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December 9th, 2011
By the ZippyCart Content Team
Facebook commerce, or f-commerce, will undoubtedly be one of the fastest spreading ecommerce trends of 2012. Many mega-retailers have already begun to leverage f-commerce technology and create retail storefronts on the social media website. With more than 800 million active Facebook users globally, f-commerce is a great tool giving retailers exposure to a vast online market.
For retailers looking to engage in the growing world of social shopping, f-commerce solution StoreYa offers useful tools. StoreYa provides easy importing of products, a unique search engine, language customization and the tools for retailers to maintain existing e-commerce platforms for sales, returns and order processing. StoreYa is especially helpful to retailers who don’t have coding or design experience.
Perhaps the most convenient tools StoreYa provides is one-click importing. Using the Magento platform, StoreYa allows retailers to import their entire online store into Facebook. The process is quick and painless, with nothing required of retailers further than directing StoreYa to their existing Magento store. While in beta StoreYa services are free for merchants to use, which is a great opportunity for retailers to test their f-commerce viability.
Facebook commerce was listed in our recent roundup of the top ecommerce trends for 2012 and for good reason. A study released by Reevoo on Monday (12/5) outlined the quickly increasing number of shoppers in the UK who are turning to Facebook to fulfill their ecommerce needs.
Founder and CEO of Reevoo, Richard Anson had this to say about the importance of leveraging social commerce:
“We have said for some time how vital it is that marketers who have so far ignored social commerce need to look at it very seriously, now. Many brands are translating these social changes into revenue, while those that don’t will be left behind – and now we can see just how fast they might be receding into the distance.”
Reevoo’s survey yielded results similar to Performetric’s October survey on social shopping in the US. The data from both surveys show that f-commerce is not only an important channel for retailers in the United States to realize, but European retailers have a large social commerce market too. Reevoo’s survey found the number of shoppers buying products through f-commerce has doubled in just the last 9 months, increasing from 4% to 8%. Both surveys highlighted the importance shoppers place on friends opinions posted on Facebook with Reevoo’s survey showing shoppers are increasingly turning to Facebook for product recommendations. According to the survey, 24% now use it to see track what their friends “like”, 27% look to friends for product recommendations and 21% are influenced by the products friends have bought and recommended.
