Zuckerberg pitches new Facebook Shops feature to businesses hit by coronavirus pandemic

Facebook is rolling out a new online shopping feature as CEO Mark Zuckerberg touts the importance of online commerce during the coronavirus pandemic.

Zuckerberg on Tuesday unveiled Facebook Shops, a free service that allows businesses to set up online stores to sell products directly within Facebook and Instagram. There will also be support in WhatsApp and Messenger, Zuckerberg said.

While discussing the new product, Zuckerberg said that amid the "economic devastation" caused by the coronavirus pandemic, moving online is one way small businesses are surviving, predicting "this is going to be a big part of the future of commerce anyway" but that it's "more important right now." He argued Shops will be "uniquely valuable for people and small businesses, especially during this period," touting the experience as faster and easier than visiting a separate website and saying this "means more sales" for businesses.

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As businesses were forced to close amid the pandemic, a recent report from the Commerce Department showed that retail sales plunged an unprecedented 16.4 percent in April, although online sales were up. NBC News notes Facebook has "struggled to break into e-commerce," having previously rolled out the Marketplace feature that allows users to buy and sell items. But Shops is "Facebook's first step toward creating a competitor" to services like eBay and Amazon, Axios noted.

This is also the latest new product that Facebook is unveiling amid the coronavirus pandemic after rolling out the 50-person video chat service Messenger Rooms in competition with Zoom.