The evidence appears to point to the appropriateness and rapid rise of “F-commerce.” Some of my arguments are obviously speculative, but, taken as a whole, I believe the case for building “F-shops” today is quite strong. Read Brekke’s take and mine — and let us know what you think.

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Guest blogger Vidar Brekke, of Social Intent, is less than enthusiastic about the promise of Facebook storefronts. He makes a strong and informed case, but I don’t totally agree. Today, we’ll hear Brekke’s perspective; add yours to the comments and I’ll post mine tomorrow.

Express launched an online storefront on Facebook yesterday. Users can try it out by clicking on a promo on Express’ Fan Page. This will take the user to a Facebook app where users can shop from Express’ entire catalog.

Express is not the first, and I’m sure not the last, retailer to move the cash register closer to the water cooler in this way. However, while I’m bullish on Facebook as an e-Commerce facilitator, I’m not sure that on-Facebook storefronts are the wave of the future.

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Product reviews and word-of-mouth advertising have given consumers the added confidence they want when they make in-store purchases. However, for online shoppers, two of the basic concerns include them needing more information on their purchase and privacy for their personal information from credit card numbers to what they purchased.

TurnTo is looking forward to blending the power of social networking with product reviews, to provide an added reference for shoppers. For those that are shopping through the online stores utilizing TurnTo’s service, can see what their friends are shopping for and see what people in their area are purchasing by simply entering their zip code. When it comes to privacy TurnTo has a system in place for consumers, where they are able to limit how much or how little information is provided to their friends and family on social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter. Once a purchase has been made an overlay appears thanking the shopper for making a purchase and asks if they would like other shoppers to see the purchase they made.

So what is in-store for TurnTo in the New Year? They are currently focusing their attention on expanding their “social commerce technology” to more merchants and building their e-commerce services. Will it help businesses build profits and improve their sales? Only time will tell. One thing is for sure, if this service is successful, it will be another tool to change the way you shop with online retailers.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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With embedded shopping, Mertado has created a seamless experience that allows the user to stay within the application they are using while making a purchase. This integration means that Facebook and other social networks could become much more lucrative to game developers and publishers than they are already, and it could make it even easier for consumers to compare prices, review products and shop online.
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I keep wondering what incentive Google has to be involved with OpenSocial aside from preventing Facebook from being a dominant player. While developers can use the Adwords service to monetize their applications, this isn’t the best solution. I keep trying to figure out how these sites are going to generate substantially more revenue and the only thing that I can think of at this is point is e-commerce.

Facebook has already announced their intention to let app developers monetize through an e-commerce system but Google has yet to announce anything. While Patrick could not comment on it, it only seems logical for Google to expand Google Wallet to OpenSocial. This will hopefully provide the kick that they need to take on eBay owned PayPal.

While the social networking arms race continues, Google and Facebook will struggle to figure out more effective monetization strategies for these new channels. Google has the luxury of a multi-billion dollar war chest and a growing billion dollar advertising business, not to mention a thoroughly developed payment platform. Facebook has a massive amount of pressure from investors to increase monetization and an incomplete payment system.

As advertisers turn away from social advertising due to the inherent risks in lack of control over user-generated content, the only obvious remaining solution is e-commerce. I think it may be time to spend more time focusing on e-commerce and payment system integration instead of advertising solutions. What do you think? Is e-commerce (or “social commerce”) the future of the social web?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.