Businesses are getting serious with social media. Disney recently celebrated over 100 million likes on Facebook and Dell launched its Social Media Listening Command Center to analyze buzz across different social networks.
Now, JC Penney makes its move by introducing a Facebook retail shop on its Facebook page. Users can purchase any of the 250,000 items that JC Penney sells online from its Facebook page.
“Retailers want their channels to be where their customers are,” said Jason Taylor, vice president of global product strategy for Usablenet, which built the Facebook operation for J.C. Penney. “They’ve recognized that Facebook is another place they need to be in front of their customers.”
The Facebook store also acts as an avenue to study purchasing behavior, especially on customers’ purchase decisions. The beauty of setting up a store on Facebook is in its network effect whereby people influence people.
“All of the information that Facebook has about people can be aggregated into analytical data,” Taylor said. That includes the ages of their customers, what sorts of products they share with others, and how often they peruse the store’s offerings. “The interesting additional information they’re going to get could affect their decision-making,” Taylor adds.
It seems that only big corporations like JC Penney are able to launch a full-scale store on Facebook pages. This isn’t true. Appbistro, a Facebook application marketplace, offers Payvment’s E-Commerce, an application which enables business owners to launch a professional storefront on Facebook. You’re just a click away to install this Facebook app. This application also includes a full-featured admin backend for retailers to manage products directly from Facebook.
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