Facebook is working on ‘Local Market’ feature for supply and demand

Facebook is working on a marketplace feature that focuses on buying and selling locally. The Local Market has categories such as cars, white goods, books, clothing and more. There are also collections called ‘everything that’s free’ and ‘men’s clothing’.

The Local Market is currently in the testing phase and is not yet implemented everywhere. Users who do fall within the test group will receive a notification when they place an ad on a ‘supply and demand’ Facebook group. They are then asked if they would prefer not to post on the new Local Market. That Local Market is already filled with advertisements based on the use of Facebook’s Sell button. When users place an ad by pressing this button, they can put their offer in a form with fields such as description, asking price and location. Facebook automatically transferred these ads to the Local Market. As the name suggests, the offer depends entirely on the user’s location.

TechCrunch reports that Local Market is undergoing a small test in cities in New Zealand and Australia. Several Twitter users from those cities have posted screenshots of the Local Market online. In addition to headings and collections, features such as recommendations, notifications, and saved searches should make the Local Market easy to use. Facebook told TechCrunch that the feature is in a very early stage of testing and that the company cannot provide an indication when the feature will be available to every Facebook user.