| Hey everyone, it's Kurt. Facebook Inc. has tried repeatedly to break its way into commerce, and things haven't gone well. Remember when buy buttons were coming to your News Feed? How about virtual gifts? Marketplace is popular, though mostly as a better alternative to Craigslist for selling your old furniture. Instagram's Checkout feature—the effort that made the most sense—is used by just a few hundred retailers almost 18 months after launch. So I felt justifiably skeptical earlier this week when Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg talked up a big commerce launch for a feature called Shops—product catalogs attached to a brand's Facebook or Instagram page. Facebook already offered product catalogs similar to this, but this new version is supposed to be easier to use across all Facebook's apps and more customizable. "This is really the first very major push that we're going to be making into that next step around commerce," Zuckerberg said in an interview. I joined that discussion wondering why this busy CEO was taking time to discuss a revamped version of a product Facebook already offered. I left thinking that Facebook's commerce ambitions might finally work. The most obvious reason why this time might be different has nothing to do with Facebook, and everything to do with the current environment. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way people shop, and forced companies to do the bulk of their business online. If there was ever a time to build a digital product catalog, it's now. Then there's the reach. Facebook's prior efforts around commerce felt siloed. Product catalogs on Facebook, shopping tags on Instagram and business chat bots on Messenger all felt isolated within each app. Shops will work on both Facebook and Instagram, and eventually on Messenger and WhatsApp, Zuckerberg said. Facebook has been slowly bringing its apps together—it now calls them "the family"—and has plans to integrate its messaging services. This coalescence gives retailers the potential to create one Shop that reaches all of Facebook's 3 billion monthly users. What also stood out was Zuckerberg's personal involvement. The CEO said he's been meeting with Facebook's small business commerce team every day during the pandemic. In an interview, he described small business products as one of his three main priorities, alongside cleaning up virus misinformation and responding to surging usage to keep people connected. Usually when the CEO gets his hands dirty, it means that products get necessary attention and resources. At Facebook, a company with a lot of competing teams and features, that could mean Shops breaks through in a way it might otherwise not. Facebook still has a lot to prove when it comes to commerce. Will users trust Facebook with their credit card details? Will small businesses get on board? Will antitrust regulators get in the way? Zuckerberg is undaunted as usual. "I don't think you can let the fact that there will be scrutiny and questions prevent you from doing things that you think are going to be good," he said. —Kurt Wagner | 
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