Facebook Shopping Cart Apps

ecommerceguide.com reports on five Facebook Shopping Cart Apps: "Some Facebook shopping cart application developers offer the basic cart for free with options to upgrade to access additional functionality or support on a purchase or subscription basis. Others may offer these additional features based on a percentage of the transaction. Be sure to read the FAQ posted on each Cart application page to learn of any fees before installing the application and setting up shop on Facebook."

1. Payvment: this solutions lets users add a professional-grade storefront to a Facebook page, with an admin area built directly into Facebook to manage your storefront, products and sales. There are currently over 325,000 users. Wxtremely feature rich, Payvment claims to be the #1 Facebook shopping cart.
2. Ecwid: free, with drag-and-drop customization, and lets you mirror your Facebook cart onto any Website,with a single Web-based management interface for all carts. 56K+ active users.
3. BigCommerce: uses the BigCommerce SocialShop app that lets online sellers and merchants add a Shop tab to a Facebook Business or Fan page. Facebook users can browse products and buy through Facebook. The service is free for 15-days with basic pricing starting at $24.95 per month. Currently 33K+ monthly users.
4. VendorShop: a free eCommerce shopping cart that lets users set up an online shop tab on any Facebook page. A PayPal checkout service is used for payments. 30K+ active users.
5. Muncom: this free PHP shopping cart lets you create a cart on your Facebook profile or Facebook Business Page. You need to first design a free store on Muncom.com. The shopping cart service is currently in beta and the Facebook application has 2K+ active users.

In addition to the above, there are also the following Facebook shopping cart solutions:

iFanStore from milyoni: operates completely within Facebook, supports multiple product attributes, promotions, multiple shipping options, sales tax managment, and downloads of digital content. Currently has over 50 users, with multiple pricing plans.

Usablenet: part of a suite of applications that include mCommerce and kiosk platforms, it is used by 65 major retail clients in the US and Europe, including JCPenney. By using the 'Shop' tab on JCPenney’s Facebook page, users can search all products currently included in JCPenney’s product pages. Shoppers also can 'Like' and share items and purchases with their friends within the community.

Retail Shoppers More Connected To Info Than Store Assocs.

Website magazine reports that a new study from Motorola Solutions concludes that many brick-and-mortar retailers pay dearly for neglecting their increasingly tech-savvy customers.

The majority of retail associates surveyed believe that shoppers were better connected to consumer information than were in-store employees, ultimately hurting those retailers’ bottom lines. The study found that 28 percent of in-store visits ended with an average of $132 in abandoned purchases by mobile shoppers confident of locating lower prices, more plentiful stock, shorter check-out processes and better customer assistance elsewhere.

The study also indicates that 43 percent of shoppers who received in-store guidance from retail associates armed with their own mobile devices reported that the device improved their shopping experience. The survey also found that because today’s mobile shoppers can easily find deals elsewhere, 87 percent of retailers now consider in-store customer service - aided by access to real-time information – to be more important than ever.

According to Motorola,

• Surveys were completed online from Dec. 2 through Dec. 17
• Two complimentary surveys were fielded, one targeted to shoppers and one targeted to in-store associates or staff. 
• Sample:

-  Consumer panelists, representing a general distribution of the consumer population over 18 years of age, were recruited for the Shopper on-line survey. 1,056 respondents completed the Shopper survey.

- Business panelists, representing a wide range of experienced in-store associates who work in full-time or permanent part-time positions, were recruited for the Store Associates survey. 545 respondents completed the Associates survey.

Browsers Attempt to Protect Online Privacy

USAToday reports that Google has rolled out a new Chrome browser privacy tool similar to Microsoft's for Internet Explorer 9, due out later this year.

For its part, Mozilla, developer of the Firefox browser, has announced a new feature which actually comes closest to addressing the FCC's call for Websites to implement a "Do Not Track" (DNT) mechanism that would enable consumers to opt out of having their activity monitored on the sites they visit.*

"Technologists and privacy experts say the latest privacy tools from Google and Microsoft fail to universally stop a practice called click-stream tracking, which ad networks use to index the websites you visit. This enables the ad networks to target certain ads to specific Web users," says USAToday. "'We have seen the industry try, and fail, to self-regulate in this arena,' says Rainey Reitman, analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation."

