Facebook Marketplace Enhancements Can Benefit Used Car Dealers

Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) Marketplace has been making it easier for people to discover, buy and sell a variety of items locally — from household items, to electronics and apparel — since October of last year. Now Facebook is adding more options specifically for used car dealers in the U.S. to connect with local shoppers.

Facebook Partners with Auto Dealers to Offer More Options

According to the giant social networking site, Marketplace is expanding its popular used car inventory by partnering with leaders in the auto industry. This will reportedly help both used car dealers and shoppers in local areas make more of these connections, and conveniently transact with each other.

If your small business sells products or other items (including used cars) locally, you should have a Facebook presence to market your products, and an online inventory listed on the Marketplace. Selling in the Marketplace is fairly straightforward. Simply take a photo of your item or add it from your camera roll. Enter a product name, description and price. Confirm your location. Select a category and post.

Anyone looking in your area can find your item and message you if they want to buy it.

Facebook says the Marketplace will allow car shoppers in the U.S. to:

• Browse inventory from auto dealers through new partnerships with Edmunds, Cars.com, Auction123, CDK Global and SOCIALDEALER
• Find what they’re looking for by visiting the enhanced vehicles section and filtering listings by year, make, model, mileage, vehicle type and transmission
• See trusted car values from Kelley Blue Book
• Communicate directly with dealership representatives via Messenger, powered by chat providers like ActivEngage, CarCode, Contact At Once!, and Gubagoo

“In addition to vehicles, we are testing features in other Marketplace categories like jobs, event tickets, retail, and home rentals to give people more options when looking for products and services in their community,” writes Vice President of Facebook Marketplace, Deborah Liu on the company’s NewsRoom blog.