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Facebook expands Collections, adds new retailers

Users who test the Pinterest-like feature can "save", "add," and "Wishlist," in addition to "collect" and "want," with 13 different brands.

Donna Tam Staff Writer / News
Donna Tam covers Amazon and other fun stuff for CNET News. She is a San Francisco native who enjoys feasting, merrymaking, checking her Gmail and reading her Kindle.
Donna Tam
2 min read
Facebook

Facebook started testing another version of its Pinterest-like Collections feature today, adding more retailers and testing out a few more buttons.

In addition to buttons for "collect" and "want," Facebook is testing the words "save," "add," and "Wishlist." Users will see different words depending on which test group they are in. A Facebook spokeswoman said the company is using the latest test -- which follows one in October that debuted the feature for businesses -- to understand how people interact with and share the items from a Collection to their news feeds. She said the test will end eventually, but didn't specify a time.

The new words will offer the similar actions to those used in the previous test. During the October test, you had to be a fan of the retailer's page to participate. Anything you "collect" from a business' page went into a part of your Timeline called "products." If you clicked "want," the item went to your Wishlist.

Facebook also increased the number of retail partners from seven to 13, adding: Nordstrom, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, Pottery Barn Teens, West Elm, Michael Kors, Fab.com, Belk, Etsy, Macy's, Old Navy, Mark & Graham, and Wayfair.com.

 
Facebook

The company is hoping people will use the feature to share products with their friends. According to a company email:

As stated previously, we've seen that businesses often use Pages to share information about their products through photo albums. With this test, people will be able to engage with these Collections in the news feed and share things they are interested in with their friends. When someone adds an item to their Wishlist collection, it will create a story that their friends can see and will also be placed on their timeline so they can find it later.

The feature lets Facebook offer merchants a referral service to goods. Similar to sites like Pinterest, Fancy, and Polyvore, the collected products are linked to the retailers' sites, so users can click through and make a purchase.

Facebook said it has no plans to take a cut from these sales for the time being. But that will probably change given its recent push for commerce with features like Facebook Offers and Facebook Gifts.

Update, 1:24 p.m. PT: Updated with Facebook comment on receiving a portion of sales revenue and more information on the action of the buttons.