Step back for a moment and think about the power of Facebook from a logical point of view. Facebook is a business. While it is selling itself as a “social” business, it is also a booming business on its own. Similar to any business model that is based on attracting visitors, the intent is to keep their users engaged and interacting. The proof is in the numbers: • According to Forrester Research and Shop.org, the conversion rates of an f-commerce store are just as high as a store from the brand or retailer’s website. Conversion rates for an f-commerce store are 2-4%, while a web store averages 3.4%. • Click-through rates on Facebook walls are 6.5% • Wetseal, for example, says that 20% of its e-commerce sales come from Facebook • 1 in 11 people are on Facebook, which is 642,613,700 users and growing • 700 billion minutes are spent on Facebook on a monthly basis • 57.1% of Internet users are on Facebook

1. 150 Million Facebook
Users Will Purchase
Something On a Brand’s
Fan Page This Year.
How many will buy
from you?
Want to get your piece of retail sales spent on
Facebook? Complete the following form to learn
how to get revenue from your brand’s Facebook
page without alienating your community.

2. Retail sales on
Facebook in 2011 will
be $100 million, what
portion of that will be
spent with your brand?
Want to get your piece of retail sales spent on
Facebook? Complete the following form to learn
how to get revenue from your brand’s Facebook
page without alienating your community.

3. A Retailers Guide to
F-Commerce
Selling to People Where They Are
Anyway – On Facebook!

4. A Retailers Guide to F-Commerce: Selling to People Where They Are Anyway–On Facebook!
About this whitepaper
The content is protected by copyright and cannot be
duplicated without permission from Zmags Inc., 320
Congress Street, Boston, MA 02210, USA.
The author or any other advisors distributing this guide can
under no circumstances be held responsible for any damage
or business impact from taking advice from this whitepaper.
For any questions regarding this whitepaper, please email
Peter Velikin, VP of Marketing at pvelikin@zmags.com
Published May 2011 © all rights reserved
2

5. The Fusing of Content
Introduction
and Commerce
As the Internet continues to to evolve with it. These firms
evolve at a rapid pace, so do the have been diligent in building
opportunities that brands and active social media communities,
retailers have available to them and now want to turn those
to increase their online revenue communities into revenue
and brand engagement. Now that streams. The key to achieving
social media networks, such as this objective is to make your
Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter—and products and services available
countless others—are attracting for purchase directly from
millions of users on a daily basis, the Facebook platform while
all retailers and brands are consumers are highly engaged.
looking for ways to turn these The question then becomes,
social interaction tools into a “Which Facebook commerce
way to make money. Already, solution will best help me meet
some of the biggest brands in and exceed my objectives?
the world are harnessing the
In this paper, we will discuss:
power of social media to increase
their sales. This phenomenon • Why Facebook can be a
is being defined as Social highly effective platform
Commerce. for selling your products
and services, if approached
With the rapid pace of the
correctly.
Internet and the growth of
• How you can apply proven
Facebook—and not just
solutions to turn your
participating network members,
Facebook community into a
but also the evolution of the
revenue stream.
capabilities made available in
the network—leading retailers
and brands are being compelled
3

6. A Retailers Guide to F-Commerce: Selling to People Where They Are Anyway–On Facebook!
Facebook: The Social
Media Network Leader
“In three to five years, 10 percent to 15 percent of total
consumer spending in developed countries may go through
sites such as Facebook.” Mike Fauscette, Analyst, IDC
Consulting
“It’s a matter of time—within the next five or so years—before
more business will be done on Facebook than Amazon.”
Sumeet Jain, Principal, CMEA Capital
With 1 out of 11 people on Facebook, and with the total
number of daily users surpassing 600 million, Facebook is
now the undisputed leader in social networks.
Social media networks, like Facebook, have long been offering
retailers and brands the option to drive traffic to their own
e-commerce sites by enabling them to link from their pages to
other sites and content. Paid ads, ‘like’ button plug-ins, and
custom apps have all been made available by the network for
brands to leverage. In recent months, the actions and changes
made by the social network leader (e.g., Facebook Deals,
Facebook Credits, Facebook ‘Send’, etc.) validate Facebook’s
recognition of the rapid growth of their network, coupled with
the growth of e-commerce. Consequently, Facebook is now
encouraging brands and retailers to leverage their community
to build supporting revenue channels.
The availability and likability of social networks has
introduced a change in the buyer/seller relationship in recent
years, such that the consumer is now in control. With access
4

