FACEBOOK LAUNCHES COLLECTIONS FOR BUSINESSES

NEW BUTTONS: WANT & COLLECT

AN MWW WHITE PAPER FALL 2012

FACEBOOK LAUNCHES COLLECTIONS FOR BUSINESSES NEW BUTTONS: WANT & COLLECT

In a move to reboot the F-commerce platform, Facebook has introduced a new retail feature Want and Collect buttons.

2012 MWW GROUP, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | WHITEPAPER | FALL 2012

FACEBOOK LAUNCHES COLLECTIONS FOR BUSINESSES NEW BUTTONS: WANT & COLLECT

WHAT IS IT
These interaction buttons are part of a new offering called Facebook Collections. Through Collections, brands are able to showcase products on their pages where users can then click to want or collect these items and eventually purchase on retailer websites via Facebook. There are currently three versions of the buttons being tested across the now one billion member network exclusively to US-based fans of seven initial launch partners: Pottery Barn, Wayfair, Victorias Secret, Michael Kors, Neiman Marcus, Smith Optics, and Fab.com. Facebook hopes to see which experience provides the most user satisfaction before rolling out the final product to all users and businesses. Its important to also note that the Collections offering does not impact or integrate with the recently launched Facebook Gifts platform which allows retailers to charge consumers for oneoff low cost products which they can then virtually gift to their friends entirely within the Facebook Platform. The two platforms are currently entirely separate and should be viewed as separate offerings with different ROI opportunities.

2012 MWW GROUP, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | WHITEPAPER | FALL 2012

FACEBOOK LAUNCHES COLLECTIONS FOR BUSINESSES NEW BUTTONS: WANT & COLLECT

HOW IT WORKS

1. Businesses post a collection

which resembles a photo album of products on their wall which appear as status updates in user Newsfeeds.

Timeline called Wishlist. Wishlists can be viewed by friends of friends. - The Collect button saves the product to a new Timeline section called Products. The products section is only visible to a users friends. - The special Like button also saves the product to a Timeline section called Products which can be viewed by friends of friends.

that product on the businesss website. Their friends can also view and shop these curated collections.

2. Fans of these businesses can

4. Facebook is currently not the final

point of sale.

select to Want or Collect or Like individual products within the collection depending on which version of the test they are being served. Each button currently drives to a different section of Facebook Timeline and has different reach.

5. Businesses currently do not have to

pay for these posts or features and Facebook currently does not take any affiliate fee.

3. Once products are wanted, collected,

or liked users can then view their curated sections on their Timelines and click links directly to purchase

- The Want button ads the product to a new section of a users Facebook

2012 MWW GROUP, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | WHITEPAPER | FALL 2012

FACEBOOK LAUNCHES COLLECTIONS FOR BUSINESSES NEW BUTTONS: WANT & COLLECT

COMPARISONS TO PINTEREST

The collage presentation of Facebook Collections and the act of curating products from across the Facebook platform into specific categorized collections has drawn many comparisons to the two-year old start up social platform Pinterest. Pinterest currently boasts 2.5 million daily

active users with strong continued growth and drives more referral traffic than the combined efforts of several other major social networks such as Google+, YouTube, Reddit and LinkedIn. With that in mind, it makes sense for Facebook to position themselves as a potential competitor with Collections

although it remains to be seen what the impact will be on Pinterests community growth and if Facebook users will adopt pinning behavior within Facebook or prefer to continue to collect and curate elsewhere.

2012 MWW GROUP, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | WHITEPAPER | FALL 2012

FACEBOOK LAUNCHES COLLECTIONS FOR BUSINESSES NEW BUTTONS: WANT & COLLECT

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR BUSINESSES

Facebook Collections can potentially benefit businesses through increased product purchase consideration and greater community growth as users will have to fan brand pages to keep up with new product updates. The majority of business retailers were already posting products and product information through photo albums and Collections serves to create a more seamless experience and give users a new way to interact and curate things they like. Earlier this year a Bloomberg study indicated that despite the heralding of F-commerce as the next big thing, users were not showing interest in Facebook as a shopping destination and online retailers were shuttering their F-commerce stores and moving away from direct selling through the platform. User adoption of Collections may be challenging because Pinterest is currently dominating the space, however Facebook has a significantly greater user base and retail brand group to work with and has been working lately to adopt other popular online user behaviors such as instant photo sharing (Instagram) within the platform with some success. While the testing phase for Facebook Collections is ongoing with no end date currently set, this new platform offering presents an exciting opportunity to revive F-commerce by giving brands a more integrated means to drive purchase consideration and increase ROI from their communities. Facebook Collections in its current form is best suited for businesses who have existing ecommerce platforms where they are currently selling the products they promote on Facebook, but could potentially be a tool for Publishers and content sites to drive greater traffic to off-site pieces of branded content. It will be important to see the results of Facebooks current testing and user adoption of the new interaction tools before implementing a strategy around Facebook Collections but it is something all retailers should be strongly considering.

Collections serves to create a more seamless experience and give users a new way to interact and curate things they like.

CURRENT RECOMMENDATIONS WAIT AND WATCH

2012 MWW GROUP, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | WHITEPAPER | FALL 2012

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Jared Hendler Nora Walker MWW
Executive Vice President, Global Director of Digital and Creative Services 212.827.3757 | jhendler@mww.com Twitter: @jaredhendler

Senior Digital Strategist 212.704.9727 | nwalker@mww.com Twitter: @irockiroll

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