Over time Facebook has become an ultimate platform where people have not only connected with each other and shared moments of their life, but also conduct different day to day activities like selling services and products through Facebook pages, groups and messaging.
Up till now, more than 450 million people consistently buy and sell stuff through FB groups all over the world in a single month.
Keeping this trend in mind, Facebook is ready to extend its services by introducing a dedicated buy and sell app.
Introducing Facebook Marketplace
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To help people connect even more, Facebook has introduced ‘Marketplace’. A dedicated app that makes it convenient for people to buy and sell services, products and other things in their local community. Marketplace makes it easy to find things you want to buy or find a buyer that will be interested in what you have to sell.
Facebook will continue to develop this new platform to add consistent new services and features suitable to the areas it will be launched in.
Using Marketplace Through Your Facebook Application
The new application will be interconnected with the parent Facebook Application. In order to use the new marketplace, all you have to do is tap on the shop icon at the bottom of the Facebook application, just like you tap on messenger to open the messenger app.
Marketplace makes it easy for you to discover services and goods you are interested in buying or selling
Once you are on the marketplace application, you will instantly start seeing pictures of stuff people have listed near your location. To find something specific, all you need to do is enter a name in the search field or use the filters to target find stuff you need by location, price or category. You can also browse through a variety of premade categories like Electronics, Apparel, Appliances, Mobile phones and more.
When you have found the thing you are looking for, you can tap on the image and more details will be provided to you and you can instantly get in touch with the seller or buyer through Facebook messenger. You will also have the feature to save items for later.
Currently Facebook is not facilitating payment through the app. You will have to come in terms with the seller just like you come in terms with them through OLX.
Posting items for sale is also simple
To sell items or services on Marketplace, all you need to do is:
- Take a clear photo of the product from your phone camera or upload one from your gallery
- Enter the name of the product, its description and the price you want to sell at
- Enter your location and then select the category the product belongs in and then simply tap on ‘Post’.
Once listed, your product will be found by anyone interested in buying it.
Facebook Marketplace is currently available in 4 countries. Pakistan will have it soon
The Facebook Marketplace app will be launched in four countries in the next few days. These countries include the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand. Currently Facebook will implement the marketplace directly into the native Facebook application on iPhone and Android. The social media giant has expressed interest in expanding it later to other countries via standalone app.
What does it mean for OLX and Groups like Isloo Buy and Sell?
OLX is perhaps the most popular buy and sell platform in Pakistan. With Facebook Marketplace and millions of Pakistani users already used to Facebook, what will it mean for OLX and groups like Isloo buy and sell?
Facebook is yet to announce how they will handle the popular groups that are already daily used to purchase and sell services.
However for OLX, it will be an extremely tough situation because of the sheer popularity of Facebook in Pakistan.