7. to user reviews, recommendations and other insightful
information available online, your buyers now have more
data about your products than you do as the seller. Since
consumers are spending so much of their time (1 out of every
8 minutes) on social media networks, it’s imperative that
brands strongly consider establishing a presence on social
media networks, and support customers who wish to conduct
purchase transactions on these social media outlets.
Consider this: You, as a retailer and brand owner, have already
recognized the power of this network when you decided to
add ‘Like’ or ‘Share’ buttons to your product and solutions
pages. Connecting a recommendation or product validation
to additional information and ability to transact
is a natural evolution in this connection between
e-commerce and social networks. It then makes
sense that Facebook would introduce the tools for
brands and retailers to use the Facebook platform
as a selling platform.
These statements drive home the point that
f-commerce, retail enhanced by the use of
Facebook, is the new online selling avenue in the
here and now, and will continue to be for the foreseeable
future.
The top three brands on Facebook, based on ratings derived
directly from the fans of the brands, include Coca-Cola® (24m
fans), Starbucks® (20m fans) and Disney® (19m fans). While
each brand sells different products and services, they have
each evolved their presence on Facebook to provide their
consumers with both meaningful content and the opportunity
to transact.
5

8. A Retailers Guide to F-Commerce: Selling to People Where They Are Anyway–On Facebook!
Since these top three brands all “sell” on Facebook, they all
engage in f-commerce. Here’s how:
• Coca-Cola sells branded products directly from its
Facebook page. Facebook users can buy branded items,
including clocks, sun visors, salt and pepper shakers,
popcorn bowls and other merchandise emblazoned with
the Coca-Cola brand.
• Starbucks focuses its f-commerce efforts on its
current customers, so it engages in a loyalty strategy,
where Starbucks card holders can manage their My
Starbucks Rewards cards on Facebook. In short, it’s an
e-commerce-enabled customer retention management
(CRM) strategy. Starbucks Fans on Facebook have a
variety of options to demonstrate their loyalty. They
can buy and give a gift card to someone else, or load
more money onto a current Starbucks card, or check the
current balance on a card, or check the current loyalty
rewards status level, or cash-in rewards points for prizes
and Starbucks merchandise.
• Disney sells tickets to current Disney movies in
theaters, directly from its Facebook Store (f-store).
Users can pick the movie they want to see, invite
friends to join them, and choose the date and time—all
without ever leaving the comfort of their Facebook page.
(Payment processing for the Disney f-commerce store is
handled by Fandango.)
Each of these brands is using Facebook in its own way to
reach and convince consumers to shop where they are
already connected to the products—on Facebook.
6

9. Keeping It in the Family:
The Case for Selling on
Facebook
Step back for a moment and think about the power of
Facebook from a logical point of view. Facebook is a business.
While it is selling itself as a “social” business, it is also a
booming business on its own. Similar to any business model
that is based on attracting visitors, the intent is to keep their
users engaged and interacting.
To encourage this, Facebook has created tools, applications,
games and a myriad of other ways that enable users to
communicate with each other, conduct business, and even
shop without ever having to leave Facebook. Essentially,
Facebook is a platform that other brands can use to attract
and engage shoppers where they are already electing to
spend their time.
7

10. A Retailers Guide to F-Commerce: Selling to People Where They Are Anyway–On Facebook!
are on Facebook
57.1% of internet users
The proof is in the numbers:
• According to Forrester Research and Shop.org, the
conversion rates of an f-commerce store are just as
high as a store from the brand or retailer’s website.
Conversion rates for an f-commerce store are 2-4%,
while a web store averages 3.4%.
• Click-through rates on Facebook walls are 6.5%
• Wetseal, for example, says that 20% of its e-commerce
sales come from Facebook
• 1 in 11 people are on Facebook, which is 642,613,700
users and growing
• 700 billion minutes are spent on Facebook on a monthly
basis
• 57.1% of Internet users are on Facebook
These are just some of the figures that illustrate the power
of Facebook. These are but a few of the numbers that reveal
customers and prospective customers not only are on
Facebook, but are spending increasing amounts sharing and
shopping while there. In essence, this means that, to get
your products in front of new customers and prospects, your
products have to be on Facebook too.
642,613,700
Facebook users
8

