Today, selling on Facebook is not new news. Now, the question is not can you sell on Facebook (yes), or even should you sell on Facebook (probably), it’s what should you sell (fan-first exclusives in our view)?
But back in 2008 f-commerce was so new the term hadn’t even been coined. Nevertheless, on the back of the first Facebook F8 event, a team (including Corey Capasso and Nathan Lustig) from Exchangehut (a Craigslist for students and ticketing/textbook exchange network – later acquired by CDI America) – created Facebook Foodcourt. Facebook Foodcourt was an f-commerce application that allowed people to order and pay for local food deliveries within Facebook (using an iframe pulling in an authorised.net shopping cart). Built as proof of concept app, Facebook Foodcourt completed over 200 transactions – including food orders from Facebook staff, but the Exchangehut team didn’t pursue the idea.
Ahead of it’s time in 2008, the time is now surely right for a Facebook Foodcourt 2.0; for food delivery brands – Dominos et al – a Facebook app that remembers our fav. pizzas/topping, card details, address etc could be worth exploring, as could a group ‘Pizza Party’ app – for group orders. In the B2B sector – we’ve seen the rise of real-life Facebook Likes at conferences/exhibitions, as well as Facebook event streaming; could a FB event food delivery/catering service complete the picture for a Facebook Events agency?
I’m not sure if these guys are the earliest — I remember doing work for an Aussie startup called ‘flogd’ which, though not strictly for facebook, allowed merchants to transact directly in facebook. That was 2008, and they’d been going since ’07. Cartfly (now billing itself as a social commerce cart) emerged at a comparable time.
Thanks for sharing the post. It sounds interesting work.
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There is no doubt that F-commerce is the next step in the eCommerce evolution!