In another testament to the notion that Facebook is quietly turning into the internet on top of the Internet, online flower retailer 1-800-Flowers.com has launched an e-commerce store inside its Facebook Page.
Registered users can now order all kinds of floral products from the popular florist and gift shop without ever leaving the social network.
1-800-FLOWERS is a bit of a pioneer when it comes to initiatives like this. In 1992 (!), the company was already fiddling with selling goods via the Internet, and two years later it became the first merchant of any kind to transact on AOL. Now, at least according to the company, it’s the first online retailer to launch a fully functional commercial storefront inside Facebook. Somehow, I doubt that statement rings true, but I couldn’t immediately think of or find any other e-commerce outlets that can handle online orders from a to z inside Facebook.
Alas, when I did a search on Facebook for “1-800-flowers”, the very first result was a group unambiguously called 1-800-Flowers Sucks and when I filtered down the results for Pages only the only result was one dubbed 1-800-flowers-screwed-u-2? (albeit with 0 fans). I finally found the official Facebook Page when I added “.com” to the search query, but at first sight it seems currently people are using social media more often against the company than vice versa.
Anyway, this is what the company’s Facebook shop looks like:
1-800-FLOWERS.COM has teamed up with ad network / app developer Alvenda to bring its store to a potentially massive audience on Facebook (although only some 1530 people have become a fan of the florist shop’s Page so far). I’m told future versions of the store will integrate more robust social features, including birthday calendars and group gift giving options.
Currently, 1-800-FLOWERS accepts payment with all major credit cards, but it’s conceivable that it will be quick to implement Facebook’s upcoming proprietary payment platform, which is currently being tested with a handful of developers.
To conclude, a tip: when you become a fan of the retailer’s Facebook Page, you get a discount code. Happy flower shopping!
very nice, 1-800 flowers has sent all my gifts to all my girlfriends, in all the states. very useful.
I wish such kind of service becomes available in India also
try ferns & petals for india
You can shop for Ferns N Petals flowers @ http://www.fnp.in or any local outlet of Ferns N Petals nearby your place.
Assume, its long since you checked your inbox
So, now they are trying to “invade” into online marketplace territory? I understand you guys are trying to make something out of Facebook itself and yet-to-come Payment Gateway thing, but a marketplace? HMM.
Lets see… people spend hours on the site everyday, they know all your friends & family, their birthdays, and plenty about your personal likes & dislikes.
Good point, how could that be used as a platform to sell you something. Hmmm.
Its good that 1800-Flowers.com sets up a shop inside facebook. People who wanna send flowers to their loved so they can contact them.
Great evolution. If facebook profiles become twitter + blog/vlog + shopping account all in one, Facebook becomes the online ID operator with indirect (community based) identity checks.
+1
although FB doesn’t seem all too keen to let profile pages be used commercially, which makes little sense in the long run.
This is awesome! (((www.mobiliciouz.com)))
“In another testament to the notion that Facebook is quietly turning into the internet on top of the Internet”
The internet itself is not vendor-specific. Even with Google dominating search, you can do many things without using Google (specially if you don’t change the defaults on your Windows machine). Why would people want to go back to an AOL-type of internet in which a portal was trying to be all things to you?
+1
+2
I am not sure what the point is of an embedded store in Facebook. What is wrong with their current store? Are Facebook bots incapable of venturing outside the walls of Facebook? It just seems so faddish to me and maybe it is OK and jump on the fad as long as you understand it as such if you can turn it into sales, but as someone who started with the internet from back in those old AOL days, it does have a feeling of returning to that type of thing and I can safely say from a personal standpoint, no thanks!
+3
I know this is a lofty dream but I really wish social media would die. Bring back the open, free, corporation un-specific web; the way it was meant to be. Learn to code, build your own sites, learn how SEO works, use Open Source, buy some hosting space, make your own success without the corporations.
Very cool. Smart companies are moving towards using all aspects of social media (facebook, twitter, etc.).
