F-Commerce Handbook

Introduction

F-Commerce Reloaded

The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

MARK TWAIN

In early 2012, e-commerce on Facebook made mainstream news headlines—for all the wrong reasons. F-commerce, the buying and selling of products and services on Facebook, had failed.¹ The proof was that several big-name, respected U.S. retail brands, including the Gap, Gamestop, Nordstrom, and J.C. Penney, were shutting down online stores on Facebook for lack of sales.

One third of the world’s online population may have been on Facebook, with Facebook accounting for one in every seven minutes spent online, but it seemed that everyone was too busy connecting and sharing with their friends and families to bother with shopping.²

In the press, the post ...