October 15, 2012
It’s no secret that the last few months for Facebook have been trying. With stock continuing to slump Facebook has been turning to e-commerce as a way to combat this. In the last fortnight the social media giant has launched Facebook gifts; which allows you to buy friends redeemable gifts online. (https://techcrunch.com/2012/09/27/facebook-gifts/). And they are now testing out Facebook Collections.
The Collections feature allows you to users can “collect” items to a wish-list, and “want” various items from the list. Users can then make create a collage with all the collected items to share with their friends.
The most innovative feature of this is the “want” button, similar to its popular “like” button and designed to increase its clout in e-commerce, however “wanting “ an item doesn’t mean that you have to buy the item.
The feature is being tried out by various retailers including Victoria’s Secrets and high end department store Neiman Marcus. The feature is extremely similar to Pinterest which has been harnessed by multiple retailers, particularly fashion brands such as Gucci who last month launched a pinnable banner…
(https://www.adweek.com/adfreak/gucci-tries-pinnable-banner-ads-144395)
The Collections feature is expected to increase engagement with brands as people will be able to engage with these Collections and share things they are interested in with their friends.
(https://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5bec01f0-1199-11e2-9c94-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2951SwnL6)
More importantly people can click through and buy these items off of Facebook. Whilst Facebook has clearly taken a leaf out of Pinterest’s book Collections seem to be a more business-friendly activity and get them more advertising revenue, as well as add a new dimension to the way brands interact with users.