11. Social Shopping
By nature, people are social. Not only are
people using Facebook to share pictures
and updates with friends, but they are also
shopping with friends and getting their
advice and opinions on what products
to buy. The old-school method of asking
friends and family members which product they recommend has
been replaced by the Facebook “like”. It’s happening everyday
and it’s happening with or without you, so you need to seriously
consider adding social commerce to your multi-channel web
strategy. Still have doubts? Take a look at these numbers:
• 75% of Facebook users have “liked” a brand
• Facebook users share over 30 billion pieces of content on a
monthly basis
• The average Facebook user creates 90 pieces of content
per month
The long and short of it is that social media has a tremendous
impact on shopping behavior. The fact is a referral from a
network connection has been found to be one of the most
influential drivers of purchase intent.
When you add consumer mobility to the equation, it further
increases the need for retailers and brands to be selling on
Facebook. More and more consumers are using their mobile
devices (smart phones and tablets) to access Facebook on a
more regular basis. As that trend continues to rapidly increase,
selling on Facebook allows brands to reach consumers in
their social environment and on the go. Instead of asking your
consumers to come to you, you’re now interacting with them on
their terms.
9

12. A Retailers Guide to F-Commerce: Selling to People Where They Are Anyway–On Facebook!
No Need to Reinvent the you don’t have to spend
The great news for brands is that
Wheel
valuable time coming up with a super unique way to leverage
the social shopping phenomenon. That’s because Facebook
already ‘gets it’ and Facebook is making it easy for you to sell
where people are shopping. Here’s how:
• Facebook already combines visual content with
experience, which engages users and drives them to
interact with each other.
• Facebook is primarily driven by visual content,
specifically pictures. And, as we all know, visual content
is core to effective merchandising.
• Facebook combines the personal experience of
shopping, which a brand’s website cannot offer
shoppers directly (unless they leverage the power of
Facebook or allow product reviews on their own site).
• Facebook users are receptive to using the platform to
shop because it is interactive.
Progressive retailers and brands have been diligent in
establishing communities of target consumers on Facebook.
Enabling f-commerce capabilities allows these loyal, engaged
target consumers to both have a dialogue and transact with
you, and then spread the news of that purchase through their
networks.
When you employ the ability to conduct commerce on
Facebook and offer shopping applications to the users of
Facebook, you are providing the platform for communication
and leading them from having these conversations to taking
action.
10

13. Creating an Exciting
Online Experience Is Key
to Success
When you think about in-store shopping behavior, you
realize that an exciting shopping experience is critical to
success. When you merchandise the store carefully, play
the right music, have the right fragrances, and provide
knowledgeable sales people that engage with consumers,
you have created a retail experience that will keep
customers in the store longer and ensure higher purchase
intent levels. Today, you have to transfer this competency
to Facebook.
In other words, you have to learn how to create a carefully
merchandised shopping experience on your Facebook
page. The majority of the ingredients you need for the
recipe already exist within Facebook. You do, however,
have to take the steps necessary to get it up and running for
your own brand. Here are the necessary steps, along with
valuable tips on successful execution of each solution:
INTERACTION: The primary ingredient to a successful consumer-brand
relationship is interaction. This is as true in an f-commerce
situation as it is with an offline one. On Facebook, retailers
and brands are interacting with an organic community of
loyal brand fans. And, just as you have to stay connected with
your audience in other marketing strategies, it’s critical that
you interact with them frequently and with exclusive insider
information to keep this community engaged and growing.
11

14. A Retailers Guide to F-Commerce: Selling to People Where They Are Anyway–On Facebook!
Tip for Interaction: Turn your Facebook community into an
elite group of lead users. To build a loyal following, companies
have to interact and engage with Facebook users and fans
on a regular basis and make them feel as if they are part of
the company. This group should receive preferred offers on
new products and services, and be invited to function as an
incubator for feedback on new product concepts.
FOLLOWING: Interaction between your brand and Facebook users creates
a following. It builds up a group of individual consumers or
potential customers that have an interest in your brand. The
more people that have an interest in your brand, the better
the chances you have to convert these followers into paying
customers, for the first time and on a repeat basis. Providing
Facebook users with the right mix of content on a consistent
basis is what builds up this following.
Keep in mind, too, that the average Facebook user has 130
“friends” on Facebook. This means that when you interact
Like with the user or the user interacts with your brand or
retail store, it also exposes the brand to an average of 130
additional people.
Tip for Creating a Following: Build a following on Facebook
with the content and information you share. Once you have a
large, high-quality group of followers, you can then offer them
the opportunity to buy directly from you on Facebook. The
reason you want to build your following and then introduce
f-commerce on the Facebook platform is that brands that
have a following on Facebook, and then choose to conduct
commerce on the platform, see benefits more rapidly than
those that are still in the process of building a following.
12

