According to a statement provided to TechCrunch from Facebook, “To help businesses continue to connect with customers where they are, we’re running a small test that enables people to use the Facebook app to collect and redeem rewards when they make a purchase at a participating store.”
It is unclear if this is something that the company plans on rolling out in the future, or if it is merely a test and that there are no plans to expand on it. That being said, Facebook’s interest in shopping isn’t exactly new as over the past few years, the social network has added more shopping tools to its platform where they are hoping to become more than just a platform for socializing.
Facebook Rewards could be one way to go about it where users could be rewarded just for being Facebook users. It could prompt users to shop more, and it could also allow Facebook to better understand the shopping preference of its users, which in turn could help create better ads.