Facebook today has announced the future rollout of Marketplace in Kenya, which is four years after Facebook rollout the service in the United States.
The company says that it will be rolled out in Kenya gradually and will be available to all Kenyans by the end of November this year.
“We had already seen people buying and selling with each other on Facebook so we decided to launch Facebook Marketplace — a safe and convenient destination in the Facebook app where Kenyans can discover, buy and sell items from people in their community,” Facebook Head of Public Policy for East and Horn of Africa, Mercy Ndegwa said.
The Facebook service offers people the ability to discover, buy and sell items from others in their local communities. Facebook pitches Marketplace as an easy place for Kenyans to find the things they need to buy on Facebook.
Kenya joins South Africa, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco as the few African countries with Facebook Marketplace in the continent. This will compliment WhatsApp Business which is used by merchants in Kenya.
How does it work?
Purchasing things on the service is easy. First. look for the Marketplace icon on the Facebook app or check out the web version. From there, you will be able to browse listings that interest you. You can filter the listings further by sorting by distance or category or even search an item.
If you want to sell, the setup is also simple. Sellers simply take photos of the item they intend to sell, enter the product name, the description and price, confirm their location and select a category. Sellers can also keep track of all their current and past transactions in Marketplace by visiting the “Your Items” section. When a seller lists an item on Marketplace, they create a public listing that can by seen by anyone on or off Facebook.
