Last week, Facebook began rolling out its Offers feature to small businesses across the U.S. The social network is already testing a new version, which will benefit e-commerce sites in addition to brick-and-mortar stores.

Originally introduced at the Facebook Marketing Conference in February, Facebook Offers allows local businesses to send discounts and promotions directly to customers through News Feeds.

Facebook has confirmed that Offers will include a promo code or special link for members to click through for a discount on off-site purchases. You can provide a single, unlimited discount code to encourage sharing, or you can generate a unique, single-use code to encourage fans to Like your Page.

Although Offers are free to run, you can pay Facebook to expand your reach. You can buy Sponsored Stories that promote your Offers to friends of those that have claimed them, or you can purchase standard sidebar ads.

The adoption of e-commerce Offers should be easy, as most sites already have a place to enter promo codes at checkout. And, unlike brick-and-mortars, cashiers won’t have to be trained on how to redeem them.

Currently, Facebook is testing e-commerce Offers with a small number of businesses. If successful, it could roll out to the self-serve interface; however, there’s no time-table for when it will become publicly available.

[Via: TechCrunch, Image credit: Stephen]