15. FAMILIARITY: Humans tend to steer clear of the unknown. Even when we
shop, we tend to gravitate to the stores we know. When we’re
shopping in these stores, we tend to be attracted to the
brands we are familiar with.
Tip for Familiarity: Facebook allows brands to move the
familiarity of the brand from the offline world to the online
world. Not only is the consumer familiar with your brand, but
they are also very familiar with using Facebook, and they are
comfortable in conducting various types of transactions on
Facebook. This includes communicating with other users and
with brands. It also includes making purchases directly from
the brands and retailers that offer some kind of f-commerce
option.
When it comes to familiarity, Facebook also endorses a
casual relationship between brands and shoppers. The
Facebook community is really a place where brands and
retailers can “let their hair down” and have some fun. Some
brands and retailers reveal the human side of their business
by sharing pictures of their employees. Others engage “fans”
by hosting fun or silly contests—all of which helps the fans
become more familiar with the brand on a personal level,
and makes shoppers feel more comfortable and personally
involved with the brand.
13

16. A Retailers Guide to F-Commerce: Selling to People Where They Are Anyway–On Facebook!
MERCHANDISING: As a retailer or consumer brand, you are highly skilled at both
in-store merchandising and catalog merchandising. You know
how to lay out the store, or design the catalog, to maximize
purchases according to shopper behavior.
Tip for Merchandising: Use this same level of merchandising
knowledge combined with online data and apply it to
f-commerce. You can create a customized online shopping
experience that replicates the carefully merchandised in-
store and catalog experiences, but is highly optimized for
performance based on analytics. Within this experience,
use beautiful imagery, as well as rich media, to bring the
company and its products and services to life.
14

17. Expectations of the
Facebook Consumer
The key to leveraging the power of f-commerce is creating
an innovative experience for Facebook users. Facebook
users expect brands and retailers to deliver an experience
that makes them feel comfortable and is properly suited for
the social platform, yet conveys the look and feel the brand
represents.
The expectations of consumers are different on Facebook vs.
the retailer’s direct site, regarding what they want and expect
the brand to deliver, in addition to how the information
should be presented. For example, Facebook users are
looking to receive exclusive offers or be the first to know
about new products before they become available to the
general public.
Traditional ‘flat’ product images, often seen in online stores,
are not effective in the social media network. Again, the
expectations of this network audience is highly connected
by content, so you need to consider incorporating videos,
high-res graphics, or even real-life models wearing the
clothes of the brand or retail store, so as to capture and
keep the attention of users on Facebook. One of the ways to
enable Facebook commerce—we’ll talk more about later—is
to offer your products right on your Facebook page. Your
presentation of these products and your merchandising
techniques will need to be modified to suit both the platform
and the expectations of your shoppers. F-commerce is about
more than simply reproducing your traditional print catalog
or e-commerce store and pasting it into Facebook. Catalogs
15

18. A Retailers Guide to F-Commerce: Selling to People Where They Are Anyway–On Facebook!
or presentations should be built and designed based on
merchandising techniques—which is the best way to expose
brands and products. By using online analytics, retailers and
brand manufacturers can accurately create content for the
f-commerce store that is based on user preferences.
F-commerce is the wave of the future, too, with the use of
mobile and app-based platforms. Some experts see Facebook
as the Operating System (OS) of the future.
• More than 200 million Facebook users access Facebook
with their mobile devices—smartphones and tablets
• Facebook users accessing the social network with
mobile devices are twice as active on Facebook than PC
users accessing Facebook
• 94% of phone users communicate on social networks
using their mobile phones
• 50% of mobile Internet traffic is for accessing Facebook
and other social networks
• 70% of Facebook users use Facebook applications
• 550,000 applications are currently active on Facebook
• 44% of retailers plan to use Facebook applications in
place of microsites for product launches and promotions
16

