Gap, DVF, and Nordies Shut Up Shop on Facebook
Facebook storefronts seemed like an interesting proposition to a number of high-profile retail and apparel brands last year. And I applaud the brands and their agencies for their willingness to experiment with creating e-commerce experiences inside of the world’s leading social network.
However, according to Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst at Forrester Research, “There was a lot of anticipation that Facebook would turn into a new destination, a store, a place where people would shop.
“But it was like trying to sell stuff to people while they’re hanging out with their friends at the bar.”
The truth is, pop-up stores have worked in skate parks and other unlikely social spaces in the physical world, so why not see if online social networkers are in the shopper mindset, too?
As these brands pull down their apps and get back to their ‘question of the day’ conversational marketing tactics on the service, I imagine this story will ricochet around other retail brands and their digital agency partners this month. F-Commerce plans may get scrapped in favor of Pinterest boards or Polyvore contests and rightly so. If our job is to carve out a slice of a marketers budget to try something and see if it sticks, to be disruptive and play with technology-based innovations, then I actually hope to see more articles like this.
Good for GAP and Nordstrom. Where next?
