Facebook E-Commerce: A Look At Facebook Shopping Carts

Facebook pages can be quite a dynamic location for your brand and now there is a growing push towards monetizing pages from within Facebook. By utilizing shopping cart software built exclusively for Facebook, retailers can now sell products right on their Facebook pages – no need for users to ever exit Facebook.com. These e-commerce platforms […]
Greg Finn on August 17, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Facebook pages can be quite a dynamic location for your brand and now there is a growing push towards monetizing pages from within Facebook. By utilizing shopping cart software built exclusively for Facebook, retailers can now sell products right on their Facebook pages – no need for users to ever exit Facebook.com.

These e-commerce platforms are still quite new, and users should be aware of the eventual fixes and potential upgrades that they will have to prepare for when implementing. However, for those with large fan presences, these e-commerce platforms can be extremely beneficial.

Milyoni
Milyoni’s iFanStore is one of the highest profile Facebook commerce apps, and packs a great deal of shopping features into a Facebook application. iFanStore is currently used by some of the larger names in commerce, from the NBA to the UFC to the Onion this cart has fit their Facebook commerce needs.

Milyoni Shopping Cart for UFC
This cart works by setting up a cart in an application off of the main Facebook Page, but the transition is hardly noticed once you are in the store. However, this does create an extra click from the “Shop” tab of your current Facebook page, as all of the shopping does take place on a standalone application. Here is a look at that transition for The Onion’s page:

Milyoni Transition Page
Overall, iFanStore is a very robust shopping cart for high level Facebook e-commerce.

Payvment
If you are looking for a simple way to sell products directly on your Fan Page, Payvment offers a nice shopping cart that can accomplish your goals. The feature set is greatly stripped down from the iFanStore by Milyoni, but works for those who may not stock a great deal of products.

Payvment Shopping Cart
One of the nicest features is the very unique checkout from the page:

Payvment Checkout Process
Setup is quick and easy, but the Payvement shopping cart design leaves a bit to be desired if you are looking for a highly customized experience.

Ecwid
The Ecwid shopping cart application is clean, minimalistic and functional. This cart operates very similarly to iFanStore, but lacks some of the in-store branding that iFanStore excels at.

Ecwid Shopping Cart for Embe
The final transaction occurs in the application that is off of the fan page, but still within Facebook.com. Setup is also quite easy and there are a variety of payment methods as well.

Moluko
Moluko is an Australian based company that offers a slick and professional looking product that allows users to shop from directly within a tab on a Facebook page. However, when going to purchase an item, the user is whisked off to the company’s main website.

Moluko Shopping Cart for RealChai
This is a great option for those small-mid tier retailers that simply don’t have the resources to maintain and fulfill orders from a different source than their main shopping cart. However, if looking to keep customers directly on Facebook, this wouldn’t be the shopping cart for you.

Marketplace
It is really amazing that Facebook Marketplace has been up for over three years already, it is a great place not only for user to user transactions, but also for B2C sales. While this is not a traditional shopping cart, Facebook Marketplace has one major benefit: a pre-existing user base. There are currently close to 10,000,000 users so tossing up products (especially geographic based items) can be very beneficial for those without a huge Fan page following.

Facebook Marketplace Listings
Services like Oodle Pro, help you to list your items in bulk and offers analytics from within the Facebook Marketplace, while adding a more professional look to your listings in Marketplace. So if you are offering up highly sought after items, don’t discount the Facebook Marketplace.

If you are an online retailer, there likely is a Facebook commerce solution for your needs, simply choose which cart options fits your needs. As Facebook continues to grow and evolve, users will continue to look to the site as a one-stop location for company information, items details, industry news and of course purchasing products!