Facebook Introduce Local Market Tool

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For a little while some Facebook users were able to access a new feature called 'Local Market'. Most ended up on the app by mistake as it had replaced the Messenger option. Despite its tendency to load a little slowly, it allowed them to view products that were up for sale near them, or post ads themselves for anything they might have wanted to sell. The feature is still in testing and therefore only appeared for a while, and in Australia mainly, but in that time the users were able to see a clear and accessible marketplace.

As well as browsing and selling, users will also have the ability to personalise their own Local Markets, allowing them to pick and choose which categories they want to follow. This will mean that they can keep an eye out for sales on particular products. When you click on a group you can see pictures and prices making it easy to browse. The whole thing seems very organised if you ask me. When you post to another group of 'Buy and Sell' that you might be a part of, it will give you the choice of also adding it to Local Market. Some of the categories already had thousands of items for this very reason as it was able to log the items for sale on Facebook in the area. It is basically a bigger and better version of the already existing Buy and Sell groups.

This did originally appear on the app but if all goes well it would be available through the Favourites option on your desktop and an apparent tab on the apps. That way it will be accessible from anywhere and at any time. Although this wasn't Facebook's original idea of what the platform would represent, it goes without saying that more and more people are taking to shopping online so it only seems obvious that the social giant would give something like this a go.

It is unsure yet as to when it will be released but a spokesperson from Facebook has confirmed that they are doing everything they can to make it the best experience for sellers and buyers. 'Local Market' certainly does appear to be well organised and easy enough to use. You can just go onto this one feature and then decide which part of it you want to navigate to. It will allow you to have everything you need in one place instead of having to be part of hundreds of groups. I'm also positive that it will be a much more secure system that just taking a seller's or buyer's word for it when they confirm a collection or a price on these other pages.

Using the 'message to buy' option will allow a more discrete conversation about such things as prices and collection although the price will already appear on the product as you are scrolling through the various categories. There are many little features in 'Local Market' that have yet to be developed but hopefully it will all be done with testing soon and we will be able to give it a real go. Facebook are doing this as promised as part of their plan of expanding their e-commerce features.

I heard there are some changes being tested to the Facebook UI, and then saw this Local Market on the app. New? pic.twitter.com/lLcCPOjdR8

— Simone McCallum (@simonemccallum) October 13, 2015

Sophie Giscard

One of the newest members of The SMF Group. Although she loves a good city life, she grew up in the beautiful French countryside. Who knew that talking to a bunch of cows and friendly chickens would get her here? Quite used to writing stories in her bedroom, she is now deciding if she's cut out for content writing. We'll see! Follow her @SophieAtSMF

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