It looks like we have another social channel turning into a commerce channel. Facebook announced last week that they will soon help people discover and purchase products directly from them with a ‘buy’ button that will sit neatly next to the ‘like’ button. It’s geared to make impulse purchases simple for people while boosting commerce conversion for brands.
Sure, they’ll be taking a cut for the commerce they drive. But this new feature is also meant to support the value of their advertising. If people can get their interest piqued and purchase, isn’t it worth more than just an ad?
Facebook has taken some serious beatings regarding privacy concerns and their highly targeted nature, but this new news begs the question—if Facebook can curate products just for me and make it one-click-simple for me to buy, could those often annoying newsfeed ads become a valued service?
The answer may depend on us retail people. If the participating brands mitigate the annoyance factor of newsfeed ads by ensuring that the products are of max appeal and tied to great deals, we may be onto something.
We’ve talked about the notion of social shopping often, and this is one more indicator that it’s real and here to stay. But will users trust these social channels enough to share their financial information with them, ever-evolving privacy policies and all? Or do they prefer to keep their wallet data with the retailers? How will the ultimate answers affect your ecommerce and social strategies?
Contributed by: Laura Davis-Taylor
Photo Source: Facebook.com
