1-800-Flowers First to Sell From Facebook Page
Most retailers use social media sites as a means to entice
and direct consumers to another site to make a purchase. Now 1-800-Flowers.com
is foregoing that extra step by enabling consumers to place orders directly
on the company’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/1800flowers).
“Facebook is redefining the social web, a cultural and social
phenomenon that has changed the way we connect with one another,” said
Jim McCann, CEO and Founder of 1-800-Flowers.com, in a press release. “In
1992, 1-800-Flowers was one of the first businesses to embrace the internet
and in 1994 we were the first merchant of any kind to transact on AOL.
Fifteen years later, we are extremely proud to again be the first — this
time in launching a retail store inside Facebook, a bold step in unlocking
the tremendous marketing potential of social media.”
With 1,847 fans as of 8:50 EST last night, 1-800-Flowers is
a long way from unlocking the wallets and purses of the 250 million active
Facebook users.
Discussion Questions:
Will many more companies follow the lead of 1-800-Flowers and establish
an e-commerce function within their Facebook and/or other social media
sites? Will having pages with an e-commerce function change the nature
of the relationship between users and the social media site? Will this
be a positive or negative?
In the past, it’s been about taking the customer to the online store. Now the store is being brought to the customer so they can make a quick purchase without leaving their current page. The same technology that powers the 1-800-Flowers Facebook page also works in website advertising. See my posting on Shoplets for more information.
This trend will continue for certain types of purchases, especially those that are considered impulse.
I believe this is an excited yet mostly expected development, given the interest retailers have given to Facebook and other forms of social media. As I mentioned in an earlier comment, taking advantage of social networking capabilities is a smart “next step” for retailers looking to follow the masses.
What makes this situation interesting is that 1-800-FLOWERS is, as the post article acknowledges, ahead of the curve. They have experience under their belt with successful, process-driven Web-based e-commerce. So, for them, the next step was social commerce and they took with at the appropriate time. That makes them a good model to follow for others. First, get your Web-based e-commerce strategy in shape. Second, when that is done, tackle the possibilities that social networking offers.
While selling flowers through Facebook is not a bad idea, I’m not sure how successful the initiative will ultimately be. Yes, it is true that there are some natural synergies. The fact that Facebook tracks all of your friends’ birthdays, and with a click of the mouse, I’m assuming that 1-800-Flowers will be able to send flowers to those friends, we can’t forget the foundation of Social Media. Social Media is a platform in which people can maintain relationships with your friends.
Therefore, you have to ask this question. When you are sitting around a table, speaking with friends, do you want to necessarily buy something from your friends? Do you want to be bombarded with sales messages from your friends? The answer of course is no, unless it is a MLM party. If e-commerce starts to permeate the Social Media sites, ultimately the sites will lose their appeal, and something new will come along. Proof of this is 1-800-Flowers boast that they were the first to sell on AOL. Great! Look where AOL is today, versus Google. Need we say more?
This is a logical progression in the development of social marketing. By bringing the store to the consumer, 1-800-Flowers is making it easier for consumers to browse and buy. Whether they get one order or 1000 orders does not matter. For unlike brick and mortar, it cost almost nothing to open and run this store on Facebook. What matters is the ease of use for current and potential customers.
Just this morning I was reading about the problems Facebook and Twitter, for example, have had in finding ways to make money. This is the obvious solution and, as others have been saying (or thinking) no surprise and about time, too. Saving time by clicking a single button rather than (ho, hum) having to move to ANOTHER site will be just too much for some users to resist. Forgot an occasion? Got something to apologise for? Just feeling generous and impulsive? Hey, presto. A bonus for the company offering the right product for sale and brownie points for the host company that offers the opportunity.
Oh how they laughed when they called me Casandra….
Ask not how much will 1-800-Flowers’ business be helped or hurt by selling from its Facebook page, but rather how much Facebook will be helped or hurt?
Is it not now the case that Facebook can no longer be honestly described as a ‘social’ network?
This will help both Facebook and 1-800-Flowers in the short run. Longer term it will probably be Facebook’s undoing as consumers get fed up with its transition from a social media site to a social marketing one.
HUGE. Kudos to the visionaries at FLOWERS to show everyone else how it’s done. Expect a scramble as other retailers try to catch up…there are few sites that users visit every day.
