Facebook adds dedicated shopping section in e-commerce push

Facebook Shop, which begins rolling out across the US on Aug 25, lets people browse product catalogues from businesses and purchase items on the social network. — AFP

Facebook Inc is adding a new shopping section to its main app, part of a broader push to capitalise on the increase in online shopping in the midst of the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak.

The new section, Facebook Shop, begins rolling out across the US on Tuesday. It lets people browse product catalogues from businesses and purchase items on the social network. The company was previously testing the section with a small group of US users, and launched a similar feature on its Instagram photo-sharing app last month. Businesses could already add shopping catalogues to their Facebook pages, but there was no dedicated section inside the Facebook app for browsing e-commerce selections from multiple retailers or merchants.