Facebook began testing Collections earlier this month, but it appears that it was a no-go for the site.

The short-lived feature enabled retailers to add “want” or “collect” buttons to posts, which consumers could then collect in a Pinterest-style folder. Intended to drive traffic to brand Pages, Collections was originally tested with seven companies, including Pottery Barn, Victoria’s Secret, and Fab.com.

The social network isn’t the first company to try to bank on Pinterest’s success, but perhaps recapturing the appeal was more challenging than originally anticipated. TechCrunch confirmed with Facebook that the Collections test is, in fact, complete.

At this time it isn’t clear what caused the test to end so abruptly. It’s possible that members just didn’t get hooked. As TechCrunch pointed out, most people are used to Liking and so clicking “want” or “collect” didn’t feel very natural. It’s also possible that Facebook intends to go about it in a new way.

Whatever the case, Facebook still has e-commerce options available, specifically Facebook Offers and the newly re-launched Facebook Gifts.

[Via: TechCrunch, Image credit: Ken Hawkins]