Dive Brief:

• Social media site Facebook is testing a new pilot program which allows consumers to use payment information stored on Facebook to make purchases on mobile shopping apps.
• The new mobile payment feature is called Autofill. It is designed to ease the purchasing process for consumers but could also improve consumer data trends in order for Facebook to better-target online advertising content.
• Facebook is currently testing the new payments feature with men’s apparel company JackThreads and the Mosaic photo book app.

Dive Insight:

Facebook intends to continue working with other payment processing companies for the service, including Braintree, Stripe and PayPal. Facebook says the new feature is not part of a larger plan for the site to become a mobile payments processor. “This will put Facebook in even closer competition with the likes of Google for ad dollars,” says Arkady Fridman, senior analyst at mobile payments consulting firm Aite Group.