Is F-commerce ever going to happen? (8 posts)

  • Interesting article yesterday on Bloomberg about retailers who had opened up shop on Facebook only to close a short while later, for lack of interesting results.

    For many, Facebook is a place where brands can connect with consumers, where we share comments, ideas, pictures. In order words, where we hangout. But is it a place to transact? You can read the article here: Retailers shut Facebook storefront amid apathy

    Do you think F-commerce is ever going to stick?

  • @fredericgonzalo

    I read a similar article that said that selling on Facebook was like trying to sell to people that were hanging out with friends in a bar.  I think thus far no one has really done it right.  Facebook is more about building relationships.  Zappos and others have proven it’s a great place to promote products but it a social sharing type way.  I like the apps out there that share products people have purchased but having a storefront…I don’t know.  It may depend on the industry and how well they integrate the social aspects into their strategy.

  • @fredericgonzalo @iamconsulting   Just read an article in the local newspaper today on stores that are shuttering their efforts to sell on FB. Comment was that it could never be a destination for shopping like amazon. com. 

  • i dont see it happening  either…facebook  has its uses  without it….. my  goal on  facebook is to  get  them  to  the store…

    amazon  has  such an advantage  with one click…

  • I think it should be done done differently. You just don’t make a page, list your products and wait for people to buy like on amazon.com

    It has to leverage Facebook AND also integrate with it. It might be a new breed of e-commerce. And it might also be nothing but smoke. But I believe that for certain type of products..it’s a great opportunity. 

  • It’s too soon to lament the demise of F-commerce. What we do know is that replicating retailers’ ecommerce sites is not the way to go about generating revenue via Facebook, at least for now.

  • I agree with many of the comments above that I don’t see Facebook going in that direction. It would seem there is a strong differentiation between social media (Facebook) and store websites (Amazon). Plus the fact that Facebook doesn’t want you using promotional messages and contact information on your cover photo in the new timeline, it seems they’re trying to keep its social appearance. 

  • @fredericgonzalo @vladiiancu “  I think it should be done done differently. You just don’t make a page, list your products and wait for people to buy like on amazon.com” Vladi you are absolutely correct I have been investigating this issue for quite some time, this is what i have managed to find out through 50 retailers across a variety of brands, simply placing a product on a post and sharing only has a 50% to 60% success in sales this is evident with the ever growing local town classified that sell their unwanted goods to their local community and surrounding areas these pages seem to be popping up  all the time so the average person is certainly doing OK ,I also found that on the same classified pages that there are a number of small businesses placing their ad and promoting their brand on the same pages and making sales.With regards to F-Commerce their are some apps that can be used to sell on Facebook but and I say “but” they still haven’t developed the app to its full potential to fully promote a brand, they all have their limitations and because of this their not user engaging mostly because of lack of real-estate and the check out process,  I do know that there are some developers that are working to get around that problem and what I have seen to date having the ability to have a complete website with a checkout process( yes, even using PayPal) without leaving Facebook is the first step in the right direction for retailers to sell on Facebook,


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