19. 200 MILLION
mobile Facebook
users
» using 550,000 apps
» consuming 50% of
mobile internet traffic
17

20. A Retailers Guide to F-Commerce: Selling to People Where They Are Anyway–On Facebook!
3 Ways for Brands to
Harness the Power of
F-commerce
Now that you have a deeper understanding of the opportunity
that f-commerce holds for your company, it’s time to get down
to the solutions available to make it happen. Generally, brands
and retailers have three primary options for using its Facebook
presence to create an f-commerce opportunity:
1. The Facebook Mall
2. On-site Redirect
3. Interactive Catalog
1. The Facebook Mall
The Facebook Mall works similar to a brick and mortar shopping
mall. Facebook has partnered with Payvment to allow Facebook
pages to create a “storefront” tab on a brand’s Facebook page.
This allows retailers and brands to display their products for sale
and allows Facebook users to shop from Facebook, add items to
their shopping cart, and check out. The added bonus for Facebook
users and shoppers is that they are not limited to just shopping
for your products, but instead have the ability to add products
from different merchants to their shopping carts and check out
with one seamless process.
Since people want to stay in Facebook while conducting their
purchasing transactions, using the Facebook Mall allows brands
and retailers to control merchandising on the brand’s Facebook
page. You own the content and your page, but you have support
promoting it to the millions of Facebook users via the public Mall.
18

21. Pros and Cons
Product Exposure. The Facebook Mall can work for and against
retailers and brands. Since it is a “mall” environment, it essentially is
a warehouse of goods. Therefore, you don’t control how your products
are presented to consumers. The potential exposure can be valuable,
but it can also put your identical products in direct competition with
other companies selling the same or similar products.
Facebook Presence. Getting your products in The Facebook Mall can,
of course, work for companies that don’t have a strong Facebook
presence. It’s a fast, cost-effective way to test how your products will
sell within your Facebook community members, and also allow you to
extend your reach to non-members.
Social Shopping. Another feature to consider is the social shopping
aspect that Payvment brings to the shopping experience in The
Facebook Mall. In addition to making multiple products available
for shopping and checking out at one time, Payvment also allows
fellow Facebook friends to see what friends are buying, “liking” or
reviewing.
So, if you add in item in your shopping cart, it also appears in your
newsfeed. You can then make a comment on your purchase for others
to see. In turn, friends can also leave their own comments or comment
back on the items that you have purchased.
If you want to deliver memorable, highly curated
shopping experiences, the Facebook Mall is not for
you. However, if you’re a new business that is simply
trying to drive awareness of your products, this
could be an effective solution.
19

22. A Retailers Guide to F-Commerce: Selling to People Where They Are Anyway–On Facebook!
2. On-site Redirect
The second primary option for displaying your products and
services on Facebook is with an on-site redirect. This option
allows you to display your products on a custom tab on the
brand or retailer’s Facebook page. When visitors to the page
click on the product, it sends them to the e-commerce store
that sits on your website to complete the transaction, taking
them out of the world of Facebook.
So, what happens here is that one of the tabs on your
Facebook page is labeled “products” or “shopping” or
“shop.” You can embed images of each of your products in
the tab and even display some information, such as a product
description and price. Facebook shoppers can click on the
image of the product to obtain more information or to make
a purchase. Instead of the transaction taking place within
Facebook, however, the shopper is re-directed to your website
e-commerce store so the transaction can be complete.
In essence, your presence on Facebook acts like a link
directory where you are positioning your company and
information to consumers in places where they will find you in
order to drive them back to your site.
Pros and Cons
Establish a Facebook Presence. Using the on-site redirect
option has its advantages and disadvantages. The primary
benefit is that it allows brands and retailers to enable
commerce on Facebook. It gets your products in front of
shoppers. Since the Facebook option redirects or sends the
visitors back to the website of the brand or retail store, it
works as a traffic driver.
20

