1-800-FLOWERS Premiers on Facebook

by lisa ~ August 3, 2009

Aug. 3, 2009 - Whether 1-800-FLOWERS is the first company to combine e-commerce with a Facebook presence is difficult to verify but it’s certainly getting a great deal of attention for it. The company considers itself an e-tailing pioneer, having been the first to transact business on AOL in 1994.

Other well-known consumer brands such as pizza maker Papa John’s and lingerie retailer Victoria’s Secret have Facebook pages too but they’re not used as e-commerce portals. “While numerous retailers have pages on Facebook and other social networking sites with some degree of customer interactivity, the majority have not yet enabled them for e-commerce. Facebook pages may contain coupons, promo videos and customer-generated content, but are primarily extensions of branding,” according to Media Planner Buyer.

The application’s developer is Alvenda, Inc. of Minneapolis. Its site proclaims, “We open stores for you on web sites where your customers hang out.”

Just establishing such a presence is not without complications, though.

The Facebook page for Long Island, N.Y.-based 1-800-FLOWERS was announced on July 29. As of yesterday, it had 2,231 fans. Many of those fans apparently view the “storefront” as a complaint hotline with wall posts about missed deliveries and inept customer service, prompting continuously updated responses from a company administrator calling himself Devin. Moreover, well-known blog TechCrunch points out that a general search of Facebook does not lead directly to the actual retailer but to various user groups including 1-800-Flowers Sucks.

As the age of the average Facebook user creeps up - and, hence, the presumed average income - an e-commerce element is practical rather than merely anticipatory.

To read the Media Planner Buyer article “1-800-Flowers Pings Facebook for eCommerce,” click here.

Lisa Tibbitts is a corporate communications professional with an MBA in marketing. Follow her on Twitter: http://twitter.com/FinancialPR.

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