Yes, it makes sense to integrate shopping opportunities with a retail Facebook page. After all, anyone on Facebook actually visiting the 1-800-Flowers page is there because they are a potential shopper.
However, I would like to challenge retailers to pursue this within the context and milieu of the social networking phenomenon itself. No offense to Flowers, but the page is dull, offers nothing in the form of social networking value or interest, and is simply yet another portal. The Flash app is great, not leaving Facebook is great, and the tech works. Unfortunately, there’s no reason to be on the page in the first place. If I want to shop, I can do so from the Flowers website.
Some retailers (Walmart) have shown the willingness to understand and participate in the social networking era through the delivery of content and functionality that makes sense for that environment. Linking e-commerce within that delivery is a fantastic next step. This is not what Flowers has done. And they should have. Where is the support link on “the language of flowers” (in olden times different flowers were used to convey different messages)? Where is the interactivity, the value delivery, the fun, the sharing, the participation in a community discussion?
Let’s do this right. Just as the internet was misused for e-commerce simply by focusing on technology, social networking sites have the potential to be misused. Go back to our roots and be retailers! Facebook is a LOCATION. Different locations require different merchandising, different store layouts, different approached to the shopping experience. I challenge retail marketers to not let technology drive their continued efforts in cyberspace. Marketing…true consumer oriented, differentiated, and unique marketing is the answer. This step by Flowers is a tech move, not a retail move nor a marketing move.
I think social media rules are being written based on what works–not on any hard and fast paradigms or conventions. Companies are finding consumer comfort zones through trial and error and experimentation. If people use this page to order flowers, it’s a good idea and other companies will likely follow suit.
It’s also not a highly complex purchase decision, which lends itself well to the Facebook page format.
The refreshing thing is that they’re being very upfront and honest about the positioning of the page. It’s not an order page dressed up to look like something else. It’s there to drive business and that’s OK.
We socialize at the mall and we buy stuff at the mall. I see plenty of room for integration of the two functions on Facebook.
It only makes sense. 1-800-Flowers and everyone else should explore all the media outlets they can. There are no rules–yet–so take advantage.
“The fact that Facebook tracks all of your friends’ birthdays, and with a click of the mouse, I’m assuming that 1-800-Flowers will be able to send flowers to those friends, we can’t forget the foundation of Social Media. Social Media is a platform in which people can maintain relationships with your friends.”
You’d think, but:
“No offense to Flowers, but the page is dull, offers nothing in the form of social networking value or interest, and is simply yet another portal.”
Exactly.
I went so far as to put something in the shopping cart, just to see if there would be any social functionality, and there isn’t. So, yes, it’s convenient to have 1-800-Flowers on the site if I happen to notice that my friend’s birthday or other occasion is coming up. But it would be even cooler if the shopping app integrated with my friend list after I added an item to my cart.
So, Flowers, if I were you, I’d get on the stick with this and integrate fully with the functionality of the site. Put up the cash to develop the apps that add a link to your fan/shopping page whenever I’m looking at birthdays and certain kinds of status updates, like graduations and wedding anniversaries.
Then, instead of having me enter my recipient’s zip code before I add something to my cart, let me add the thing to my cart–and on the next screen, give me:
1. A drop-down list of my friends with upcoming birthdays/wedding anniversaries/other occasions as listed on their profiles. When I pick one, the app should present me with a fully filled-out form with the friend’s name, address and occasion–and an Edit button in case I want to change anything or correct mistakes. Corrections I make to vital info should be savable to a permanent address book within Flowers.
2. A drop-down list of my other friends, with a text field for the occasion and a message.
3. A checkbox to send the merch to Other. When I check this, a form opens where I can fill in the new person’s info. (And, btw, AFTER this person gets his/her present, Facebook and Flowers now have a lead: they can send ONE email asking if the flowers got there okay and inviting the person to opt in to a number of things: to join Facebook; to friend the flower-sender if they’re already on FB; to become a FB fan of Flowers; and, of course, to subscribe to the Flowers email newsletter.
Now, I hardly think any of the above is exactly genius-level strategic thinking–but it does take time and cash.
