Facebook brings buying and selling to Groups

Watch out Etsy and eBay, Facebook has just updated its Groups apps to make selling items and managing inventory as simple as adding a smiley face to a status update.

Facebook-Groups-with-new-Sell-feature-Photo-AFP

Watch out Etsy and eBay, Facebook has just updated its Groups apps to make selling items and managing inventory as simple as adding a smiley face to a status update.

Facebook rolled out a dedicated Groups app back in November designed to help users manage mass communications, keep in touch with family members and even work on collaborative projects. And just three months later it's getting its first update, an update designed to help group members sell to each other.

If you're part of a Sale Group in the app, you can now access a dedicated 'Sell' feature when creating a post. This will open a form where a description of the object or service can be entered, its price, and any other details such as delivery or collection.

But it doesn't end there. People listing numerous items can also use the app to manage inventory, indicating what is and what isn't still available and to offer group members a back catalogue of items recently created and sold.

Although officially announced this week, the updates will be rolling out to Facebook Groups over the coming months. And expect many more announcements like these in the future as Groups is a continuing work in progress with Facebook engineers and developers responding to power users' needs.