Facebook takes another shot at e-commerce with Shops platform

get small businesses to sell directly from its platform. The feature, called Shops, will be rolling out to both Facebook and Instagram and allows pretty much anyone to set up their own web store using the two platforms and sell from them.

While the company has always been interested in e-commerce, Shops seems to be a direct reaction to the pandemic. “Right now many small businesses are struggling, and with stores closing, more are looking to bring their business online,” the company wrote in a blog post. The company already has the Marketplace product, which is more like classifieds for people to list products. With shops, users businesses can list entire catalogues and have users browse and buy products.

“The headroom for growth is ample here,” said Sanchit Vir Gogia, analyst, Greyhound Research. “But I think it’s unfair and wrong to say they can compete with Amazon.