Facebook is banking on it. Social engagement that drives sharing and personal recommendations to directly drive sales. While there are app templates for in-network e-commerce, such as Tab Juice, social commerce refers to the direct and measurable connection between social influences via a network like Facebook and its direct connection to sales either on or offline.
Forrester’s report proves how fan’s of a brand online are much more powerful when influencing consideration and purchase.
Facebook is also testing a Want button plugin. While the ‘Like’ button measures a fan who most likely owns a brand in some way, ‘Want’ clearly defines the desire to own – clearly a powerful data-set to own.
…and Facebook is not the only one. Foursquare enables us to ‘check into’ locations that offer us deals while Pinterest allows is to curate what we are most passionate about. I can see a time where our Pinterest pins actually lead to a link to purchase, and a time when we all get a piece of the sale if the referral came from our post or link…the ultimate affiliate sales model all driven by social commerce.
The Fancy is already starting to do this. “Each time a user clicks to share an item they’ve “fancy’d,” they receive a URL with a unique referral code. If someone makes a purchase using that link, they’ll receive 2% of the sale price 30 days after that item has shipped”. See Mashable’s post.
Jared Hendler 