Nuvota

As of December 2009 there were approximately 234 million websites available worldwide, and approximately 1.6 million Facebook fan pages with more than 5.3 billion fans in existence. As described in my previous post, I consider traditional websites to be transactional hubs where products and services are sold, whereas social media sites like Facebook are community hubs that drive traffic to other websites.  But what if you could sell your products and services right on your Facebook fan page? Would you still need a website?

This is no longer a futuristic scenario, thanks to Alvenda – a distributed eCommerce network:

“The majority of future online sales will happen offsite [not on your website]. Customers will be able to shop with brands wherever they happen to be whether they’re on YouTube, a favorite blogger web site, or in Facebook. Alvenda’s customers are moving commerce forward to these touch points…”

A great example of this application is Brooks Brothers. Under the shopping tab on Brooks Brothers Facebook fanpage visitors are able to browse products, add items to a shopping cart and place their order (payment, shipping info etc.) – all without leaving Brooks Brothers Facebook fan page.

1. Browse Catalog

2. Adding items to shopping cart

3. Checking out

4. Capturing Customer Information

Right now this type of store only makes sense for bigger brands due to the relatively high costs, which are in 5 to 6 figure range for setup and 4 to 5 figure range for monthly maintenance. On top of that, a percentage of each sale is paid to Alvenda.

I am confident, however, that it is only a question of time until a solution for smaller businesses will be available in the marketplace.

Now don’t get too excited and delete your website! The biggest risk with using a Facebook fanpage as the sole transactional hub for your products and services is that it is ultimately not in your control. Facebook might implement changes that you don’t agree with, decide not to allow sales anymore, or, even though very unlikely, completely go away. A website will always be in your control and allows you to build trust independent from Facebook’s reputation.

The key point here is that you need to keep up with changes happening in the online world.  New opportunities arise all the time and it is the responsibility of each business owner and/or manager to analyze how these changes impact their existing business model.