F-COMMERCE

Maximising Customer Outreach through F-Commerce

by

Sajjad Bhojani

Loughborough University

Loughborough Business Scholl

September 2011

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my thanks to my wife, Rabiya, for her patience and understanding over the last few years whilst completing this piece of research and MBA programme.

I certify that the work presented in the dissertation is my own unless referenced

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DECLARATION

I, Sajjad Bhojani, declare that the contents of this dissertation represent my own unaided work, and that the dissertation has not previously been submitted for academic examination towards any qualification. Furthermore, it represents my own opinions and not necessarily those of Loughborough University.

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ABSTRACT

An interesting dilemma that many companies have been facing recently is what level of promotion is necessary for their website vs. their Facebook page. Recent advertising campaigns have shown ample evidence that some companies have broken traditional norms in directing traffic directly to their fan page, surpassing their websites through the display of a Facebook URL rather than a company website URL. The change in behaviour that is seeing the Facebook presence of brand's increase is not without reason. Facebook provides brands access to more than 600 million members, an ever increasing fan base and an opportunity to engage closely with this audience.. The purpose of this research is to explore the concept of Facebook-commerce (F-Commerce) and its implications on maximising customer outreach.

Table of Contents

ABSTRACTIV

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

Problem Statement1

Research Aims and Objectives1

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW2

The social shopping, what is it?2

11 Facebook F-commerce Facts UK brands cannot ignore3

Facebook and Brands4

Facebook Credits5

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY6

Search Technique6

Search terms - key terms6

Additional Online searches7

CHAPTER 4: ANTICIPATED RESULTS8

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION9

REFERENCES10

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Problem Statement

The problem statement is: to investigate of the concept of F-commerce and explore the implications of F-commerce on modern businesses.

Research Aims and Objectives

The reason for conducting this research is to investigate the concept of F-commerce and its implications on maximizing customer outreach. The main research aims and objective shall be:

To investigate the concept of F-commerce.

To explore the implications of F-commerce on modern businesses.

To analyse the challenges faced by modern brands and how these brands can use F-commerce to their advantage.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

The social shopping, what is it?

The social shopping, shopping or collaborative or community, based on an experience of consumption and purchasing shared and enriched by the Internet (Aaker 2006, p: 12). This concept is not new. The opinions of consumers have long existed on the internet with sites like Ciao or Twenga or even directly on the product pages (Aaker 2006, p: 12). What goes further in the social shopping experience on Facebook is that brands:

Enjoy the dynamics of their communities and their influential ambassadors.

Do not have to convince customers who are fans

Create exclusivity by offering special offers and content for fans.

Social Commerce describes the integration of social components within an existing e-commerce strategy (Keller 2007, p: 316). For example, the evaluation functions, be the offer of a community or rankings in an online shop.

F-commerce is the complementary use of Facebook in addition to an existing e-commerce strategy (Wind and Mahajan 2001, p: ...