{"id":152962,"date":"2020-05-22T06:00:04","date_gmt":"2020-05-22T11:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ict-pulse.com\/?p=152962"},"modified":"2020-05-21T18:02:29","modified_gmt":"2020-05-21T23:02:29","slug":"4-lessons-learn-facebooks-newest-offering-facebook-shops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2020\/05\/4-lessons-learn-facebooks-newest-offering-facebook-shops\/","title":{"rendered":"4 lessons we can learn from Facebook\u2019s newest offering, Facebook Shops"},"content":{"rendered":"

The recent announcement by Facebook of Facebook Shops is likely to be a shot in the arm for this social media platform in this period of uncertainty and falling revenues. We share four lessons that businesses can learn from this new initiative at Facebook.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Although the saying, \u2018necessity is the mother of invention<\/em>\u2019, might never be truer than it is these days, as organisations grapple with the unprecedented changes that have recently occurred to the way they did business, considerable opportunities can also emerge. Case in point:\u00a0 earlier this week, social network giant, Facebook<\/a>, announced the launch of a new service: Facebook Shops<\/a>. Facebook Shops will allow businesses to create an online store on Facebook and Instagram for free.<\/p>\n

The service is geared to, and has been optimised for, mobile devices, which potentially makes it accessible to every smartphone users. Further, Facebook Shops is able to leverage WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or Instagram Direct, so that businesses can connect directly with their customers, in order to answer questions, provide customer support, etc., as needed.<\/p>\n

Although it is still early days, the introduction of Facebook Shops could be a gamechanger for the Facebook. To a considerable degree, the company\u2019s business model has relied on ad revenues \u00a0\u2013 ergo, the challenges business pages have been experiencing over the past few years \u00a0to achieve any reach on the platform without boosting posts, or engaging in other paid promotion activities.<\/p>\n

It is well known in the industry \u2013 see articles from the Verge<\/a>, the New York Times<\/a>, the Next Web<\/a> and Forbes<\/a>, to name a few \u2013 that Facebook considers WeChat<\/a>, the Chinese multi-purpose messaging, social media and mobile payment application, as model it could emulate. The introduction of Facebook Shops allows to company to not only broaden its service offerings, but also to potentially develop a new revenue stream, through the 5% fee it intends to charge on all transactions made through its platform.<\/p>\n

Although very few companies have the size or clout of Facebook, introspection on possible lessons and takeaways that could be applied to businesses and organisations within your sphere of influence is still useful. We offer four.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1. \u00a0Ad revenue (alone) is not a robust revenue stream<\/h3>\n

Facebook came to market when a nebulous business plan was not an indication of failure. To a considerable degree, the company was one of the first wave of online platforms that sought to aggressively grow its customer base, with the intention of leveraging access to that base for advertising dollars. That business model was widely adopted by many a start-up for several years, but in practice, it may not have been as sound or as lucrative as initially envisaged.<\/p>\n

Moreover, for those organisations that have been able to generate considerable income from advertising, many are now discovering how vulnerable that revenue is in the face of COVID-19. Recent reports across many sectors that rely on ad revenue, such as media, newspapers, magazines, social networks etc., have experienced a sizeable drop revenue, which in some instances, has resulted in significant cutbacks in order to try to keep afloat.<\/p>\n

In introducing Facebook Shops, the organisation\u2019s business model is evolving. It is moving away from being solely dependent on ad revenues, and is positioning itself to develop new and different revenues streams, which ultimately, will make Facebook more robust and resilient.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 Find ways to leverage a captive audience<\/h3>\n

Following from the previous point, it could be argued that although Facebook has enviable subscriber base \u2013 of over 2.6 billion monthly active users as of the first quarter of 2020 (Source:\u00a0 Statista<\/a>) \u2013 it had not been capitalising on that base to strengthen its business. In the same vein, many organisations see themselves and what they do just one way. They may not readily take into account, among other things:<\/p>\n