Early Adopters Add Shopping-Cart Apps to Fan Pages to Sell Items, Services
By: Sarah E. Needleman
The Wall Street Journal: Small Business Online
After learning how to market themselves through tweets and status updates, some small companies are taking the next step: selling directly to consumers via social-networking sites.
Merchants on Facebook and MySpace are adding e-commerce stores to their fan pages, hoping users will scan lists of for-sale items and services—such as floral bouquets, hand-crafted jewelry and spa treatments—and click a button to add them to online shopping carts. (MySpace is owned by News Corp., publisher of The Wall Street Journal.)
The e-commerce trend, also being adopted by large companies such as Hallmark Cards Inc. and Brooks Brothers Inc., so far appears limited to Facebook and MySpace, where applications for selling directly to consumers started cropping up in 2008. Other popular social-networking sites, such as Twitter and LinkedIn, don't offer a direct-sale platform.
Early adopters say they've so far seen only modest results, and generally not until after they've established a loyal-fan following.
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