Facebook has added “Collections” which allows Brands to add “Want”, “Collect” and "Like" buttons to news feed posts about products. Products within a collection will also have a Buy link, sending people offsite to purchase a product.
Facebook is working with Victoria’s Secret, Pottery Barn, Michael Kors, Wayfair, Neiman Marcus, Fab.com and Smith Optics on the effort, which it calls “Collections.”
The “Want” button adds a product to a Timeline “Wishlist” visible to friends of friends, the “Collect” button saves to a Collection called “Products” that’s visible to friends only, and a special version of the “Like” button will also add to “Products” but that’s visible to friends of friends.
Users won’t see the photos unless one of their friends have “Liked” one of them. The images are designed to be discovered in the news feed. People can engage with the Brands and share things they are interested in. Users can also click through and buy the items.
The feature is a direct move against Pinterest, which currently lacks a buy feature. If it works, it will legitimize “F-commerce” Facebook's retail transactions. It’s easy to see how in the future the feature could be added to a Brand’s Instagram feed as well.
