<story><title>Introducing Facebook Shops</title><url>https://about.fb.com/news/2020/05/introducing-facebook-shops/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>saadalem</author><text>Small businesses operated either individually or by less than 10 people. A bunch of customers buy products&amp;#x2F;services from these businesses. So they need a better way to:&lt;p&gt;Engage with their customers&lt;p&gt;Sell and manage product&amp;#x2F;service deliveries&lt;p&gt;Target specific customer audience&lt;p&gt;Show products&amp;#x2F;services availability&lt;p&gt;Whatsapp could be the right solution not facebook apps.&lt;p&gt;Also a combination of Yelp and Facebook&amp;#x2F;Whatsapp could lead  replacing small business websites(I&amp;#x27;m not telling that no smb website should exist) that going to make a fortune. The platform needs to accomplish these three things :&lt;p&gt;The ability to list core info like contact details, hours of operation, and service offerings in a minimalist fashion.&lt;p&gt;The ability to solicit feedback (not ratings) from customers in a low-friction, high-upside way.&lt;p&gt;An ad system that let&amp;#x27;s a 60 year-old luddite set up a campaign in less than 3 minutes without having to call anyone.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s a lot to tell but I&amp;#x27;ll leave you with these thoughts.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>phreack</author><text>I have always thought about what it would take for Whatsapp to lose their place as the dominant chat app and you finally nailed it. If I ever start getting ads or requests for reviews or anything remotely related to someone selling something to me, as a personal message because of automated Facebook tools, I&amp;#x27;d get myself and everyone I know off the platform in a matter of seconds.&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, for information requests they already have Whatsapp for businesses and it works fine, several luddites I know use it.</text></comment>
<story><title>Introducing Facebook Shops</title><url>https://about.fb.com/news/2020/05/introducing-facebook-shops/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>saadalem</author><text>Small businesses operated either individually or by less than 10 people. A bunch of customers buy products&amp;#x2F;services from these businesses. So they need a better way to:&lt;p&gt;Engage with their customers&lt;p&gt;Sell and manage product&amp;#x2F;service deliveries&lt;p&gt;Target specific customer audience&lt;p&gt;Show products&amp;#x2F;services availability&lt;p&gt;Whatsapp could be the right solution not facebook apps.&lt;p&gt;Also a combination of Yelp and Facebook&amp;#x2F;Whatsapp could lead  replacing small business websites(I&amp;#x27;m not telling that no smb website should exist) that going to make a fortune. The platform needs to accomplish these three things :&lt;p&gt;The ability to list core info like contact details, hours of operation, and service offerings in a minimalist fashion.&lt;p&gt;The ability to solicit feedback (not ratings) from customers in a low-friction, high-upside way.&lt;p&gt;An ad system that let&amp;#x27;s a 60 year-old luddite set up a campaign in less than 3 minutes without having to call anyone.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s a lot to tell but I&amp;#x27;ll leave you with these thoughts.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dmode</author><text>This is a great post. But the biggest opportunity here is to build an aggregate SMB platform to take on Amazon. In my local downtown, I see a ton of mom and pop stores, but they don’t get a ton of foot traffic. I sometimes imagine unlocking their inventory that can allow for some inherent advantages like same day pick-up and supporting local businesses</text></comment>