Retailers See Facebook As Dynamic New Shopping Platform

The 500 million Facebook users look very attractive to retailers today as online friends’ conversations turn to buying evaluations and purchases, as discussed in Dallas last week at the Shop.org annual retail technology meeting. Retailers, integrated with Facebook, bring consumers buying information and opportunities through over 30 billion content messages monthly “because this is where the customer is hanging out. They’re not hanging out on websites,” according to one industry expert. Best Buy’s Facebook page has a “shop” tab which allows Facebook users to link directly to its inventory and then discuss purchases they are evaluating with their friends. Because many Facebook members use the gaming aspects of the site, retailers are now offering gaming credits rather than discounts as incentives to purchase items from them. The cost of these credits is significantly lower than traditional incentives.