The Smashbox “social shop” both mimics and connects to Facebook.

A number of retailers have shut down or moved away from recent forays into commerce contained entirely on their Facebook pages.  But does that mean F-commerce is dead in the water?  No way.  Instead, it’s moving forward into a far more complex realm where it’s only one part of the puzzle.  Let’s take a look at how F-commerce is becoming a small, but important, part of social commerce overall:

• Rather than being a direct source of sales, retailers using Facebook right are able to take their fans from the social media platform to their own e-commerce sites in order to encourage shopping.  Burberry, for instance, generates around 29% of traffic to its web site from Facebook.
• The “like” button is already an important way for friends to share product recommendations. When Facebook rolls out its timeline feature for brands, the buttons will become both more customized and more consumer-oriented, with options like “love it,” “want it,” and “own it.”  It’s important for brands to use their fans to pull one another in.
• Taking a cue from Facebook, brands are also making their own web sites more interactive.  By adding a social shopping portion to a site, which allows consumers to “like” items and share them with friends (as they would with F-commerce) a brand can optimize for s-commerce across its web presence.

What else is next?  Well, let’s not forget the importance of brick-and-mortar retail.  As social online shopping grows, it’s key for retailers to research and implement ways to track how their social platforms relate to, and influence, offline sales.  With these strategies in place, brands should be able to translate humdrum F-commerce into an expansive social shopping experience.