People are looking with envy Facebook as a great way to give a lift to their business. Leveraging 300 million users of course is appealing. Some previous “social commerce” initiatives have been undertaken, but so far, results remained confidentials.E commerce tycoon Amazon has set a joint venuture with Procter & Gamble to set their first Facebook store. Indeed P&G has a strong legitimacy on the baby care market, throught their Pampers brand. The Pampers’ Facebook page counts over 300 000 people, which are seeking for information and voucher on diapers and babies in general.
Amazon has created a new tab on the page, called “buy now”, which leads to a mini store where you will find Pampers products.
This is very interesting because the activity seems to be promise to blossom ov
er the next few months. Amazon is dominating the Internet commerce industry, and now is aiming to pursue its supremacy by setting Facebook presence. Amazon has developed for years a service which allows brand to create their own Internet store thanks to Amazon’s expertise and technology. But it is the first time it is applied to Facebook. Buying diapers via a P&G-owned Facebook page is only the beginning. Although Amazon spokeswoman Tracy Ogden told TechFlash that the company "wouldn't discuss future plans" when asked if Amazon would be powering more storefronts in the future, we imagine it will. Facebook now has half a billion users, and many of them have opted into relationships with companies, brands and products through the use Facebook likes. These are a company's best customers - the ones who are willing to watch the ads, share their opinions and check out the latest deals and discounts. It only goes to reason that they will buy the products, too.
Or so you would think. Interestingly enough, social commerce hasn't yet led to a large volume of sales, Forrester Research e-commerce analyst Brian Walker told TechFlash.
That broad statement seems to discount the successes some savvy brands have already seen leveraging social networks, though. Take Best Buy, for example. It, too, has an integrated shopping tab on its fan page. Only six weeks after its late 2009 launch, it helped the company grow its fan base from 27,000 users to 900,000 and sent traffic to its official website.
On a customer relationship management point of view, of course it makes sense. You allow loyal customer which have already embraced the brand to purchase right on Facebook. I am sure that the activity will boom soon.
Now it is difficult to see what kind of specificities a Facebook store should own.
And you what do you think about it?
