Facebook Begins Its Second Stage of Testing ‘Collections’ With New Retailers on Board

Facebook is moving its “Collections” feature into a second phase of testing. Collections allows retailers to share product photos on their pages, which users can “want,” “save,” “add,” “collect” or “wishlist.” The actions users can take will depend on the test group they end up in. Users can also hover their cursor over these Collections photos to learn more about the products included in them, including a link to the retailer’s website, where they can purchase the item of interest. The initial test, which happened in October, had seven participating retailers. The new stage of the test expands that stable of retailers to 13, including Nordstrom, Pottery Barn, Michael Kors, Fab.com, Etsy and Wayfair.com. Facebook says the goal of this test is to gain insight into how users interact with and share Collection items in their news feeds. Collections are only visible on the desktop version of the social network for now.

Facebook says it has no plans to take a cut from sales that happen thanks to Collections, at least not for now. Retailers probably shouldn’t bank on that holding true forever. Many are noting the similarities between Collections and Pinterest. (Inside Facebook, TechCrunch, CNET News)