Facebook announces addition of "Buy" button

Continuing to push its platform to online retailers and merchants, the world’s largest social network Facebook, has begun testing a “Buy” button on sponsored listings.

The addition of the new Ecommerce button was announced recently in a Business News blog post. The addition of the button will give users the option to purchase an item directly from the aforementioned sponsored “Suggested Posts” without leaving Facebook's network.

The entire buy process will take place on Facebook’s platform, to which all data will be secured by the social network, with the option of storing payment methods to streamline future purchases. Also, given recent high profile data breaches, Facebook points out it is taking the utmost advanced security measures to keep users’ payment data safe.

“We’ve built this feature with privacy in mind, and have taken steps to help make the payment experience safe and secure. None of the credit or debit card information people share with Facebook when completing a transaction will be shared with other advertisers, and people can select whether or not they’d like to save payment information for future purchases,” stated Facebook’s blog post.

The new Buy button is currently in Beta and only available in the US. The service is being tested with select small and medium-sized businesses before making it widely available.

The news comes shortly after micro-blogging service Twitter introduced a “Buy Now” button in cooperation with Ecommerce platform Fancy.