SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook is working harder to become a hot spot for shopping, going well beyond the “Buy” button it started testing last year and making it easier for users to shop for clothes and other products from their mobile phones without ever leaving its app.

In an effort to move further into e-commerce and compete with Amazon’s retail offerings, Facebook announced on Monday that it is testing several ad features that allow users to shop directly through its app.

Few users make purchases on mobile phones because it is slow and cumbersome, but Facebook hopes to win over more advertising dollars by smoothing the process. Mobile purchases make up less than 2 per cent of all retail sales, according to research firm eMarketer.

The social network is adding a shopping section to its mobile application. The new area will be available in the same menu as “Events”.

The California-based company is also making it possible for a person who clicks on an advertisement to go to a full-screen catalogue for the retailer. That feature is intended to help users browse items faster through Facebook, rather than get redirected to the marketer’s website. The catalogue feature is being tested on mobile phones with retailers including Target.

“From Facebook’s perspective, they’re addressing a pain point for retailers,” said Ms Catherine Boyle, an analyst at eMarketer. “They will attract serious ad dollars with this.”

Facebook has tried digital storefronts, birthday gifts and other shopping initiatives in previous years, but the efforts have not always been effective. The social network nevertheless continues to look for ways to ease its 1.49 billion users into making purchases. Facebook does not plan to take a cut of the revenue from this, for now.

But, by gaining more direct insight into what people buy, Facebook can make its advertising more effective. It also makes the application more attractive to advertisers eager to make sales through phones. Agencies