Facebook is to up their game as Facebook Marketplace Payments elevates the trading platform from a local classified ads site to a full blown marketplace.
eBay have an advantage that most marketplaces don’t in that anyone that wants to compete with them has to better their classified ads service first. In the UK that’s Gumtree with different versions and names in other territories. To date, Facebook Marketplace has only been competing against Gumtree in the UK with generally local sales and pick up and pay in person.
Now, at least to start with in the US, Facebook Marketplace Payments are coming enabling buyers to purchase from further afield but it’s still going to be a bit hit and miss. Sellers will have up to 24 hours to accept a buyer’s purchase and if they don’t then the deal is off and the buyer won’t be charged. It remains to be seen how many buyers will be happy to make a purchase which might not actually be a purchase and they’ll only find out the following day.
I might be being a bit negative towards the delay in completing a transaction with Facebook Marktplace Payments, currently on Facebook Marketplace it’s a negotiate with the seller for payment so probably takes a day anyway if the seller isn’t immediately responsive. A lot of transactions may go through more quickly. For this to become a marketplace to compete with eBay and Amazon it does need a transaction to be confirmed immediately on purchase so we’ll be looking for this in the future.
PayPal are powering the new Facebook payments with PayPal for Marketplaces – not a bad solution as millions of consumers already have and are familiar with PayPal.
Currently it is free to sell on Facebook Marketplace. With Facebook Marketplace Payments comes payment processing costs not to mention the expense of adding trust programs for purchase protection. Facebook have indicated that fees in line with ‘competitive platforms’ are being evaluated. We’ll update when we hear more.
