Facebook just announced their big play to own ecommerce yesterday. 🛍

Businesses can now turn Facebook and Instagram pages into online shops. They also joined forces with Shopify, who recently released their Shop app, to allow merchants to leverage their shipping, inventory and fulfillment features. The aim is to help new shop owners and small businesses to leverage their existing audiences to compete with Amazon.

This comprehensive shopping rollout will no doubt have big algorithm implications on Instagram and Facebook. Early reports are showing how a “shopping” tab might interact with the “activity” tab on Instagram to increase the focus on commerce for businesses and their followers. Soon you'll see Shops appear in stories and promoted ads.

Facebook Shops will eventually be integrated with WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram DMs, so you can browse store catalogs and make purchases through chats. The influencer marketing industry is set to benefit too as live streaming and shopping will be pairing up.

Shops started rolling out on Facebook yesterday in the United States and they are set to come to Instagram this summer.

They aren’t the only game in town either. We’ve seen a surge of indie e-commerce makers stepping up to help store owners:

• Elliot creates simple product landing pages with one-tap checkout

• Storr is for mobile commerce, so you can set up a store from your phone

With this launch by Facebook, commerce and community are finally starting to play nicely together. We’re hoping this gives small businesses a much needed edge.