Comments on: Why is Facebook’s e-commerce offering so disappointing?

By: bnrprasad

bnrprasad — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 10:22:45 +0000

“Will you be successful in selling an item to a group of people sitting in a bar enjoying a beer relishing their old friendship days?”. Nope, it needs a different technique which facebook needs to discover.

By: jglogau

jglogau — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 04:29:54 +0000

This article about Facebook not being a place to make a purchase is dead on. I have said this for years, but had to be less vocal because I was involved with a company that touted FB as the second coming of ecommerce. The article has two major points:

1. The FB ecommerce process is user hostile. Users are forced to do a FB sign-in and the shopping cart sign-in. Want a contrast, look at how easy Amazon shopping is. Goodness, sign up for any half way decent payment gateway and you’ll get sample code in your language of choice that makes purchasing as seamless as possible.

2. People just don’t go to Social Media sites to shop. They go there to socialize. That’s also why media purchases, like for a movie over the coming weekend, is successful. That’s a truly social event.

As pointed out in a comment on the article FB is good for branding/awareness at the beginning of the sales funnel and at the end, for post sales support. But that’s too hard to explain to Wall Street when it comes to evaluation.

If FB did a proper ecommerce API item one would be solved and companies could than get creative about item 2.

By: Erica Ayotte

Erica Ayotte — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 18:49:00 +0000

I think the problem lies in trying to force Facebook into direct response model. Users don’t approach the platform with that kind of mindset. Facebook and it’s advertisers would do better to utilize Facebook at the top and bottom of the marketing “funnel” to use traditional speak. Meaning they should user Facebook to get share of attention/interest of prospects AND use it as an customer retention tool. But Facebook just may not be in that middle zone where the transaction occurs. If anything we should be focused on “p-commerce” — Pinterest commerce because that is a platform that consumers approach with a shopping mindset. And there’s already quite a bit of data supporting Pinterest as a better direct response/buy platform than Facebook.

By: dave

dave — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 17:58:25 +0000

You can shop from Facebook? I get ticked off that ads are in my news feed when I am just sporadically checking in to see if my friends posted anything interesting or if instead it’s a night my one friend has flooded the news feed with lovely shoes that she wants to buy someday, which I promptly pass over being content with sneakers and not into women’s shoes…..

By: AdiShan

AdiShan — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 12:19:14 +0000

One thing often people and businesses miss is that Facebook was conceived, built and will be a time-passer platform. No one serious will ever look at the ads or go do a buy/business deal. In many time as a facebook user, I hardly recall even once if I have paid attention to any of those ads.

Added to the fact that Facebook is a closed eco-system, that means the global reach for content via search like in Google will not happen. So the content has a restricted and pre-defined (what Mark or Facebook thinks is right) exposure.

By: Philip Rooke

Philip Rooke — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 11:35:00 +0000

Every journalist who interviews me wants to know what success we have had on Facebook. It feels like you are not a real eCommerce business until you have worked out how to drive sales on Facebook. Or you not created anything special until you have made big sales on Facebook.

All the great things we have done as a company around the world, with new ways of doing things and lots of success; 50% of the time get one question and followed straight afterwards with the Facebook question.

I joke that successful eCommerce on Facebook coverage online is like the endless hunt for UFO’s & Ancient Aliens. There are thousands of blogs, articles and videos all talking about it but no one can prove anything.

By: Henry Dean

Henry Dean — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 09:47:05 +0000

Facebook commerce will never work because it equates to “trying to sell stuff to people while they’re hanging out with their friends at the bar” according to Forrester Research’s Sucharita Mulpuru. http://www.mycustomer.com/topic/social-crm/facebook-commerce-forget-failures-how-can-you-make-it-work/141145

By: Dennis O'Malley

Dennis O'Malley — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 04:55:47 +0000

Storytelling is the best selling and Facebook does a great job of letting people tell their stories. e-Commerce sites are great for product details and purchases. At ReadyPulse we have seen successful brands move Facebook to e-commerce, but not e-commerce to Facebook. Imagine your current e-commerce stores with elegant customer and fan stories, that are more authentic, visual, and interactive than text based, in authentic reviews.

By: Michael Sinsheimer

Michael Sinsheimer — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 20:42:36 +0000

They may have a context issue meaning people don’t come to Facebook to shop – they go to swap stories and photos so altering the behavior is difficult. We are working hard on social commerce at Flash Purchase where sharing deals drives better bargains. It’s early and we are in beta.

By: Chris Gutknecht

Chris Gutknecht — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 18:14:13 +0000

The typical product discovery is through search. I don’t think Facebook’s new search functionality will ever rival Google (for commercial intent searches) like Amazon does. If friends show me a product, I couldn’t imagine the product being shown on Facebook. The last glimmer of hope might be retargeting through the new FBX, yet that would make FB an ad network with no shopping experience of its own. So, same verdict, FB will imho not work as a marketplace.