elgato
Joined: 24 Feb 2005
Posts: 17240
Location: Texas
|
| Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 11:37 am Post subject: Facebook & Ebay attempt to jump-start social commerce |
|
|
Facebook and eBay have joined forces to integrate social networking features into online shopping applications, as both companies attempt to breathe life into the flagging field of social commerce.
While several companies have experimented with setting up storefronts on Facebook to sell directly to consumers while they network with friends, actual purchase rates indicate that people are not interested in buying when they’re socializing online.
But EBay is hoping that its new “X.commerce” open platform for retail developers will spark the kind of innovation that could change that, with new applications intended to create more opportunities for friends to interact with each other when shopping online, and to help large brands and retailers tap into social connections to market their products.
“Commerce is a very difficult space,” said Matthew Mengerink, vice president and general manager of X.commerce, Ebay’s new open platform for retail developers. “I don’t think we’re going to see easy answers right out of the gate.”
He called the current form of online shopping “a very individualistic and lonely experience,” in need of becoming more “entertaining.”
He’s counting on Facebook’s social graph to lead the way.
http://blogs.ft.com/fttechhub/2011/10/facebook-and-ebay-attempt-to-jump-start-social-commerce/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2Fftblogs%2Ftechblog+%28FT+Tech+Blog+%28old%29%29 |
|
