Top Facebook Stores by Category: Bands not Brands

Great post over at Practical Ecommerce from Sig Ueland on the current top 51 Facebook stores, by Likes (alas not sales).

What’s interesting is not so much the ranking, or the stores themselves, or even the store owners, but what’s getting sold on the stores, and the categories of the pages selling on Facebook.

First, in terms of what’s on sale in these stores – for the most part it’s not the core products – it’s fan merchandise

In terms of the top Facebook store ‘categories’ – it’s not big consumer or retail stores brands, but music, sport and entertainment (Movies, TV and Games).  The only retail brands on the list are Victoria’s Secret and iTunes

• 9 of the top 10 Facebook stores are from musicians
• 62% of top Facebook 51 stores are for bands and musicians
• 12% TV
• 8% Sports
• 6% Movies
• The only retail brands to appear in the list are Victoria’s Secret and iTunes
• The product brand to appear in the list is Sony PlayStation (and Mafia Wars – if you count that as Product Brand)

So there are a few caveats here – popular brands, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Disney do sell on Facebook, and they have more likes than the majority of those in the list, but they do not appear because these brands create separate Facebook pages for their stores (why?). Secondly, the list is probably more a reflection of Facebook page popularity than f-commerce popularity.

Nevertheless – selling fan merchandise in music, sport and entertainment looks like a rock-solid f-commerce business proposition, right now. Combine that with the insights that it’s impulse purchases for word of mouth products that will sell best – and an f-commerce recipe for success begins to appear…

With many of these stores in the list no more than poorly executed storefronts, and with a mass of music, sport and entertainment franchises yet to sell on Facebook – there’s an opportunity here for digital agencies and social commerce outfits.

Music/Band Stores: Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Rihanna, Linkin Park, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Bob Marley, Lil Wayne, AKON, Taylor Swift, David Guetta, Usher, The Beatles, Paramore, Green Day, Kesha, Bon Jovi, Britney Spears, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Muse, Nirvana, U2, Jay-Z, Jason Mraz, System of a Down, The Doors, Avenged Sevenfold, Johnny Cash, Radiohead, Owl City, Slash, Disturbed

Entertainment (Movie/TV/Gaming) Stores:Harry Potter, Grey’s Anatomy, Jersey Shore, Dexter, Desperate Housewives, Lost, Supernatural, Jackass, Saw, Mafia Wars

Sports Stores: Arsenal, Liverpool FC, NBA, John Cena – WWE Universe

Others: George Lopez (Comedian), iTunes (Product/Service), PlayStation (Product/Service), Victoria’s Secret (Clothing)., Jeff Dunham (Public Figure).