eBay have struck it lucky with Facebook as it’s been revealed that eBay.com Deals are being surfaced on Facebook Marketplace. The deals can be purchased directly within the Facebook app, but the transaction takes place on eBay through an in-app browser.
The Facebook Marketplace is pretty unmissable on the Facebook app, it’s the central icon at the top of the screen (along with your feed, friends, notifications and menu) so you can be pretty sure it’s important to Facebook for the future even though it’s not yet a money spinner.
What’s interesting with the eBay Deals display is that it’s the first time that we’ve seen the Facebook Marktplace used by a large business, Facebook marketplace gathers together deals from various buy/sell groups and it’s mainly a consumer to consumer selling platform. Could it morph into a full grown marketplace and as part of that will we see more than just eBay deals appear on the platform? Generally you only see items for sale within a set radius of your location and eBay of course knows where sellers are based so this could work nicely.
For now, Techcrunch reports that eBay Deals on Facebook Marketplace are a test showing a limited number of products, mainly from eBay Deals Consumer Electronics, Fashion, and Home & Garden categories and only available to a limited number of users based in the US.
There is no exclusive deal with eBay and it’s a trial for both companies – will people on Facebook Marketplace be happy to purchase items at full price (or rather at a deal price) and wait for them to be shipped, or is the Facebook Marketplace destined to remain a consumer to consumer site for second hand tat?
Facebook needs to make money and a marketplace that generates cash isn’t something they won’t be seriously thinking about. The first thing they’ll want you to do is to buy and sell as a consumer (which is why they plague your feed with local buy/sell groups they’re desperate for you to join). Then they’ll want to figure out how to monetise their Marketplace and whilst there’s no financial payment from eBay on sales, Facebook will doubtless be monitoring transaction volumes and figuring out if they could charge a fee in the future.
