First, they get us addicted to social media. Then, they start selling us stuff. Now, Facebook wants to launch its own version of a shopping channel.
QVC does some $9 billion dollars a year hawking product on TV, so you know there’s a market for it.
Full Disclosure: I work for WAAY-TV in Huntsville, AL and we run QVC on one of our digital channels in a partnership with the company. I can personally attest that people spend money there.
Facebook plans to go at it a little differently. Their idea is to be interactive and stay totally within the platform to make transactions happen. Instead of picking up the phone to call in or watching TV and going online, it’s a one stop shop (literally).
Businesses or individuals that want to sell something would hit the live button and use video to show off their product or service. They might do live demonstrations or give you a 360 look at it. If people are watching and see something they want, they grab a screen shot and send it to the seller via FB Messenger. The seller then collects the payments through Messenger.
Facebook has tested shopping concepts in Thailand in the past and they are doing the test of their live shopping platform there now to a small group of Page owners.
Is it Craigslist/E-Bay + YouTube? As they say, stay tuned.
Paul Dughi.com 