Facebook tests ‘buy button’

22 July 2014 Books+Publishing

Facebook has announced that it is testing a ‘buy button’ to allow users to purchase items directly from the newsfeed, said the company in a statement. The buy button is currently ‘limited to a few small and medium-sized businesses in the US’ during its testing phase. After it has been implemented, the function will allow businesses to list products, which users can then purchase by entering their debit or credit card details into the Facebook system. It is unclear what percentage of the sale Facebook will take. In its statement, Facebook reassured users that it will protect their privacy and said: ‘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.’ As previously reported by Books+Publishing, Twitter has also been experimenting with buy buttons.

Category: International news