Archive for the ‘E-Commerce’ Category
Will Facebook Become the Leader in Social Commerce?
Wednesday, December 26th, 2007Two years ago, Steve Rubel was speculating that social commerce would be a hot topic in 2006. I don’t think he could have forseen the launch of the Facebook platform. Facebook has changed the way that we interact with each other and keep track of our ongoing relationships. Then a few days ago Facebook began looking for beta testers for their new payment system.
Next year, look for Facebook to become the dominant player in social shopping. So what is social shopping? There are many definitions but my own definition is “the integration of recommendations from trusted sources when making a purchase decision online.” While Amazon has already integrated comments on products, the largest problem is that I don’t know who made each review. As a result, those reviews are not as valuable for me.
On Facebook, we will know what types of products our friends are purchasing (via Beacon and platform applications) and will be able to use their purchases and reviews as a guide when making our own purchases. With the advent of Facebook payment system, look for advanced e-commerce applications to rise in popularity. Just as I have made many book purchase decisions via blogs, I will now make many more of those decisions based on my friends in Facebook.
While some believe that Facebook is only big in 2007, I believe that Facebook is going to further extend their dominance next year beginning with the launch of their Facebook payment system. While the paradigm shift may not be apparent overnight, by the end of next year we will have witnessed a revolution in online shopping.
Can Facebook Increase Your Sales? Definitely.
Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007I received an email this morning from BustedTees.com telling me about a new application that they just released called “T-Shirt Money Maker.” I have been extremely skeptical about making money via Facebook applications. That was until I saw yesterday’s data which suggested profiles are the number one source of application installs. These are installs that result from user clicks. The only way to place an ad in a profile at this point is through an application.
I would argue that an ad in the profile is going to be much more effective than Flyer ads. This isn’t backed by any sort of quantitative data though. While this would make for a great research paper, my hypothesis remains that it is in fact possible to sell things via profiles. While it may not be as profitable for the users that decide to add the application to their profile, the owner of the application who can aggregate all the user profiles has a significant promotional opportunity. The real key to any of these applications is going to be provide enough incentive to the users that have the application.
For BustedTees, I think they have provided users with enough incentive. The incentive is that they get to display entertaining images on their profile. Whether or not they sell any t-shirts, users will have entertaining content that is displayed on their profiles. This is the only reason that I think this application will have any chance of being successful. The Visual Bookself application and Flixter’s Movies application are the only applications that I’ve seen successfully leverage affiliate sales through the profile. This is because people want to show off their movies and books to their friends.
Soon enough a large number of people may be showing off their Busted T-Shirts if BustedTees has anything to say about it. I will follow-up with BustedTees in the coming months to see if their application is successful at generating sales. In regards to the application, it is extremely simple. First, you pick the t-shirts that you would like to display on your profile. Second, you enter in your information for how you would like to receive payment. You’re done! Now you can sit back and watch the money roll it. At a minimum you can have some pretty entertaining T-Shirts to show off on your profile. If you like entertaining t-shirts, check out the T-Shirt Money Maker application
T-Shirt Money Maker Home
T-Shirt Money Maker Settings Page
T-Shirt Money Maker Profile Display
Another Facebook Application Marketplace Launches
Monday, August 27th, 2007
Last month I wrote about the first Facebook app marketplace. This weekend, a new one launched which has duplicated the eBay auction platform technology called Appmrkt. As of now there are only 5 applications that are for sale but I have a feeling this will grow.
I find it particularly remarkable how the Facebook economy has rapidly become a self supporting ecosystem. From Facebook developers, to consultants, to development tools, to online auctions for applications and finally the risk seeking investors. This has truly become an incredible ecosystem that I am proud to be a part of. The Facebook economy is thriving and the launch of this marketplace is a symbol of the success.
If you want to buy or sell Facebook applications, go check out the Facebook AppMrkt.
E-Commerce Gets Tested on Facebook
Tuesday, August 7th, 2007
Early this morning Buy.com announced their new Garage sale application which allows Facebook users to buy and sell items between themselves. According to Yahoo news, the new service “allows users to bypass online auction and sales sites and to sell goods directly from a profile page — Buy.com hopes to attract business away from larger rival eBay Inc.” As Mike Arrington points out there are similar services already being offered including Mosoma which I previously covered. Mosoma failed to gain traction, obtaining only 215 users. While the Buy.com application has already surpassed that number it hasn’t experienced any viral growth and I seriously doubt it will. There is already the Facebook marketplace which is sufficient for users that want to sell their items. Additionally, one would imagine that eBay will soon launch their own competing application that allows you to list your items on eBay and within the platform. While this is nowhere near over, it will be interesting to see how the Buy.com application performs. They will definitely need to reach critical mass before the marketplace becomes efficient. If you want to try listing your items via yet another auction platform go grab the GarageSale application.
An Auction for Facebook
Monday, July 16th, 2007
Looking for a way to auction off your unwanted items on Facebook? Devin Hendricks has made a pretty robust application that acts as an alternative to eBay. The most important component of a successful auction system is having a lot of participants. Currently, the number of participants is lacking significantly (there are only 29 people so far but it hasn’t been added to the application directory). Additionally, there are only a few products that are currently being listed. The stories that I previously heard of successful marketplaces revolved around an individual selling practically everything they had for the purpose of getting the marketplace moving. I have a feeling that this is going to be an uphill battle. I’m not sure how much of a competitive advantage putting the auction on Facebook will create. This application is definitely robust and if you are looking for a new way of auctioning your items this is definitely the way to go. If you want to go auction off your items on Facebook for less than the cost of eBay, go grab the Mosoma application.
Super Stalker With Social Flowers
Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007
At first glance I thought “Oh, how nice? An application that lets you send real flowers.” Then I realized this is the ideal application of a stalker! Social Flowers allows you to send real flowers to any Facebook user even if you don’t know them. If you had a lot of money you could probably go around sending flowers to people randomly but then again that is a pretty weird practical joke. While I think that this application is pretty cool from the perspective that it’s an easy way to send flowers, it definitely could be added to the professional stalker’s arsenal of weapons. If you want a great way for making someone’s day or alternatively scaring them with a strange message in their flowers, go grab the Social Flowers Application.
Zappos Comes to Facebook
Monday, June 18th, 2007
The largest online shoe store, Zappos.com has launched a Facebook application. Feel free to skip this one though because it’s pretty crappy. To be honest I’m a little shocked that a such a large organization would release an application that feels like it is halfway complete. While I wasn’t able to test the full functionality since I don’t have an existing favorites listing on their store, there was no presence of design in the application. I hate to rail a company but if you are going to release such a featureless and poorly designed application, I have to be honest. If you want a great example of how not to release an application on Facebook, go test the Zappos application.
