F-commerce well on way to becoming billion-pound marketplace

It’s something we’ve been saying for some time, but F-commerce is alive and well, and that’s been confirmed by a recent study. While the concept of selling via Facebook stores may still be in its infancy it continues to grow fast and it’s this growth that has companies (and us!) excited at just where it could go.

The study, which was conducted by surveying more than 60 online e-commerce merchants with an existing Facebook shop, suggests that the future for F-commerce is bright.

Just over two-thirds said they were seeing a healthy return on investment via their Facebook store. Even those companies saying their overall sales were ‘slightly improved’ or ‘no change’, were planning further investment in F-commerce in the next 6-12 months.

Although doubts have been cast over the future of Facebook retail, following some high profile F-Commerce store closures recently, an increasing number of companies are seeing massive returns by selling using the social platform as an additional revenue stream.

From what we’ve seen, it’s the companies that offer something other than an extended store-front of their standard e-commerce site that really stand out and are the ones blazing a trail for all others to follow. Add to that the fact that Facebook is already responsible for billions of pounds of third-party commerce transactions via apps and social plugins and you can hopefully start to share our optimism for F-Commerce.

In our view, the future of shopping is in Facebook and other social channels, because social commerce has the ability to personalise shopping, making it easy and fun for consumers to shop and share their experience with their friends in a familiar environment.

For F-commerce to truly develop into the billion-pound market it’s capable of becoming, companies need to understand that integrating e-commerce stores into Facebook is just the first step. The next step is to provide the right engagement and promotional tools, such as fan-exclusive deals and discounts, and a personalised shopping experience, adding value to the social shopping experience.