English 
Vietnamese Most retailers with a credible multi channel strategy have a plan for fcommerce (ecommerce on Facebook) but there are important points to consider before getting carried away with all the excitement that only Facebook can engender.
First of all, fcommerce was expected to be the ‘next big thing’ this year (a prediction made in 2010) but this hasn’t quite materialised. ASOS for one noted that it was disappointed with sales on Facebook.
We believe that this is simply a matter of reality needing to catch up with the hype and clearly Fcommerce will take off, because it is an ideal forum for retailers to get closer to their customers and vice versa. However, some retailers have already been criticised for the way they have gone about it, selling aggressively into the Facebook community and prompting negative feedback from customers.
Retailers should of course take advantage of what Facebook does well, which is using it to reach the widest range of consumers by going where their customers are congregating, but the manner of the engagement is critical.
On the positive side, Facebook users share information with each other via the site, in effect becoming brand advocates and marketing the brand to their friends (as a result of ‘liking’ their page or adding a link to a specific product). This works already for iconic brands with huge fan communities, but not necessarily for retailers who want to make a direct sales pitch.
For these retailers, the approach has to be quite different. Fcommerce must not simply duplicate the ecommerce experience. For instance, Facebook is ideal for trialling new or exclusive products in order to obtain feedback before a wider release of the product; no sales pitch as such but a request for feedback. In this way, customers are involved and given a measure of influence without being made an offer.
Ultimately, consumers will decide, after all, as it should be remembered, Facebook is their channel and any attempt by retailers to hijack for their own purposes is doomed to fail. Fcommerce will take off when and if consumers decide they’d prefer to buy from Facebook than from the brand direct. The trick is to continue to optimise both channels, but to respect their differences. Consistency in brand presentation is key and over time, a way to identify the same customer operating through both channels will be important, but for now sensitivity to the way Facebook operates is the best approach.
Source:theRetailBlogger
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