Is Social Media and E-Commerce Connecting?

Is Social Media and E-Commerce Connecting?

It seems that maybe e-commerce is coming full circle and now, joining the social media network. An example of this is Amazon new feature, though still in beta, which lets you tap into the Facebook network.

What's it's purpose? To allow you to get Amazon recommendations and discover your friends' "Favorites and likes". Here are some of the things that you can now discover with the new feature:

1. Recommendations for movies, musick, etc. Though this is also based on your Facebook profile.
2. See Facebook friends' Amazon Wish Lists more easily.
3. See upcoming birthdays.
4. Gift suggestions for friends based solely on their profile.
5. Explore your friends profiles to see who shares similar interests.

However, Amazon assures all that no personal data will be shared with Facebook, and the company will not attempt to contact your Facebook friends.

What does that that mean for Facebook? It means that the role of the social media network may increase through advertising. And, let's not forget about Google. With the increased competition between Google and Facebook may end up being a big win for e-commerce. Which means, not only the sale of virtual good but also the sale of merchandise.

This new direction by Facebook and Google was inevitable, but as with anything new, privacy will be an issue that may make some people a little skittish. Let's face it, do you really want their friends to know what your recent purchases were on say, Amazon? Maybe it doesn't bother you, but for some, it does. (By the way, Bing added a link to Facebook on their search results about a year ago. Interesting isn't it.)

To conclude, the old way of getting advice about a product or service was through word-of-mouth, which, as you all know, the advice may have come after you bought the "wrong product or service". On the other hand, online social media networking, can give you information/advice you need at lightning speed-and hopefully before you bought the product.

This means, for those e-commerce stores that give you a quality service or product, be prepared for an increase in consumer traffic. For those e-commerce stores where the experience is not up to consumer expectations, it's time to make some changes, because word on the Internet travels very quickly.