This past week Mark Zuckerberg made a huge announcement for Facebook and especially businesses on Facebook.

The platform is rolling out Facebook Shops for Facebook and on Instagram as well. (Which makes sense because Facebook owns Instagram, for those who might not know.)

While it’s been possible to incorporate a third-party shop into Facebook like Shopify, this takes that idea a few steps further and takes the need for a third party out of the picture.

This makes the process much easier because there are fewer places to keep track of your stuff. Plus it will give more capability to your shop.

The big news doesn’t stop there, the social media giant is also rolling out other small business tools along with shops to assist small businesses in setting up an online store presence.

This is a timely update with COVID-19 hitting retail shops hard with its restrictions. Not only will these new features allow for an online store-front right on Facebook, but there will be more ways to help potential customers discover what a retailer is selling.

Overall, this is great news for small businesses, but as with everything a business does on social media it comes with the understanding that you are operating at Facebook’s mercy. If your Facebook page can be taken down at any time by the platform (and it can) then so can your shop.

Use these new tools, but remember to not put all of your eggs in one basket.