facebook commerce is a term that has been used to describe social commerce. Buying with your friends after asking them for their opinion instead of using reviews and third party recommendations. Having your products on a platform that has 800 million users should seem logical right? I am not convinced but I am willing to alter my opinion if I could get proper return on investment (ROI) statistics. fcommerce after the f8 developer could be a huge game changer and is something that all eCommerce executives should look at.
I have battled with the like economy as in certain cases it just had no relevance. “Like this in order to be entered into this competition.” “Like this product..” Like an item is as good as useless as for all intensive purposes as it forces no further action from the user. Providing developers the opportunity to hack the Open Graph could lead to greater online experiences for eCommerce users.
The Open Graph is the most significant update to Platform since it launched in 2007, expanding the capabilities and opportunities for social apps, from music to TV to news to lifestyle apps such as cooking, fitness, and travel.
Mark Zuckerberg is a clever entrepreneur and it is obvious after all of the announcements made at f8 that facebook is the new yahoo. They want to own the entire Internet experience and are trying to bring as much as of the offline activity online.
Getting back to ecommerce
facebook has brought out and it will roll out over time, a few new activity events. 8thBridge will roll out eCommerce specific buttons that I think will be highly effective for all companies involved with eCommerce.
New Social Shopping Actions from 8thBridge The Like button and Open Graph API announcements last year opened a new era in openness on the web. While the opportunities with those platforms enhancements were limitless, we were not alone in feeling that “like” was not a perfect fit for commerce. We felt “like” reflected a feeling for the user of something they had already experienced or had great familiarity with. And in the context of commerce, it better expressed satisfaction than it did reflect desire or intent. The latter of course, is a very valuable expression for both users browsing a product for the first time and for merchants to understand what users want most. The three new social shopping actions we’ll be rolling out for our customers include Want, Follow, and Own.
Want Button We believe this to be the most important action that users want to express while shopping as well as discover what their friends are interested in while browsing their Facebook News Feed or Ticker. Even further, we are excited about users creating their “want lists.”
Own Button The potential for the own action is both aspirational and utilitarian. So for those who want to show their friends that they own a Rolex, they can do so through actions and profile boxes. And for those who may want to answer questions, write reviews, and provide recommendations, the own action can be a valuable utility.
It may seem like I am just rattling this off but I think 8thBridge might be on to something. I can imagine that many potential shoppers might be more willing to use the want button than the traditional like button. The same can be said of the Own button as it will force users to go back to the initial product page and change their action.
I think Rohit Bhargava describes it the best:
More importantly, I think this will help us all return to the importance that we have assigned for centuries to the idea of actually liking something. Now I don’t have to like something as a cost of entry, so I’m free to only declare my like for those things that I truly feel that way about. Likeability always mattered – but with Facebook’s latest update it can finally return to the importance it once had. By rethinking the Like button, Facebook has finally made liking anything as important as it used to be.