3 Improvements coming to Facebook’s Marketplace

Facebook has revealed new features for its Marketplace as it celebrates being around for two years.

“Marketplace was introduced in 2016 as a place for people to buy and sell within their local communities,” said the company on their website, which also notes that the space has evolved into a platform for users to discover products and services globally.

Now Marketplace is receiving some updates and features to improve its service.

Improved AI abilities

According to Facebook, artificial intelligence is the key to making its Marketplace as efficient as possible.

While currently AI helps personalise the quality of your user experience, new updates will allow AI to make suggestions about selling items and even auto categorize your product or service.

“Here’s an example: if you wanted to sell your home office chair, Marketplace could use AI to help you sell it even faster by suggesting you price it between $50-75 based on what similar chairs recently sold for,” claims the company.

Facebook also plans to apply this to camera technology so that you can snap items you see in real life and find them in Marketplace.

More shopping options

The company acknowledged its additions of “cars, home rentals, home services as well as shopping and deals from e-commerce merchants” on Marketplace, which have expanded the platform.

“Since introducing car listings from local dealerships one year ago, Marketplace has become one of the top destinations for people to buy and sell used cars”.

Added safety features

In order to keep the Marketplace safe, Facebook has included features like user ratings for buyers and sellers.

“Buyers and sellers can now rate each other to signal whether they had a good or bad experience, as well as leave feedback”.

The company has also implanted AI to detect harmful content.

“We are working to detect and remove items that violate our policies by analyzing the images, content, and context within a listing”.

Lastly, improvements to reporting tools will help users identify violations.

“We’re continuously exploring ways that could help people make more informed decisions on who to buy and sell with, like badges for buyers and sellers who have confirmed their identity and features that make it easier for sellers to select a nearby public place to meet in person”.

Facebook says that Marketplace users have inspired them to continue to improve the service.

Feature Image: Facebook