Facebook's influence seems to be getting bigger by the day. The reach of the company is now becoming all-encompassing, and it looks like users will soon be able to make purchases from their own social network feed. Apparently Facebook is testing a "buy" button with a small amount of small and medium-sized U.S. businesses. This new addition to the blue and white site could be a game-changer for users that spend a lot of time updating their status and reading about the news of the day.
The idea could seamlessly integrate the "buy" button allowing the masses to quickly purchase items that they see advertised on Facebook. The king of the social media world is looking to expand its reach among the site's loyal followers that numbers over a billion. Facebook has said the feature was built with safety and privacy in mind and will not be sharing any credit or debit card information if the "buy" button takes off.
"We’ve built this feature with privacy in mind, and have taken steps to help make the payment experience safe and secure. None of the credit or debit card information people share with Facebook when completing a transaction will be shared with other advertisers, and people can select whether or not they’d like to save payment information for future purchases," the company said in a statement.
It seems like a natural progression for the website allowing users to instantly purchase items without leaving the page. The new venture could assist Facebook in attracting new businesses to take a chance on the idea of buying things while casually using the page. The upside is tremendous and could add to the already robust advertising sales that the company already sees.
The one fallback is that members will most likely be a little nervous sharing their payment information on a site that shares pretty much everything. Despite the above claim, it may take a lot of good faith to make a purchase via Facebook.
The company's APT (application programming interface) would allow users to make payments through third-party apps, according to PC World. If the "buy" button takes off, it could open up new avenues for the company to diversify and become a major player in online retail sales.
How exactly the idea will monetize the button is unclear, but it looks like Facebook is ready to take on e-commerce giant Amazon. No word yet on just how soon this new feature will hit, but making goods available for users seems to be a natural progression for Facebook.
