“Facebook is not the future of social commerce” – False!

The Future of Social Commerce is not Facebook – Internet Retailer

Milyoni takes a very different perspective on the future of social commerce.

Disagree. The future of social commerce does include Facebook. Facebook provides a very powerful and opportunistic channel to sell products and conduct commerce. If location is the number one rule in retail, than 500 million people makes Facebook a must-have location.

It will not replace e-commerce, but it will complement it with new opportunity and experiences. Just as I can buy a Coke at the supermarket and at McDonalds and at the ballgame and in a vending machine. I can buy the same products at the local store and on the merchants website and thru eBay and now on Facebook. It doesn’t have to be either/or.

While we are in the first inning of social commerce, its easy to say there are no hits or runs, but maybe a few errors. The new year promises to heat things up as we move away from transplanting an e-commerce store into a facebook tab and hope for the best and into merchandising with social networking features that engages fans in new and powerful ways that e-commerce simply does not address.

There are two facebook stores, powered by Milyoni, that did extremely well in the last few months…The Miami Heat and the University of Oklahoma. Not because they put a store in Facebook, but because they did a great job of merchandising using social networking that rewarded their fans, generated buzz, and provided special offers and exclusive deals not found elsewhere.

With all due respect to Ethan Beard and the Facebook team, they didn’t predict the potential of gaming within Facebook, they might not know exactly how this will play out in commerce either. They know its coming in a big way…hats off to them for letting the market and innovators figure this one out and letting start-ups go at it with vigor.

Facebook is wide OPEN for commerce.