Browser Protections

•Chrome: Google's new tool, "Keep My Opt-Outs," strengthens the Network Advertising Initiative set up by a consortium of ad networks and advertisers to let consumers opt out of being tracked by NAI members. Some NAI members, however, merely stop sending targeted ads to the user, but continue to do click-stream tracking. All that "Keep My Opt-Outs" does is prevents accidental deletion of the user's opt-out request to the NAI members.

•Internet Explorer 9: Microsoft's new "Tracking Protection" works in a similar fashion, but instead of sending opt-out requests only to NAI members, IE9 will look for click-stream tracking and targeted ads coming from a broader list of ad networks and then block them. The list will be compiled with help from privacy and advertising groups.

•Firefox. Mozilla is working on a way to insert a simple request that gets sent to every Website you visit, asking the site not to track you if you select the "opt-out" option. This is part of Mozilla's effort to develop a standardized way of handling opt-outs across the Internet, but doesn't specify how it will prevent click-stream tracking per se. It still seems to say that it is up to the site you visit to abide by your wishes.

Concludes USAToday: "Experts say it may take a new law to compel the ad networks to heed Do Not Track requests."

Writing on Internet Evolution, Robert McGarvey says, "The only way not to be tracked may be the use of proxy sites. “Proxies truly work,” says [Darren Hayes, a computer science professor at Pace University and a leading expert in computer forensics]. Surf through a third-party detour and, suddenly, all the Internet ad surfers are baffled by your identity. Downside: Most proxies produce a very slow Internet experience, which is why they haven’t caught on."

*For more information on the FCC's Do Not Track initiative, see my blog post: Do Not Track: A Golden Opportunity?

Six Brands With Successful Online Communities

To create an online community you need to appreciate consumer behavior, attract users, encourage participation, and know how to retain membership. Sponge takes a look at six of the most successful online:

The AmEx OPEN Forum

The AmEx OPEN Forum

HSBC Business Network

Motorola Support Forums 

Monster Army

Threadless

These communities, though very different from each other, all serve as a forum for discussions among peers with shared interests, and can be of significant value for the sponsor, as well.

Getting Online Personalization Right

Web personalisation is about delivering targeted content and adaptive web experiences based on what you know about each visitor. For ambitious web marketers looking for the next leap in returns, this is a massive opportunity.

Of course, it’s not without risks. Get it wrong, and you’ll confuse visitors, waste resources and depress conversions. But get it right and you’ll surprise and delight your web visitors while driving your website to new levels of effectiveness.

Personalisation can be taken from any or all of the following sources of insight in eConsultancy's Five principles for online personalisation.

Also check out Dynamic Personalization Produces Dynamic Results in MultiChannel Merchant magazine.

FatWire Launches Vers. 2.0 of its Mobility Server

FatWire has launched Version 2.0 of its namesake Mobility Server. The company says the new software gives organizations the power to easily mobile-enable their Web presence by reusing content as a key component of their marketing and customer experience initiatives.

The company explains Mobility Server 2.0 allows organizations to:

Build a mobile Web presence—content from traditional Web sites can be re-purposed for the mobile channel; navigation structures from the traditional site can be edited and re-purposed for mobile Web sites; and out-of-the-box mobile Web page templates enable fast, easy creation of mobile sites for different device families.

Edit Web content from one user interface—provides a central interface for managing the traditional Web site and mobile Web sites.

Preview mobile sites in context—developers can see how a site will look on different device types, optimizing Web sites automatically for every type of mobile device—existing Web site content can be automatically reformatted, including video and rich media.

Support Location-based services—Mobility Server Version 2.0 makes use of device GPS data to deliver location-based content and services to site visitors.

Provide Social Web experiences— Mobility Server 2.0 allows organizations to easily mobile-enable user-generated content and other social features.

Global Payment Options

Merchants who want to expand their base outside the U.S. can find more customers abroad by showing them what they’ll pay in their native currency, according to Planet Payment, an international payment processor that helps banks process multi-currency transactions and assists merchants in implementing the tools they need for multi-currency processing.

By simply adding foreign currency pricing, sellers either look like they are in the customer’s country or convey the impression that what they are selling is intended for the people in that country.

Even better: if you’re only able to sell in U.S. dollars, you’re leaving money on the table. Those international customers are frequently used to paying higher prices than U.S. customers.

I have written in detail how to implement and managing multi-currency transactions for sales outside the U.S. on the PaymentsU blog. Take a look. I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have (ernie@schell.com).