Well. Just when you thought that Facebook couldn’t incorporate anything else into it’s massive list of capabilities that let you connect with your friends or clients, here comes F-Commerce. Yeah: you can shop on Facebook now, and buy stuff. Of all sorts.
You can buy things that I personally would never buy online—especially Facebook—like Tide laundry products. (Seriously, Facebook for laundry products? Next: feminine hygiene products!) But this evolving market has tremendous possibilities.
If you’ve ever played any of the social games on Facebook, like Farmville or Mafia Wars, you may or may not know the creator of these games is a company called Zynga. What does this have to do with F-Commerce? Zynga developed the system of having to “buy” goods and services that only work for these games using virtual currency—the earliest manifestation of F-Commerce—and it has sparked some serious thought and innovation from other companies.
But without going into what travel sites and social group apps are doing on Facebook (which is a LOT), the long and short of it is that yes, you CAN sell products and services on Facebook. You can list each product, give the opportunity for someone to “like” it, and then purchase it, without ever leaving the comfortable Facebook “chair.” Check out how Tide is doing it: http://www.facebook.com/Tide
You see, Facebook’s primary revenues are drawn from advertising. By enabling advertisers to actually monetize their campaigns through Facebook, it helps prove how closely social media can be tied to sales, and voilá! More advertising revenue for Facebook.
This is a rapidly developing phenomenon… and as such, Facebook’s policies regarding sales may change. Right now (that means TODAY, literally) Facebook is not charging commissions on sales made on Facebook, but it IS collecting 30% on purchases of “virtual goods” made with Facebook Credits that can be purchased via PayPal.
Quick side note: virtual goods are non-physical objects purchased for use in online communities or onlines games, having no intrinsic value and, by definition are intangible… you know, things like swords, coins or potions for an online game. I know those are things you probably buy every day, like me. But last year, it was a $7.3 billion dollar industry (70% of sales were in Asia).
But back to F-Commerce. Maybe it’s time you combine your business with social media in a way that will drive groups of friends to your product. We can help you stay up with the times on the social media front…just give us the thumbs up.
Leave A Comment