E-commerce on Facebook Can Work, If…
… you give your fans an offer they can’t receive elsewhere.
I’ve published a few articles of late that indicate a few things: Facebook users do not want to be sold to while they are feeding their chickens on Farmville or whacking someone in Mafia Wars. But consumers who become your fan on Facebook do expect something in return.
It looks like woman’s apparel and accessories seller Nine West is going about it the right way. Marketing firm Fluid launched its Fluid Fan Shop app on Nine West’s Facebook page this week , and it allows the merchant’s Facebook fans to shop for select discounted items without leaving the social network.
It Appears to be non-invasive shopping (a user can browse the items, and even “like” them and place them on their profile). And Nine West does plug the program on its home page, so potential Facebook fans can get an idea what the program is.
Does it work? Fluid tested a pop-up version of Fan Shop for Rachel Roy. In the first six hours of the store, the brand’s Facebook-exclusive product sold out. In the first 24 hours, the brand obtained 1.5 new Facebook fans each minute, and the event returned a total fan base increase of 35%.
I got word that another marketer launched a Facebook app for a merchant this week. And it seems to be the opposite extreme of what Fluid did. ShopVisible seems excited to have given RightSize Health & Nutrition e-commerce capability on its home page. So excited that they blogged about their press release being picked up on the USA Today Web site.
There’s nothing to promote the new program on the RightSize Web site - just the standard Facebook icon, no mention of what you’ll get as a Facebook fan. So whether you reach the Facebook fan page from RightSize’s Web site or search for it on Facebook, you land on a page that screams “buy our Maximum Weight Loss System.”
I logged onto RightSize’s Facebook page this morning, and there were 373 fans. I logged in about six hours later, and there were still 373 fans.
I think it’s safe to say this campaign is not working well.
February 26th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
“We are not just going to arbitrarily put marketing out to our customers if there is not a call to action.” (the Gap’s CEO said that today)
The above seems fitting, Tim. You’d think that a company pushing pills would at LEAST understand as much since that industry really has pioneered direct response marketing on the Web.
Nine West and others should check out Purch Live (http://www.pipit.com). They’re a new but very serious player. Play with it in action here on a live ecommerce site http://budurl.com/7wt6
But back to the subject: Exclusive products at Facebook ecommerce sites. Tim, is this the first you’ve seen of this? Anyone else?
Awesome discovery, Tim, and way to keep writing about what really matters — and in a tone that is spot-on!
February 26th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
Hi Tim,
You make a great point and we agree with you completely that engaging with people in the context of social media has to involve some meaningful and valuable interaction. RightSize is using their presence on Facebook, not just as a “check the box” item on their to-do list, but rather as an integrated part of their customer interaction and marketing strategy. That’s really why ShopVisible developed the Facebook application and integration that we have done. We found that many companies had the desire to use Facebook, but did not know how to make it relevant to consumers or their business. RightSize was a perfect early adopter for our technology, because their customers love to share their stories, and they repeat purchase at an incredible rate. The results that RightSize has seen in just the first week since launching the Facebook application has been incredible. A full 20% of people buying on their site have referenced that they heard about them on Facebook. Their social media strategy is a long term view, and they believe that it will continue to grow and gain momentum long into the future.
-Danielle
February 27th, 2010 at 6:05 pm
Facebook is fading. More & more people I know are using it less. When your grandparents & parents are among your friends, they’re more careful what they post. It’s less important as a marketing medium.
March 2nd, 2010 at 1:10 pm
Just a follow-up: Five days later, and the RightSize now has 389 fans. That means it has gained 16 fans since this post, or an average of three fans a day. Heck, the pickle that someone bet could get more fans than Nickleback is up to 1,535,645 fans, probably because of its irreverence.
March 2nd, 2010 at 2:06 pm
Tim, your example of pickle fandom is very important. Here’s why:
Marketers continue to attribute customers’ random, whimsical, irreverent, irrelevant, passive acts (friending, following) as meaningful. Why? They have no reason to. But yet they do “because.”
Social media is important. Why? “Because.” Because why? Because people use it a lot. Lots of people. Because we’re told it’s important by experts, news media, etc. and — most of all — because we’re awash in its “newness” and size. Witness every recent write-up about “social’s power/promise” in recent months (ie. The Economist).
The key take away here is that it’s not important “because.” If it cannot reliably produce valuable business outcomes to marketers or customers it is simply not that important — until it can. It does not earn our investment until it can.