Facebook on Monday confirmed it is now testing a new feature allowing retailers on the website to promote their products by posting images of them and then giving Facebook users the option to click a button indicating they “want” the items (instead of Facebook’s trademarked “Like” button). The new feature is called “Collections.” As a Facebook spokesperson told the blog AllFacebook:
We’ve seen that businesses often use pages to share information about their products through photo albums. Today, we are beginning a small test in which a few select businesses will be able to share information about their products through a feature called Collections. Collections can be discovered in news feed, and people will be able to engage with these collections and share things they are interested in with their friends. People can click through and buy these items off of Facebook.
Here’s a screenshot of the “Collections” page for PotteryBarn:
The move, which evokes Amazon’s own “Wishlist” feature, comes as Facebook makes a stronger push to enter the e-commerce industry, launching a physical Facebook Gifts exchange in late September.
