..." Is Facebook Shops not a direct competitor to Shopify? Or is this just "embrace, extend, and extinguish"?

For a lot of stores, Shopify is just an API for your store. There's a big trend in ecommerce of going "headless" and using Shopify's API to push your products out to many channels. In that sense, Shopify is merely a special database (similar to Salesforce) to track your customers, orders, products, inventory, discounts, etc which is then pushed out to channels like Facebook Shop or Amazon.

Yes, its interesting shopify have a product called Lite (https://www.shopify.com/lite) which does not have any UI

Re: Introducing Facebook Shops

#113

Post by richardbrevig »

koolba wrote: post #72

This is long overdue. I bet they’re working on a PayPal competitor and eventually their own in-house data driven credit system. If you think you were being tracked across every mouse hover and scroll now, imagine what it’ll look like when there’s this much on the line.

> I bet they're working on a PayPal competitor...

They've allowed money transfer through Messenger for sometime now. The UX is probably the best I've had. I prefer sending money that way because it's through the debit card (easy set up), free, and instant.

Re: Introducing Facebook Shops

#114

Post by [deleted] »

buboard wrote: post #93

Hm, unlike classifieds, shopping is not a social activity, in fact most ppl would not like their friends to know what they re purchasing. And the shops would need to either duplicate inventory or lock it in facebook. They 've tried this before, and failed https://mashable.com/2012/02/21/facebook-brands-closing-stor... I don't think it will be better this time

[deleted]

Re: Introducing Facebook Shops

#115

Post by treebornfrog »

This is a very smart move. Zuck proving he's the best allocator of capital in the consumer Internet space once again.

Im not in the HN bubble so much, I did delete for a few years.

Recently installed it to get on a few silver bullion trading groups as there is a shortage and boy are those groups super valuable for buying and selling.

Re: Introducing Facebook Shops

#116

Post by ngokevin »

scarface74 wrote: post #30
A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #14

I dislike Facebook, but this is a really smart way to grab a market share. Most businesses need minimal online presence so FB front is sufficient. I won't see those businesses, but I know I am a minority, when it comes to this.

Random non rant: Thank you for being self aware enough to know that you are in the minority when it comes to not having Facebook. Most posts by people who don’t use FB and post to HN feign ignorance and say something like “I haven’t used FB in 10 years. Does anyone still use it?”

People in tech love to brag about not having / using FB :)

Re: Introducing Facebook Shops

#117

Post by saadalem »

Small businesses operated either individually or by less than 10 people. A bunch of customers buy products/services from these businesses. So they need a better way to:

Engage with their customers

Sell and manage product/service deliveries

Target specific customer audience

Show products/services availability

Whatsapp could be the right solution not facebook apps.

Also a combination of Yelp and Facebook/Whatsapp could lead replacing small business websites(I'm not telling that no smb website should exist) that going to make a fortune. The platform needs to accomplish these three things :

The ability to list core info like contact details, hours of operation, and service offerings in a minimalist fashion.

The ability to solicit feedback (not ratings) from customers in a low-friction, high-upside way.

An ad system that let's a 60 year-old luddite set up a campaign in less than 3 minutes without having to call anyone.

There's a lot to tell but I'll leave you with these thoughts.

Re: Introducing Facebook Shops

#119

Post by petre »

AnonC wrote: post #20

> Creating a Facebook Shop is free and simple. That’s just PR speak. The truth, as it will be realized soon (if not suspected already), is that this will not be free. It will take away the freedom of the businesses and hold them to ransom for Facebook’s own benefit. Neither will it be simple to move out when the realization hits. It’s a trap, IMNSHO!

Of course it's free, you only have to agree to relinpquish your soul by clicking this button.

Re: Introducing Facebook Shops

#120

Post by chillacy »

AnonC wrote: post #20

> Creating a Facebook Shop is free and simple. That’s just PR speak. The truth, as it will be realized soon (if not suspected already), is that this will not be free. It will take away the freedom of the businesses and hold them to ransom for Facebook’s own benefit. Neither will it be simple to move out when the realization hits. It’s a trap, IMNSHO!

Game theory would suggest that even if all individual business participants know this, they will still opt to sign up anyways because they're making locally optimum decisions.

The paradox of advertising is well known as well, yet ad spend continues to go up.

Unfortunately there aren't many solutions to the dilemma, there's always the illusion of choice but the reality ends up being coercive nonetheless.

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