Aug. 15, 2013 — -- Soon you might be able to sign in with your Facebook account and not only start liking but shopping. The social network confirmed today to ABC News it is testing its own mobile payment platform.
First reported by AllThingsD, Facebook would partner with current shopping apps and allow users to pay for things just by putting in their Facebook username and password.
"We are working on a very small test that lets people populate their payment information already on file with Facebook into the checkout form of a mobile phone app when they are making a purchase," Facebook's Tera Randall told ABC News. "The app then uses their existing payments processor to complete the transaction. The test makes it easier and faster for people to make a purchase in a mobile app by simply pre-populating your payment information."
To use the service shoppers would already have had to previously save their credit or debit card information with Facebook. Currently, Facebook's Gifts service asks for a user's credit card information to send gifts to other users through the social network. Users also input their credit card when making in-game purchases, for example, in games such as Farmville.
According to AllThingsD, Facebook is already testing the service with JackThreads, a shopping site for men that sees a lot of its sales through mobile phones. Facebook told ABC News that it will be testing the program with just one to two partners to start.