Facebook on Tuesday launched Facebook shops, a new e-commerce venture to help small businesses.

The feature allows businesses to set up storefronts on Facebook and Instagram for free.

These will be powered by third-party eCommerce services such as Shopify, BigCommerce, and Woo.

“If you can’t physically open your store or restaurant, you can still take orders online and ship them to people,” he said. “We’re seeing a lot of small businesses that never had online businesses get online for the first time,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had said in a live stream.

The feature is to help small businesses amid the ongoing economic crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic. According to a recent survey conducted by Facebook and the Small Business Roundtable, one-third of small businesses in the United States have stopped operations while 11 per cent expect to shut shop in the next three months if the situation remains the same.

The social media giant earlier this month had also launched a range of new feature across platforms to help small businesses.

“Businesses are facing immense challenges during the COVID-19 crisis, and supporting them is critical to the well-being of entrepreneurs, communities and the economy,” Facebook had said in an official blog post.

“We’re announcing new ways for people to support and discover small businesses, along with more tools for keeping businesses informed and connected with their customers,” it had said.

The features included a new ‘Support Small Business sticker’ for Instagram, a Businesses Nearby section for its Facebook app and upgrades on the Business Inbox in Messenger.

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