Facebook Collections were introduced last week as another layer to Facebook commerce.
This is the big “want” button that every retailer has been hoping and waiting for.
More specifically, this new feature gives brands the ability to add “Want” or “Collect” buttons to newsfeed posts about products, users can now build personalized collections of products they want with a direct link to buy them on the brand’s website.
Can anyone smell a little Pinterest envy here?
Currently testing the feature are Fab.com, Michael Kors, Neiman Marcus, Pottery Barn, Smith Optics, Victoria’s Secret and Wayfair.
You can check out Pottery Barn’s example here, they have a number of collections including Luxe Lodge, Monogram, Thanksgiving Essentials, among others.
The Collection feature is available to people who like a certain brand’s page. They will see a “Collect” or “Want” button on certain Collection Stories.
The Want Button
The Collect Button
The collect button allows Facebook users to assign products to lists they have created, another very Pinterest like part of this new feature.
And after adding an item to their collection, users can share it to wall for their social network to see. Notice the “you collected this” note on the right.
Social Commerce Please?
For retailers this opens up another layer to the buying process through Facebook. Visual storytelling has become a new form of “window shopping” for the social web today, as shown by the explosion of Pinterest and Instagram’s influence on buying habits.
The large network contained within Facebook’s social graph makes product improvements like these pretty valuable to companies looking to drive product sales through Facebook.
People already have their entire social circles on the site and this type of sharing already takes place, be it through photo or link sharing, or through sites like Pinterest. By adding similar functionalities to your News Feed, Facebook can make it really easy to build new conversations about brand products .
Collections open up relevancy for other products in the Facebook Advertising portfolio. Brands can now build unique paths to awareness and purchase from Facebook back to their own websites. Integrating paid media like sponsored stories or like ads will drive audience growth which brands then can serve up these additional offers or collections to.
With Facebook’s recent announcement of individuals being able to promote their own status updates, I now can now, as a customer, actually pay to promote these stories to my social network as well. It appears that stories I put on my own collections are marked private by default, with wishlist items public.
It will be interesting to see how brands begin using the Collections feature and if Facebook will allow an easy path for brands to sponsor fan want and collected stories. Could brands begin to offer rebates for sharing these updates on your wall? Build local influencer programs? Offer exclusive sales based on collections?
There are a number of possibilities for the product moving forward to strengthen the bond between brand and consumer. What do you think about Collections as they relate to your own social strategy? Leave your thoughts below.