New Report: F-commerce – The Opportunity for Consumer Brands (download)

Well here it is, the Syzygy report on f-commerce – selling with Facebook, focusing on the opportunity for consumer brands.

What do Lady Gaga, Coca-Cola, Batman and Pampers Diapers all have in common? They all sell on Facebook – offering friends, fans, and followers a privileged and personal point of purchase on the world’s largest social network.

Something else that all four have in common is that they’re all consumer brands; they have traditionally outsourced the business of getting products into the hands of consumers to retailers. So what’s changed? Why are brands – including top three brands on Facebook – increasingly selling direct to consumers on Facebook?

Based on an 18-month study tracking the emerging trend of ‘f-commerce’ – selling with Facebook, the Syzygy report provides a critical overview of f-commerce specifically for consumer brands. It identifies the key risks and opportunities for brands in setting up shop on Facebook – and concludes that emulating the current trend among leading retailers to open up large e-commerce stores on Facebook would be a mistake for many consumer brands.

Instead, the report advocates an alternative f-commerce solution for brand pages on Facebook; fan-stores selling fan-first and fan-only exclusives designed to activate brand advocacy. Five key brand-building benefits are identified, and a blueprint for setting up a Facebook fan-store designed to activate fan advocacy is outlined using an evidence-based three-point ‘advocacy activation’ formula derived from academic research. The report concludes by outlining emerging trends and new opportunities for consumer brands and their agencies in the f-commerce space.

Download the report here for free, and tell us what you think.