Facebook Commerce Use & Future

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Subject: Facebook Commerce


Author: Sayed Mohsin Reza, Student, IIT, JU.

Fig: Facebook Commerce

Definition: Facebook commerce or F-commerce, is a approach that emphases on increasing or scheming eCommerce content and storefront sites within the Facebook social networking site.

Summary: Selling on or through Facebook now has a name: F-commerce. As with most aspects of social media, it does not yet live up to the potential that many foresee and it has no problem finding both strong advocates and cynical detractors. In this post, we'll break down the ins and outs of this digital buzzword. Let us know what questions you have about F-commerce in the comments below.

Four Types of F-Commerce:

  • Facebook-Facilitated On-Site Selling:
    • Brands can bring the Facebook experience to their websites, tapping users' connections and interests to support the purchasing process.

  • Facebook-Initiated Selling:
    • Users can browse products on her Facebook Page, but any click takes them to the product page to website
  • Complete Selling through Facebook:
    • Shoppers can select products, options, see delivery dates and even include a personal message without interrupting their Facebook experience.
  • iFrames vs. Facebook Apps:
    • Facebook adopted iFrames as the method that businesses use to supply custom content to their Pages.

Details of 4 approaches:
1
  • A downloadable app that allows you to transact within your existing Facebook presence (see Pavyment)
    • Example: https://www.facebook.com/orglamix/app_410312912374011?ref=page_internal
      • Feature: (Product click goes to own website)
        • Free, easy to install and just requires some basic information, shipping, tax, products etc.
        • HTML customization is limited to the product pages, but the app is easy to install and add your products
        • Payments are via PayPal, as well as Visa, MasterCard and Amex, and allows your fans to checkout and pay from within Facebook
  • A catalog application that organizes your products, but links back to your existing online store (see Storefront Social)
    • Example: http://www.facebook.com/livescribe?sk=app_36966609881
  • easy to setup with any decent eCommerce system
  • Clicking on a product within the Facebook store then takes you to your online store
  • customization seems to be limited, with only a choice of templates to alter the layout of the products and a banner image of your choice
  • An integrated e-commerce platform that includes extensions to include Facebook commerce (see BigCommerce)
    • Example: http://www.facebook.com/BabyAndMeGifts?sk=app_342349437729
      • Feature: (product click remain in facebook)
      • platform with an option to sell via your Facebook page
      • suit some retailers who want one eCommerce environment to use to trade on Ebay, Facebook as well as act as standalone eCommerce operation
  • A bespoke development environment for Facebook commerce (see 8th Bridge)
      • checking out and paying from within Facebook
      • Flash-based which could be off-putting for some
In my opinion, many sellers should be testing the application of Facebook commerce to their admirers and clients. For this purpose, we have faith in a full test of a Facebook store, with combination into a payment gateway.

Three Techniques:

  • Personalized Shopping:
    • One of the most interesting uses of the vast amounts of data available via the Facebook platform is efforts around personalization.
    • Consider the amount of data that people share on Facebook
      •  in their profiles –
      •   their marriage status,
      •  professions,
      • Geo-data (like where they’re living, or where they grew up),
      •  their university affiliations and
      • their age, among many others
    • This data can be leveraged to help personalize the shopping experience and make it feel more tuned to the individual on the other end of the transaction
  • Social Shopping:
  • Sometimes people want to shop together without actually being together.
  • They want to share looks for feedback, seek opinions on the tie/shirt/suit combinations or just plain brag about great finds that they made.
  • Or, they may want to simply click the “Want” button on your website and have that published to their News Feed so others can see what they’re interested in for a birthday gift.
  • Social Product Development:
  • Another great way to use the power of the Facebook network is to develop products that are made specifically for your Facebook community.
  • For example, you could run a t-shirt of the month campaign on Facebook, asking for design submissions and producing the winning entry as a limited-edition shirt available exclusively on a Facebook tab and only for a limited time.
  • You can find tools that help you solicit those designs from companies like Wildfire, which provides an easy-to-use publishing and voting platform on Facebook.
  • If your Facebook community were engaged in the selection of a t-shirt design, they will be more likely to click on over to your tab and see about making a purchase. And hey, why not offer them a pair of pants in the process?
Future of F-Commerce

Skillful ecommerce administrators also see difficulties with Facebook.com itself. Facebook marketing is certainly a matter. No matter how your construction or your F-commerce store is, the user will still be helped targeted Facebook advertisements during the purchasing process.

The best cause for businesses to take a deep breath before capitalizing in a F-commerce is Facebook itself, which currently benefits from F-commerce primarily through the sale of ads promoting it. They’d apparently like a better cut and nobody is quite sure how they would do it. Facebook Credits could somehow be expanded to become the currency for F-commerce. 

There is no shortage of opinions regarding the future of selling on Facebook, but one overwhelming motivation — it is where the customers are, and they should be able to buy wherever and whenever they like.



Sayed Mohsin Reza
Student
Institute of Information Technology
Jahangirnagar University

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