Why the "F-commerce" mode failed

A year ago, everyone was in pursuit of f-commerce mode , and felt that Facebook had the potential to challenge the status of E-commerce giants such as Amazon, PayPal , and so on . But a year later, a large number of well-known brands, including GameStop, Gap, and so on, North America's largest gaming retailer, are shutting down the Facebook retail store, and What is the reason why the F-commerce mode is ultimately failing ?

Since last year,Facebook has put businesses on its platform, but the data show that because of the lack of a good user experience and activities, there will eventually be businesses shutting down their Facebook online store, Even North America's biggest gaming retailer, GameStop, with 3.5 million fans, has closed its Facebook storefront. While many people have been bullish and looking forward to Facebook as a new shopping platform, it appears that Facebook's e-commerce is not successful.

A big platform is not a guarantee of success

GameStop, the biggest gaming retailer in North America and the retail giants Gap, J.cpenney and Nordstrom, have opened online retail stores on Facebook, but have also disappeared and closed pages on Facebook. It has been predicted that Facebook will become a new shopping site and that persuading Facebook users to shop on its platform should be a simple thing to do, especially if it grows fast enough for Facebook today to be more successful. Why? The following is a list of data from Facebook's prospectus to illustrate:

Monthly active users reach 845 million (log in at least once a month).

December 2011, the average active Facebook user reached 483 million

43% 's global Internet users will visit Facebook on a regular basis.

Facebook's 2011-year revenue reached $3.71 billion trillion, up 88% per cent year-on-year.

2011 net profit was 1 billion USD.

The number of active subscribers using Facebook Mobile products in December 2011 was 425 million.

The average user publishes 2.7 billion like and comments.

Facebook has established more than 100 billion friends.

Every active user makes Facebook pay 4.75 dollars a year.

Through that we can see that the Facebook platform is big, but why didn't Facebook push online retail share growth? Ashley Sheetz, vice president of GameStop Marketing and strategy, said in a telephone interview that GameStop's return on Facebook was unsatisfactory and that Facebook was more like a place to communicate with customers than sell things, so it could only be closed. At the same time, Ashley Sheetz also said that for most people, shopping on the GameStop web site is already very convenient, so the willingness to spend on the platform's larger Facebook page is not strong.

But Pinterest, a social-networking site, has risen rapidly in e-commerce, and Pinterest has tens of millions of dollars to get membership fees from retailers. So what is the reason for Facebook and Pinterest to be so big?

The root of the failure

Apart from the core notes and sharing photos, Facebook is a very bad design. As a user, it may be annoying to click on any link outside the standard view. Although users started using the product five years ago, it still makes you feel like you don't have a sense of belonging.

1. Inappropriate design: Many product users can be very skilled after the use of, but Facebook, in addition to the time line features and transport interface, it is confusing, and if you want to find a product on Facebook, many users can not easily find. Facebook's search box, for example, can only be found by name and brand (see chart below)

And Pinterest is more convenient. (see figure below).

Knowing that famous brands spend millions of of dollars a year on advertising channels is hoping to boost their Facebook influence, but their brand pages are less functional, and when users want to know about the product, you'll find that you'll spend a lot of time looking at their promotional materials. So Facebook's design, while facilitating private interaction between friends, has hindered users from looking for products that are of interest.

2. Unable to group friends: Many users do not want to share logs and photos of friends with those seeking to buy advice, Facebook, there is no simple way to group different people, and Pinterest is very convenient to group friends. For example, parents, spouses and immediate family members are divided into a separate group, because some users do not want parents to know what they are buying, but they are willing to share this information to Pinterest of like-minded friends. As a result, Facebook's inability to group is one of the reasons for the failure.

3. User privacy: When the user's daily shopping habits are shared with the retailer by Facebook, personal information is also shared with the retailer, and users will not feel uncomfortable when they read the news with the product promotion information. Because privacy is violated. As a result, user dissatisfaction with privacy issues is likely to spread across the network, affecting all online retailing. At this point, Facebook, which has a lot of personal user information, will face a choice: to maintain its own business value, to provide a lot of user information to retailers, or to protect user privacy? For this, users are not happy to buy things on Facebook.

What should Facebook do?

If Facebook wants to develop good e-commerce, it is first to redesign the product, focus on the user experience, and make it easy for users to group. One group is about personal information, the other is about e-commerce and shopping, and so on.

Facebook also needs to be more focused on the platform. For example, why should acquires be a subdivision of the mini Facebook site instead of appearing on the Facebook platform as an application? To know that Facebook is going to be a social open platform in the future.

Finally: Unless you can redesign the product and plan the platform, Facebook can only be a social networking site where users share photos and information, and cede the most lucrative e-commerce cake to rivals such as Pinterest. And the abandonment of E-commerce Facebook is not a perfect platform to meet people's needs.

The original text comes from:

Gamestop to J.C Penney shut Facebook stores:retail

Facebook is losing commerce