23. Disconnected Experience for Consumer. The primary
disadvantage is that it creates a disconnected experience
because it requires consumers to leave Facebook to complete
the transaction. While a percentage of your consumers will
ultimately feel more comfortable visiting your site directly
to complete the transaction, you risk alienating those that
wish to stay within their favorite social network to complete
the entire consumer journey from awareness to transaction.
Therefore, it may not be the most beneficial option in creating
the Facebook experience that users seek. Once they see that
they are being sent to your website, they may close your site
and simply return back to Facebook. Others, however, may
continue with the transaction. The goal is to satisfy both, so
you need to strongly consider how much of this market you
wish to capture before you choose this option solely.
Technology Risk. There is also some infrastructure risk
associated with using onsite re-direct to promote your
products. Facebook, as it has been known to do, could make
changes to your ability to use this option. For example,
Facebook recently removed FBML script from the site to
migrate everything over to iFrames. Consider the implications
if they were to remove the products or shopping tab
altogether! In short, this puts your brand at risk and leaves
it at the mercy of Facebook, which means you lose some
control. It’s completely unpredictable.
»
21

24. A Retailers Guide to F-Commerce: Selling to People Where They Are Anyway–On Facebook!
3. Interactive Catalog
The catalog shopping experience has evolved with
technology. Now, you have the ability to embed an interactive
catalog into a tab on your Facebook page and conduct
commerce within it. Just as consumers would flip through a
print catalog, they can “flip” through the interactive shopping
experience that combines the rich media content that
Facebook users consume with the ability to transact without
leaving the catalog. Companies can leverage this option to
satisfy shoppers who wish to complete the entire process
within the social network, and provide the ability to navigate
to their ecommerce website for those that do not.
Pros and Cons
Facebook Navigation. The primary advantage of the
interactive catalog is that it allows companies to create an
online experience that integrates compelling content with
the opportunity to transact. Consumers can engage with your
content, click on products, and add items to their shopping
cart without ever leaving Facebook. Combining the familiarity
22

25. of their social network with the proven format of a linear, rich
media experience, this option truly supports users who wish
to navigate Facebook and stay in the application to complete
conversions.
Capture Impulse Purchases. Another advantage of the
interactive catalog is that it allows retailers and brands to
capture impulse purchases because of the high levels of
customer engagement. The combination of validation of a
network connection’s ‘like’ and the compelling content you
present to potential shoppers to encourage the sales, cause
consumers to stay longer and buy more, without interruption.
Technology Challenges. There are some technology
challenges associated with this option. First, you have to
have an interactive catalog to embed into Facebook. An
interactive catalog is not a PDF file of your product catalog.
It’s a virtual catalog that combines the look and feel of a real
catalog with online shopping cart capabilities. Rather than
a flat look and feel, an interactive catalog creates a truly
merchandised presentation of your products that pulls the
shopper in and moves them through the catalog.
In order to truly monetize your Facebook presence, it’s not
simply a “build it and they will come” mentality when it
comes to successfully selling from the Facebook platform.
While these consumers have elected to engage with your
company, what and how you offer them to purchase will
determine your success.
23

26. A Retailers Guide to F-Commerce: Selling to People Where They Are Anyway–On Facebook!
Social Commerce Tips
from the Pros
In order to cut through the mountains of information on
the topic, here are some of the best practices from social
commerce thought leaders:
• According to Angie Schottmuller from ClickZ, it’s wise
to offer exclusive content on Facebook. Create a special
offer or special shopping experience to Facebook
Facebook followers or those who are willing to “like” your brand
E!
EXCLUSIV or retail store on Facebook. The ‘exclusive’ may be the
inside scoop, an exclusive deal, or products that are
available to FB users prior to the rest of the world.
• Jason Taylor from Usablenet says that retailers and
brands should support easy and secure e-commerce, so
that the “shop from Facebook” experience is positive
when associated with your brand.
• Ruth Mortimer from Adage encourages brands and
retailers to leverage f-commerce as a way to provide
instant gratification.
• Jake Hird from Econsultancy warns that it’s not about
choosing between e-commerce and f-commerce; it
should in fact be both that you are using to promote
your brand and its products.
• Brian Solis from E-Commerce to F-Commerce says not
to replace e-commerce with f-commerce, but to use
both. F-commerce reaches the social consumer, while
e-commerce reaches and fulfills the needs of your
traditional consumers.
24

27. Don’t replace
e-commerce
with f-commerce
—USE BOTH
F-commerce reaches the social
consumer, while e-commerce
reaches and fulfills the needs of
your traditional consumers
25

