The Future of Ecommerce?

Posted: 14 02 11 by David Stump

I both love and loath the internet in equal measure…

I love it as it bring everything that I want to my finger tips.. I don’t need to bomb around the shops looking for what I want at the price I want to pay; I can let my fingers do the work.

I loath it as it hasn’t really delivered what it could or should in terms of the sharing of knowledge and experiences...

I know that people will also agree and disagree in equal measure with my reasons for loving and hating the internet but debate is fun!

The Future of Ecommerce?

I hear and read that Google will die out, it will go super nova sooner rather than later and in truth I don’t buy in. But recent conversations with industry friends and thinking about it have lead me to see the scenario where just that happens: and in truth I’m not too keen on the idea.

I first started to believe  this could happen when a web developer friend of mine told me that he had just been commissioned to build an ecommerce app for Facebook for one of his existing clients. At first I didn’t really think much more than ‘that’s another app I’ll have to block…’, but as I began to think about it, it struck me that it could be the death nail in conventional ecommerce.

The more I thought of it the more I could see how Google would or could die out… I use Google for two things; shopping and research.

If my shopping can now be carried out on my social networking site (Facebook) then surely I have lost 50% of the reason I need to go to Google.

I then started to think about my own lifestyle and experience. If a friend of mine tells me to try a new Rum (I’m a bit of a fan…) then I am likely to. If they say ‘here, try this Rum and you can buy it here’ then the likelihood is I’m going to.

And that’s just my simple view of it, without the marketing girls and boys getting hold of the concept and really powering it up!

Recently ASOS (Clothing retailer) launched their Facebook App. It allows Facebook users to search and buy from within the Facebook framework – this store will be one to watch!

Back to the Future of Ecommerce!

Rum and ASOS aside just think about a product going viral. Think about being able to setup a campaign to sell a single low-cost item, with very little margin. How successful would it have to be to earn real money from the 500,000,000 active users in the 70 languages currently available on Facebook.

Think about how the high street brands could use a combination of their brand power and Facebook member profiling.

Think about how you could use Facebook.

I recently read the book by Jeff Jarvis WWGD (What Would Google Do). There were many messages in it but the one that seems to be most relervant here for me personally is the idea that you earn as little as you can out of each transaction - you just need to have lots of transactions!

With that thought in mind I'm going to be spending my 'me' time thinking about how I can earn 50p per month from 0.005% of the current facebook community so that I can retire and move to Florida!

ASOS On Facebook