Facebook’s “Want” Button Being Tested On Seven E-Commerce Sites

By: Kevin Green  |   October 16th, 2012   |   Business, News, Social Media

Last week Facebook announced that it would start testing out its new “Want” button. The concept is similar to the “Like” button but is an attempt by the social network to make a push into the e-commerce marketplace. The company announced that seven retailers were selected to help in the initial test of the new services. Confirmed testers include Pottery Barn, Wayfair, Victoria’s Secret, Michael Kors, Neiman Marcus, Smith Optics and Fab.com. Facebook has not revealed any financial details and no one is quite sure what the company will charge for referrals.

 

The world largest social network has been trying to expand its revenue generation methods and it seems that the new feature, which is called “collections”, is an area the company has targeted. Basically, Facebook will allow users to create a wish list of items they want to buy called a “Collection”. The list is generated by the user clicking a “want” or a “collect” button next to products and services they find around the internet.

 

For now the company has not decided on what to call the button officially and there are three types of tests taking place. On different sites the buttons are called either “collect”, “want”, or “like”.

 

There is however a slight difference between the buttons. The “collect” button automatically adds the item to the users “Products” collection. This gets displayed in the news feed and allows the users friends to see the list. The “Want” and “Like” buttons do exactly the same thing except they allow the users friend’s friends to see the list also.

 

Facebook seems to have borrowed some of the interface of the Products list from Pinterst. Every time a users likes, wants or collects an item its image gets added to the Products page in the same fashion as Pinterst. This virtual bulletin board is however more private and is only for the users friend.

 

Source: Business Insider