Facebook is working with global retailers on a test of a new version of its Offers product, according to a report from Inside Facebook. This incarnation of Offers reportedly lets users shop immediately or get a reminder before the promotion ends. Brittany Darwell reports:
A Facebook spokesperson says the company is working with a few global retailers for this test, but for now other pages aren’t affected and their offers will continue to appear in the original format.
Facebook Offers launched last year. COO Sheryl Sandberg said last month that offers had already been claimed by 42 million unique users. I would imagine that the format that’s being tested would only help users claim more of them. It will also be interesting to see if Facebook adds Offers functionality to Graph Search, as it expands that to include different types of Facebook data.
In October, Facebook started letting Page admins promote Offers from mobile devices. That’s an important feature for this product’s succes, given that Facebook now considers itself a mobile company.
In recent weeks, we’ve also seen Facebook launch new physical gift cards that store gift amounts from various businesses, roll out the ability to let users pay to promote their friends’ statuses, and test a new “buy tickets” option for events.