Facebook will ban sellers of shoddy products
New feature lets shoppers share their experiences; negative feedback could lead to bans
Facebook Inc. is cracking down on e-commerce businesses that flood users’ feeds with ads for products that are unsatisfactory or don’t arrive on time.
The social-media giant is rolling out a new feature that lets people leave feedback about their shopping experience after viewing a Facebook ad. The company said it is warning businesses that receive a high volume of negative feedback to give them a chance to address the grievances. If feedback doesn’t improve over time, Facebook will reduce the number of ads that businesses can deliver and could eventually ban them from the platform.
“There are some companies that are just bad actors and we have no tolerance for that,” said Sarah Epps, a product marketing director at Facebook. “As soon as we can detect those companies, we enforce against them, but for companies that do want to improve, we want to give them that opportunity.” The announcement comes about three weeks after The Wall Street Journal published an article about online storefronts that have been using Facebook ads to flip products listed on online marketplaces such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s AliExpress. The entrepreneurs behind these storefronts profit by marking up the products, betting shoppers won’t stumble on AliExpress or other sites charging less for the same items. Shoppers have complained about misleading marketing and low-quality goods that arrived weeks later from China.
Facebook said it has already started warning hundreds of ecommerce sites that have re- ceived a high volume of negative feedback. Among those notified were the types of businesses mentioned in the Journal story.
To leave feedback, users must click on their recent ad activity to find the new tool that lets shoppers specify whether they are satisfied or dissatisfied with an advertiser’s product quality, shipping speed or customer service. Facebook shares with advertisers the feedback, but not the identity of the people giving it.
Facebook said it is also providing tips to businesses that are receiving negative feedback, such as telling them to set more realistic expectations about shipping times or provide more transparency around the return policy. The company said it would immediately ban businesses it deems obvious scammers.
“There’s a big difference between a business that’s trying to scam a person and a business that doesn’t know how to provide a great customer experience,” said Ms. Epps. “We’re trying to differentiate between those two types of companies.” Facebook has come under scrutiny about lax oversight of its platform after Cambridge Analytica, a research firm with ties to U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, improperly obtained the data of millions of Facebook users. The incident sparked an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission and has led to congressional appearances by CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Some shoppers have also said the company hasn’t done enough to screen the brands that are able to target them with ads. Business accounts on Facebook still have the option to turn off all customer reviews, making it challenging for shoppers to warn each other about poor shopping experiences.
A spokesman for Facebook said the company is exploring some changes to reviews and working on ways to let users see feedback that comes out of the new tool.
Julie Van Sice, a 56-year-old nurse practitioner in Camden, Ala., said Facebook’s latest efforts are a “start,” but that she still wouldn’t rely on the platform’s ads for shopping.
She said she bought clothes as Christmas gifts for her granddaughter in early December after seeing a Facebook ad. The items “came in all shapes and sizes” sometime in January from an address in China, she said. “There needs to be some way for Facebook to do background checks on these businesses.”