Retail Shopping on Facebook?

by | Marketing on Social Media

retail shopping on Facebook
retail shopping on Facebook

Will you buy from online catalogs on Facebook?

 

 

First, retailers used catalogs, then the Internet, and now, is the wave of the future for retail shopping on Facebook?  Express recently became the first to offer retail shopping on Facebook.  You can now go to their Facebook page and purchase anything from their store.  Facebook users can click  the Shop Express tab on Express’s Facebook page. This will let a user browse, search  and buy products from Express’s inventory without ever leaving the Facebook page.

Retail Shopping on Facebook |How does this work?

With retail shopping on Facebook, you visit a fan page and click on a special promo that allows you to see the catalog.  You then download a special app and you are allowed on the catalog page within Facebook.
Is there truly a difference between people staying on Facebook to purchase an item or leaving from Facebook via a link to your own website to purchase an item?

Express’s Senior Vice-President states the following about retail shopping on Facebook: “If you look at what’s happening today, top-down marketing and driving people to places to [transact] has changed. We need to be where customers are having their experiences and sharing information. We need to take down the barriers preventing a shopping experience.”

The jury is still out on whether or not retail shopping on Facebook will take off, but you can bet that other retailers will soon follow Express’s lead an offer retail shopping on Facebook through online catalogs.  What do you think?  Are you more likely to do retail shopping on Facebook versus a company’s website?