Stefan Wolpers's List: facebook-commerce

Beware, the sky is falling! Or at least that’s what we’re hearing from some experts on Facebook commerce following announcements from a few big name retailers in recent weeks that they are shuttering their stores on the social network.

5 Apps to Help You Sell Goods on Facebook

F-Commerce Solution Providers | Updated July 2011 Benchmarking from Ogilvy

It’s perhaps a little early to be talking about the history of f-commerce, but with selling with Facebook the hottest discussion topic in social commerce right now, an infographic was inevitable.

INFOGRAPHIC: Facebook Shopping Will Be $30B in 2015

Tom Crampton, Asia-Pacific director of 360 Digital Influence for Ogilvy, has started putting together what could become a very useful infographic that benchmarks major Facebook e-commerce software solutions.  It’s a useful companion to the vendor list over at MetaLinQ, and our latest 2011 guide to f-commerce for consumer brands. 

Shop.org, a division of the National Retail Federation, has just published results from it’s 2011 Social Commerce study – a representative survey of 1787 adult US online consumers conducted in April 2011.

Reviews software company PowerReviews has released an interesting infographic sharing some in-house data that illustrates that every review shared on Facebook generates $15.72 in sales, that 70% of reviews shared to Facebook generate further interaction in the form of comments or likes, and that Facebook shares generate 5x more shares than other social sharing.

Facebook offers a huge opportunity for increasing brand loyalty, but there’s also a way to earn money directly from the social network’s built in audience of hundreds of millions of users. Ecommerce delivered through Page tab applications can help you to generate a return on investment that is easy to measure.

What is social commerce? Wikipedia defines it this way: "Social commerce is a subset of electronic commerce that involves using social media, online media that supports social interaction and user contributions, to assist in the online buying and selling of products and services."

F-Commerce Ecosphere

Some were pop-up stores, PR stunts or specific campaigns and not all of them involve direct transactions through Facebook. Some use the API to pull through stock inventories on their Brand Pages, with others taking this further by allowing sign-ins to their checkout, following this.  
I imagine that some people will argue that this isn’t pure f-commerce, but it should be acknowledged that these examples were actively trying to make commercial sales using Facebook’s platform... which in my opinion, falls firmly into the commerce-through-Facebook camp.

If you are considering selling on Facebook, what should you sell?  The short answer we suggested yesterday, was that f-commerce is best suited to sale of products most likely to be purchased on impulse – fun products that provide immediate gratification and that have some symbolic value.

Pop-up retail has evolved from fad to enduring trend, temporary stores used to support a launch, event or campaign.  And Facebook is a great venue for pop-up retail – low set-up costs, word-of-mouth powered, and a captive audience.

Well, here it is, the downloadable f-commerce FAQ – all you wanted to know about using Facebook as a platform for facilitating and executing sales transactions.

Der Onlinehändler Myfairdeal hat sich für seine Produkte auf einen eingeschränkten Absatzkanal eingelassen. Das Unternehmen will über einen Shop auf Facebook trendige Accessoires und Bekleidung an die Community bringen.

Well, here it is, the downloadable f-commerce FAQ – all you wanted to know about using Facebook as a platform for facilitating and executing sales transactions.
We’ve distilled our analysis of f-commerce down into 15 key questions and answers, including 50 industry examples, proof-points, tips, and links. We hope you’ll find it useful. Let us know what you think!

A new report by Forrester Research and another by the World Federation of Advertisers and research firm Millward Brown proclaim that Facebook will not play a signficant role in the future of ecommerce. As evidence, the reports cite companies who have tried and failed to generate new sales through Facebook, explaining that “eBusiness professionals in retail collectively report little direct or indirect benefit from Facebook”.

Facebook is a powerhouse for advertising and virtual goods with 650 million people using the service to communicate and share information with their friends. But are people as eager to click “buy” as they are to click “share” on Facebook?