28. A Retailers Guide to F-Commerce: Selling to People Where They Are Anyway–On Facebook!
Conclusion
So, there you have it. We hope this paper provided you with
the foundation to understand the opportunity presented by
monetizing your Facebook community. However, you also see
the need to approach this strategically, as the last thing you
want to do is alienate this vital community by turning their
social experience into a sales experience.
You also know now that you have options in how you present
and sell your products on Facebook. Now that you have all
this information on this topic, it is up to you to evaluate
which option provides the most benefits to you, your
prospects and your customers.
26

29. To recap:
• The Facebook Mall allows you to extend the reach of
your products beyond your fan base, but puts you at risk
of a highly competitive marketplace.
• Using Facebook as a traffic driver to your ecommerce
site will ultimately help improve your web traffic and
may lead to conversions, but you are not reaching
consumers that wish to transact within Facebook itself.
• Interactive catalogs allow you to present your company
in a rich, dynamic manner, enabling the consumer to
transact directly from within the catalog, but achieving
this solution will require you to devote additional
resources to design and implement your online catalog.
Regardless of the option that suits your needs best, as a
company seeking to increase revenue, you need to seriously
consider a multi-channel strategy in reaching today’s
consumer and one of those channels should be Facebook.
Remember, as a retailer or brand, you are no longer in control
of where the consumer shops or finds you. The primary
way to reach them is to put your products in places where
shoppers are most likely to find them. Because of its size
and potential impact on brands, Facebook has defined
the role “social commerce” plays when it comes to online
transactions.
Leveraging Facebook permits your brand or retail store to
play a role in social commerce—one that just may help you
reach a 3.4% conversion rate from your f-commerce store;
obtain a 6.5% click-through rate on your Facebook wall;
reach 642,613,700 Facebook users and 57.1% of the Internet
users that are on Facebook. How powerful would that be for
your sales?
27

30. A Retailers Guide to F-Commerce: Selling to People Where They Are Anyway–On Facebook!
Want to get your piece of retail sales spent on
Facebook? Complete the following form to learn
how to get revenue from your brand’s Facebook
page without alienating your community.
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31. A Retailers Guide to F-Commerce: Selling to People Where They Are Anyway–On Facebook!
Are You Ready for
Facebook Commerce?
8th Bridge, a Facebook e-commerce software
company, forecasts retail sales on Facebook in 2011
will be IRO $100 million
Facebook’s referral traffic to Amazon grew 328% year over year in
Oct. 2010, while Google’s traffic dropped 2%. Facebook traffic to
eBay grew 81% while Google traffic dropped 3%.
According to 8th Bridge, people are 18 times more likely to buy
directly in their News Feed than when clicking off to a separate
website
Progressive brands and retailers are taking notice that their
consumers are spending their time on social networks.
Zmags enables you to reach your community and share an
enriched experience that not only engages them with your
content and products but inspires them to convert without
alienating them and making the transaction feel forced.
• Easily publish online content to Facebook using a custom app
located on your brand’s fan page and Zmags
• Track engagement and conversion from your Facebook catalog
to capture product performance data and overall conversions
with your community
• Deliver a fully merchandised, interactive experience to your
fans that encourages conversions without disrupting the
social nature of the network
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32. Over 3000 brands use Zmags to deliver rich, interactive
content to their audiences.
Click on any of these brands to see how they are using Zmags
Facebook enhancement to connect their content to their
community.
Cascio Music
Great Valley
Publishing
MyTown
NAVC
District of Saanich University of Colorado
Boulder
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33. A Retailers Guide to F-Commerce: Selling to People Where They Are Anyway–On Facebook!
Online catalogs capture attention.
When compared to navigation on HTML product pages, consumers stay
longer in a catalog format and put more items in their cart.
Online catalogs fit in with your
mobile strategy.
Because Zmags is fully optimized for all devices, you have the ability to
create 1 catalog that is cross-channel. Brands have also added their Zmags
catalog to mobile apps and double the number of visitors.
Online catalogs provide consumer
behavior and product performance
analytics.
Literally the only advantage you have online is the analytics. Using Zmags,
track how consumers use your catalog to drive offline merchandising
decisions.
30

34. A Retailers Guide to F-Commerce: Selling to People Where They Are Anyway–On Facebook!
Over
2500 brands
use Zmags
to increase
engagement and
conversions.
Get started today!
30

35. Over
2500 brands
use Zmags
to increase
engagement and
conversions.
Get started today!
31

36. A Retailers Guide to F-Commerce: Selling to People Where They Are Anyway–On Facebook!
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