Fashion brand goes Off The Wall with Facebook
By Steve Mullins. Commerce unlimited. Fashion retailer The Limited has launched a social commerce service on Facebook via the social network’s Off The Wall feature. The US brand posts an item for purchase as a status update to its FB page enabling fans to purchase directly from the live feed, news feed or the brand’s wall.
The Limited fans can also share updates with friends and the e-commerce functionality is maintained wherever it appears in Facebook.
“Off The Wall addresses the on-demand consumer’s desire to engage in unique and relevant brand experiences without leaving her social networking environment,” says Facebook. “It also gives brands a unique opportunity to reward their fans with privileged shopping access to hot items or time-sensitive deals.”
“While many will argue that Facebook users are only marginally interested in connecting with brands on Facebook, our research shows that 14% of consumers have become a fan of a brand, product or company they like on a social network like Facebook,” writes Brian K Walker, senior analyst at Forrester. “While these fans are difficult for many e-commerce brands/sites to activate, I have recently been hearing of some leading consumer brands which focus on the teen and college market that report Facebook as their top converting traffic source apart from e-mail. Off The Wall represents an interesting and promising experiment in activating this fan base, and presents a reason to become a fan in the first place.
“Soon we may be seeing brands offering unique products, private sales, and special sneak peeks to their social networks together with the ability to convert them from within the network. Add in contextual marketing and personalization in the future and things could get real interesting real fast – while potentially pushing the boundaries of privacy and security concerns.
