By Jon Whiteaker –
10:39AM – Wed 17th August
E-commerce platform provider Magento has teamed up with Facebook-preferred development company Zibaba, allowing the former’s customers to easily transfer their e-tail sites on the world’s most popular social network.
With over 100,000 online merchants using Magento’s e-commerce solution to run their transactional sites, this new deal represents a major retail opportunity for Facebook to expand the number of retailers with e-stores on the site.
Launched in 2008, Magento has provided its flexible online platform to retail brands such as Harvey Nichols, Mothercare and The North Face, and in June of this year was bought out by eBay for an estimated $180 million (£110 million), having previously held a 49 per cent stake in the firm.
All of Magento’s customers will now be able to install the site provided by the tech company into their Facebook fan page with minimal effort through Zibaba’s system.
Ronen Shlomo, CEO of Zibaba, said: “We have made this development based on a huge number of requests from customers currently using the Magento e-commerce solution.”
“We live in an age where people need technical solutions that provide the fastest and easiest way to achieve their goals.
“Now that we have developed this ‘bridge’ between Magento stores and Facebook, store owners can easily cross that bridge and launch a Facebook store directly from their own Facebook fan page.”
Embedding in Facebook through Zibaba allows a retailer’s ‘fans’ to recommend, like, comment and ask advice at the e-store, whilst also sharing promotions such as group offers and coupons.
Michael Katz, Vice President for Business Development at Zibaba, says that Facebook stores are only in their infancy but are already proving a perfect way for retailers to expand their reach into social media.
“Since we launched at the end of December 2010, our figures have doubled month to month,” Katz added.
“The demand for Facebook stores is quite staggering but not surprising. After all, with over 650 million potential customers, it’s only obvious that putting a store in front of this potential customer base makes solid business sense.”
