Facebook announced on Monday that a new online payment system will be introduced to the Facebook Messenger app, which will help the customers to buy stuff directly from its online business partners.
The popular social networking company made a statement that they are going to begin kicking off messages with payments which will allow various online businesses to sell their services and products directly to the customers through Messenger. This has filled a big hole in its Messenger’s chatbot platform. The Messenger chatbots will now receive payments from the customers directly instead of directing them to an external website, which might distract or restrict the user sometimes. The customers can now easily check-out of their purchases with a few clicks without having to leave the Messenger app. It is also a boon to the merchants who can sell their products directly to the customers.
Facebook Messenger and Chatbots for Commercial Dealings
The big announcement suggests that Facebook will now be able to construct its free messaging application into an e-commerce platform, which will be used by over a billion people from around the world. Facebook had announced earlier this year that its Messenger app is opened up to the developers who can help to create new bots and other applications which will allow interaction with users. These bots will provide all the information regarding a purchase to consumers, but then they will be directed to an external website if they want to make the purchase.
The company said that the developers have created more than 30,000 bots for its Messenger application. Many more developers are still working on other applications too. The Head of Facebook Messenger reported that the April launch of the chatbots had almost 34,000 developers have worked hard to build 30,000 bots. In a recent statement that was issued by Facebook, it was reported that the company is continuing to invest in its Messenger app since it believes there is huge potential in this area and it will encourage the developers to create and build better applications and bots for this platform.
The company also reported that they are moving forward and simplifying the payment methods and the customer’s checkout experience so that the overall friction in between wanting some item and getting it is considerably reduced. The users can also use their payment information and credit card details that have been stored on Facebook and Messenger so that they can make purchases in bots and check out quickly in the Messenger threads.
The company is working not just with Stripe and PayPal as mentioned by the Facebook developer blog post, but also with the major firms like Braintree, MasterCard, Visa, and American Express to support payments in Messenger.
While a few bots which focus on delivering news feed have done well, the other bots need a lot of workups so that they can offer a fascinating experience. With the addition of online payment systems and webview features, the upcoming travel bot may help travelers to search and book air tickets, hotel rooms, and also show the itineraries right there in the Messenger app.