So it’s not a question of whether Flowers has a viable concept. Of course they do–if they integrate it properly into the environment, as a number of other commenters have also pointed out. This is really nothing more than matching the message (and the selling floor) to the market and the medium – basic marketing, made cheap(er) and simpl(er) with social media, and you don’t have to be a geek to do it.
I also think other retailers–plus all sorts of other businesses – will follow Flowers onto the social-media sites very fast, even if the Flowers page just keeps doing what it’s doing now (and perhaps manage not to generate enough business to support the initiative?), because someone’s going to figure out how to do it right. It’s worth remembering, I think, that very often, it’s the second player in a market who makes all the money.
Removing barriers to purchase is the best way to ensure more of them. Consumers are increasingly impatient and want instant gratification and ease of use. Also, impulse buys are more prevalent where they are easiest. Being able to make a purchase quick and easy increases the likelihood of more transactions. This is why many online retailers allow their users to have “one click” payment options. These strategies remove wait times and reduce the timeframe for a consumer to change their mind.
“Instant Consumerism” will become more and more important and integrating within the sites and places where the purchaser already is will be key to developing it.
1-800-Flowers continues to lead and innovate in terms of the channels that it uses to reach out to the customer. Whether a brand has a dedicated Facebook page, or simply a widget that can be embedded and shared, social media represents a good opportunity to reach current and new customers when and where they want to be reached. While social media isn’t for all companies and every company’s use of the web will differ between awareness and commerce, tools like Facebook Connect can help brand expand and manage their presence online.
More merchants are bound to follow the 1-800-Flowers lead. It’s smart retailing, i.e., using social networking sites as a buying channel. It’s highly unlikely the revenue stream will ever approach what merchants pocket via buying channels like stores and branded e-commerce sites, but this is an alternative retail channel that can’t and shouldn’t be ignored.
Over one year ago, 1-800-Flowers made announcements that it was extending its existing loyalty program to Facebook by opening FB as a sales channel and linking the activity across channels to aggregate to the benefit of customers.
I have not see any discussion of this loyalty initiative in the current announcement and feel that, if not the loyalty program, the company must introduce one or more mechanisms to foster engagement.
In that sense, I agree with Mary Baum’s comments above and would encourage 1-800-Flowers to view their social media strategy as multi-dimensional, not just “we have a FB page that allows customers to purchase product.” I like the move, but creating the environment where visitors will become aware of the page, visit often, and make repeat purchases will be key to the longer term success of the company’s investment in social media.
Joel, Don and other voices of reason, I applaud you.
Otherwise I cannot agree with anyone. 🙂
This excitement and “strategy” is misguided and illogical. Bloggers, trade media and “experts” would have us believe this is bold and innovative. Jim McCann and his otherwise brilliant team are busy taking the social media hype-and-spin bait and failing to innovate. This use of Facebook is a gratuitous one. It’s on a fast-track to nowhere. Facebook is NOT the e-commerce Holy Grail. No, not yet…not by a long shot today.
The investment in a pop-up storefront on Facebook is a new idea? Nope, it’s a seriously old one. ePods, Affinia!, Nexchange, iMediation and a list of about a dozen other failed companies tried this and failed in the early 1990s. Nearly ever major publisher has tried to set up mini-storefronts using simple (affiliate marketing) to complex (drop-shipping) tech tools that link up sellers and publishers. Fail. Fail. Fail.
Today’s economic climate must be considered. Yes–it DOES cost real money to experiment like this. No–MOST marketers CANNOT afford to fail using social media in a down economy.
Otherwise how can we take Mr. McCann seriously or anything Flowers does as serious let alone remarkable? Just look at this from the release:
“Facebook is redefining the social Web, a cultural and social phenomenon that has changed the way we connect with one another,” says CEO Jim McCann as he whips the ‘social media’ hype engine into overdrive–blowing by rational thought.
1) Facebook cannot re-define the social Web. Facebook isn’t doing anything that others aren’t doing–it just has more mass.
2) The social Web isn’t a cultural or social phenomenon that’s changed the way we connect with one another. The social Web merely makes what we’ve done for generations easier, faster and boarderless.
Sorry guys and gals but I strongly disagree.
I love this idea. Great way to connect with the customer and work with them where they are.