Facebook MKT Arrives; Rethink Your Ecommerce Strategy
Rethink your ecommerce strategy: Facebook Marketplace has gone neighborhood. Someone just sent this to us - Facebook is making its marketplace more local.
I just saw this afternoon on my FB profile that Facebook has introduced marketplace for seeing items for sale from people in my neighbourhood. It is my first time of seeing it. It looks like a new development.
Traditionally, Facebook Marketplace was just a marketplace with no idea where you are located. But now, it can use your phone location (or other means) to show you local deals and products. If Facebook can make marketplace local, why would you leave for another destination? This is the biggest challenge of anyone running a traditional ecommerce business: Facebook has arrived at scale.
Facebook would scale Marketplace across Africa in coming months. That would be bad for OLX which just introduced advertising in its ecosystems to make extra revenue. The future with Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram evolving into SME and business ecosystems could be devastating to African startups working in the ecommerce space.
If you are in ecommerce marketplace business in Africa, rethink your strategy!
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