Facebook Shopping Flop

F-Commerce: Facebook Shopping Flop

By Lindsey Miller                               


At the close of 2011, there were more ways for people to shop than ever before. Facebook offered one of those ways to shop. Who knew?

There are tons of ways that we can shop in today’s world. We can do it on computers, at actual locations, on tablets, on mobile phones, etc. Though many people may think that Facebook is simply a social networking site, it can also serve as a shopping site.

Marketing Pilgrim gathered some of the opinions and experiences people had with using Facebook as a shopping tool at the end of 2011. They recently brought all that data together and released an interesting perspective about it.

Advertisements line the perimeter of so many websites we visit on a daily basis; Facebook is no exception. Advertisements on Facebook cater to our interests and places we visit on the Internet. Are these ads useful, and do we even notice them anymore to begin with? These advertisements can direct us away from Facebook and onto other pages we may like, based on what Facebook has learned from and about us.

Fan pages are another way to use Facebook to shop. Users can become fans of companies and make purchases on the fan sites. Fan pages often feature options to navigate away from Facebook and to other related pages or official websites for companies.
As Marketing Pilgrim reports, “When asked if they bought anything from a Facebook fan page, 91.4% of respondents said no.” Users also admit to hardly even paying attention to the extra nonsense on their social networking websites. “80.2% said that they weren’t even influenced by anything they saw on social media or their social media connections.” Trying to make social networks into shopping hubs may actually prove futile and could ultimately turn people off altogether.

Marketing Pilgrim created a report card of sorts, ranking the ways that people shopped in this past holiday season. Among shopping on at a retail website, on Facebook, on a tablet, and on a mobile phone, Facebook shopping fared the worst, receiving a “C+” grade.

People are most concerned with privacy issues when it comes to using Facebook as a shopping tool. All of those ads on the sides of the page make you feel like Facebook is getting to know you. It’s a strange mixture of cool and unsettling.

Is Facebook trying to be something it’s not? Maybe it should just stick to what it’s already good at—an effective, popular, and successful social networking site. I think it’s safe to say we can do our shopping elsewhere. Thanks, Facebook, but no thanks.

Lindsey Miller is a lively free-spirit who loves to go out and experience life and then write about it. She takes photographs frequently, listens to music constantly, and bikes aimless hours around Philadelphia—sometimes all at the same time. Lindsey is truly fascinated by human beings and the relationships they have with one another. All she really wants to do is travel the world… and write about it.