By clicking on the new Buy Button Facebook users can now make acquisitions online without having to transfer from the social media network to an e-commerce site. The trial has begun in the U.S. where Mark Zuckerberg and Co. have added the button to the News Feed of posts and paid pages.
At the moment, the service is free for businesses but Facebook does not exclude that it could have a cost in the future for retailers who decide to implement the service or make it available for their clients. For users, it is necessary to upload personal payment data onto the Facebook account and then click on the Buy Button and the deal is done.
The service and the user experience were constructed on the basis that impulse buying works very well on the web. The tendency is to believe that online acquisitions are made more reasonably, and this other way of reasoning, similar to that of bumping into a shelf full of chocolates at the check-out counter, did not exist until now.
The Facebook Buy Button represents that shelf and uses the desire to buy an item that appears on our walls immediately, impulsively, and in a fast and simple way. The only problem is in trusting Facebook with personal card information.
Regarding this, the company has emphasized that strict rules have been created to protect privacy, adding that no data will be forwarded to businesses or other third parties.For some time now Facebook has been trying to break into e-commerce to diversify its own business.
Last year it had already attempted an experiment with money transactions by allowing money to be transferred through the “Donate Button”. And, even more recently, with the Auto-Fill With Facebook operation, an option that allows users to update their personal payment information onto the social network in order to make acquisitions any time a Facebook button appeared on retailer sites. The Buy Button goes beyond this
because, as was already noted, it is no longer necessary to leave the confines of the social media in order to make acquisitions.
The attempt to host money transactions within one’s own domain has already been made by Twitter. Even Pinterest has taken steps in this direction thanks to a partnership with Shopify. It is, in fact, a huge business opportunity, not just because Facebook could decide to make businesses pay for the service or to keep a part of the sum but because, in this way, social networks could easily enter into possession of a large quantity of data on the buying habits of their users. It is a tempting occasion for many web giants, Amazon included, who don’t want to miss out on the opportunity.