So different from when you had to use a command line interface to access the Internet……
While interesting, this isn’t anything necessarily landmark. As part of my membership with Sortprice.com, I have a Facebook store myself that they set up for me right on my profile as well. And it was free. I think 1-800-Flowers probably wasnt aware there’s a no-charge option out there for creating a Facebook store.
Can anyone do this or did they have to make some special deal with FB?
Yes – I’ve heard there is an exclusive deal between Alvenda and Facebook in retail.
1-800 is on my shit list. Did not deliver my last 4 orders. I think I’ve learned my lesson.
Order direct, 1800flowers is a middleman and you never get your full 100% of the money you spent in the flowers.
Everything old is new again. Kind of feels like Facebook is becoming the new AOL.
Now never ever go there!!! That company has failed me so many times. They should just change their logo to a big fat F
There have been may attempts to try and bring ecommerce to Facebook. All have failed. Why? Because people go to Facebook to socialize, to ‘hang out’, not to buy. Otherwise, ebay would have disappeared a long time ago.
FYI: Robin it looks like you need to check your Facebook Inbox.
I’m afraid to.
One of my favorite crank e-mails is to write 1800 flowers and ask if they sell them by the dozen, and not just 1,800 at a time.
The company name is as hilariously dated for the Web as “American Telephone & Telegraph”.
‘the internet on top of the internet’ should actually be ‘the internet within the internet!’ and if 1-800-flowers.com as a test pilot fairs will within the walls of facebook, then look out all the music, movies, and books that are waiting to be sold.
I remember seeing something about stores on Facebook before. This seems like old news… did some reasearch and found that Sortprice.com has been building stores on Facebook for free for about a year already. They claim to have setup over 500 stores on Facebook.
http://www.sort.../facebook_store
http://www.webs...-merchants.aspx
Looks like the main difference between the SortPrice.com solution and the 1-800-Flowers Store is that it actually lets you buy flowers right within Facebook. The SortPrice.com Facebook application just adds it to a wish list. You have to leave Facebook if you actually want to buy anything.
Also, the 1-800-Flowers store is built in Flash and offers a much nicer user experience.
Greg’s right – this is the first commerce-enabled retail store inside Facebook. We’ve confirmed it with Facebook directly. Thanks Greg!
Wade G.
CEO, Alvenda
check out:
http://www.rese...ore/1800Flowers
this company is a joke !!!!
We at FlowerShop.uz have been working this idea through about two years ago with online social networks in our region who’s got our target audience as visitors. The idea of sending flowers and gifts via social networks to someone whos address and contact information You dont know is somewhat tricky to accomplish – moral reasons wise, if You request an address from the Recipient, the surprise effect vanishes, yet it still reserves the value since normally the sender/buyer information is not disclosed while requesting the delivery address.
They need more tweets http://twitter.com/alvenda.
It’s a bit of a gamble, but also an interesting experiment, for 1-800-Flowers as well as Facebook.
Since businesses today want to be where potential customers are, I’m certain there will be a lot of businesses keeping a close eye on the reaction of the Facebook community.
I have seen it on inside facebook, Its really nice
One wonders how these brands will be incorporated into the site’s overall infrastructure in order to drive traffic to the storefronts, given that Facebook relies primarily on homepages and personal connections for its navigation. It will also be interesting to see if these storefronts will be forced into the one-size-fits-all design of Facebook or if they’ll be able to differentiate themselves with a unique platform. This is an especially important consideration for brands like Apple (though it’s not clear if they’re signing on), that rely heavily on image to sell their product.
And lastly, considering how important the retail experience is to making a sale, particularly within the online environment – information, imagery, recommendations and checkout – I will be anxious to see how the application actually performs in relation to a popular model like Amazon or eBay.
-MC
You can shop for Punsons Flora flowers at http://www.getbestflowers.com or any outlet of Punsons Flora.