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Expert: Don't give up on Facebook shops just yet

Recent Facebook storefront failures are all part of the learning process for social media e-commerce, according to Naked Communications', Adam Ferrier.

A number of retailers have set up and subsequently shuttered their Facebook storefront outlets but social media e-commerce still has great potential, according to Naked Communications founding partner and consumer psychologist, Adam Ferrier.

He was speaking at the Communications Alliance Broadband and Beyond Conference in Sydney.

Naked Communications is a marketing and brand management firm.

Recently US retail chains Gap, J.C. Penney, Nordstrom and Gamestop have all shafted their Facebook storefronts leaving observers to speculate on whether Facebook, or other social networking outlets for that matter, is a viable for doing business on.

But the fact companies are experimenting with social media e-commerce is already an encouraging sign, according to Ferrier.

“It's an infantile business and experimenting in this space is really good,” he told ARNsaid. “People are entering this realising some of their efforts are going to fail and some of them are going to work.

“But they are going to learn from any success or failure.”

Australian retailers are slowly jumping on-board the Facebook shop bandwagon as well with Melbourne-based environmentally friendly goods retailer, Ettitude, listed as one of three Facebook commerce success stories by Mashables.com last year.

“I don't think anybody has cracked the right model for social media commerce yet such as how to use the 'like' button on Facebook or social media interactions in terms of overall sales,” Ferrier said. “But I think it's a goldmine of opportunity.”

Facebook will not be suitable for all types of products since it people shopping on the social networking site will be more ruthless in terms of what they will or will not buy, according to Ferrier.

“You need items that can get social opinions on very quickly, items that have high share-ability - items you can kind of ask people's opinions on,” he said. “It's all about purchases that lend themselves to social environments.

Nominations for the 2012 ARN IT Industry Awards open on Tuesday, June 12.

More about: ARN, Bloomberg, Facebook, Nordstrom
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Tags: Adam Ferrier, Broadband and Beyond 2012, Communications Alliance, Facebook, GameStop, Gap, J.C. Penny, Naked Communications, social media, social networking
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