By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

“Facebook is ramping up efforts to entice companies… to sell wares on its pages and convert more of its 500 million users into online shoppers,” writes Business Week’s Olga Kharif.

It’s the most direct way yet that Facebook is looking to make shopping a more social experience. Kharif talked to Facebook’s David Fish, who’s running a group at aimed at creating commerce partnerships. Facebook has already met with 20 companies, and aims “to help retailers set up shop on its pages and build tools that let web users interact while buying.”

Facebook wants to create social commerce on the web. Shopping is best when it’s a shared experience. If you’re looking for a new TV, getting validation from a friend is a good thing. If you’re looking for a new outfit, you want to be told it looks good before dropping money on it.

Now, Facebook wants to help retailers spark new purchases through pages driven by “recommendations from friends who ‘like’ to buy.”

“It’s not natural to go to Facebook to shop—yet,” Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst at Forrester Research told Business Week. “But it’s not a long step.”

That’s an important distinction. People are already going to Facebook to socialize with friends, and if they see something their friends have “liked” or purchased, they may be more inclined to follow suit. It’s in Facebook’s best interests to keep them on the site, which is why it makes sense to offer the experience directly. It’s also in retailers’ interests to engage people where they’re at, which right now is on Facebook. They can also use that store front as part of their social media strategy to engage customers directly.

Facebook’s Fisch is part of a group “meeting with retailers to help Facebook develop software that lets users solicit advice and product reviews from Facebook friends in real time, even while they’re shopping on other sites,” writes Khalid. That’s good news for retailers because their potential customers can tap into a pool of their friends and make a more informed purchase.

The Forbes article also highlights the company “Payvment,” which writes software “that can turn Facebook pages into storefronts.” There’s value there because people can have the instant gratification of making a purchase if they just got a good response from friends about a product.

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

There’s a really interesting article on The Wall Street Journal right now, “Phone-Wielding Shoppers Strike Fear Into Retailers.”

The premise is simple: smartphones in the hands of shoppers is a scary story for retail stores. The WSJ writers tell the story of Tri Tang, who found a GPS in one store, compared the price to online retailers using the smartphone and ended up buying it elsewhere for cheaper.

The lowest price won and beat out the convenience and instant gratification of walking out of the store with device in hand. Smartphones are making for smarter shoppers, who are more apt at finding the best devices for the best prices. The WSJ notes, “Mr. Tang’s smartphone reckoning represents a revolution in retailing—what Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Chief Executive Mike Duke has dubbed a ‘new era of price transparency.’”

Retailers should start to embrace that transparency, and the added value that comes with it. If there’s a customer in your store with a smartphone, the most important takeaway is that they’re in the store.

“Only a couple of retailers can play the lowest-price game,” Noam Paransky, senior manager at consultancy Kurt Salmon Associates, told the WSJ. “‘This is going to accelerate the demise of retailers who do not have either competitive pricing’ or a standout store experience.”

That standout store experience is what’s going to keep customers coming back and it’s going to prompt them to share their experiences with others. If someone had a fantastically helpful experience with a representative, they can instantly share it on their smartphone.

Comparing the numbers of smartphone-equipped users on Black Friday in 2009 and 2010, there was a 50-fold increase according to the WSJ article. If that trend continues, which is likely from market research, then more and more people will be electronically equipped all the time. Right now the technology is best suited for comparing big-ticket items, like TVs or the GPS mentioned above. Right now, you’re not likely to se someone price-checking the cost of broccoli at the supermarket.

A traditional brick-and-mortar store may not be able to compete with internet giants on price, but they have an arsenal at their disposal that internet shops can’t compete with: service and customer experience. Shoppers in stores also don’t have to worry about shipping or delivery costs, which can add to the final price.

As one commenter on the WSJ article wrote, “There is value to being able to pick up or return purchases to a local brick and mortar location… There is also value to instant gratification in addition being able to see products side by side. These advantages do not however give the local retailer a license to mark up products to a ridiculous level.”

Retailers shouldn’t be fearing the smartphone, they should be embracing the connectivity it brings.

By JENNIFER L. CHERRY, Vice President, Marx Layne

The owners of businesses, no matter how small or large, should take heed from the adage “Fish where the fish are.”

Consumers are extremely active in social media and getting so comfortable with their mobile devices that they want to do more with them.

Keep in mind that people are talking about your business online whether you’re on social networks or not, so join the party and put your own spin on things. The biggest hurdle for a company to get involved in social media was explained by a Ford Motor Co. executive, who said the hardest thing is to let go of your brand and let consumers run with it. Mind you, Ford has been successful in its social media efforts. Costs are relatively low for such high potential.

Consider: Facebook has more than 500 million users and Twitter now has 175 million registered users.

Social media sites like Facebook aren’t normally places where consumers actually buy goods, but are virtual gathering spots where they learn or reveal what’s cool and can build consideration for your products or services.

Nevertheless, some companies have added “Buy Now” buttons on their social media pages. While these outfits haven’t revealed what kind of sales volumes they’re seeing from this, there’s little downside since it doesn’t cost much to add this feature. It’s about being where the buyer is when they make the decision to buy.

Social media can expand your customer base via existing clientele writing about your products or their positive experiences in your establishment. Executives may fret about the potential of customers writing negative things, but the benefit in this case is quicker awareness of a problem and the opportunity to rectify it.

WE’RE GOING MOBILE

Cooler smart phone technology has really caught on. Americans are using them more to do more, whether post on social media sites, check email or search for information.

When it comes to shopping, consumers in the not-too-distant past, used the devices for information and in-store price comparisons. But now than they’re more comfortable with the devices they want to complete their transactions.

Outfits like Square, a mobile credit card provider, lets them do that. A cheaper and less bulky alternative to traditional, wireless credit card machines, Square lets business owners accept credit card payments by plugging its jack into the headphone of iPhone, iPad or Android device. Best Buy customers can even complete a transaction using the Best Buy Mobile app.

Major national retailers started using a free smart phone app for customers called Shopkick this summer that rewards in-store shoppers with points towards gift certificates. Shoppers automatically “check in” at the stores when they walk in with the app running and collect points for different behavior, like picking up merchandise, going into dressing rooms or to cash registers.

This app can help the retailers learn about in-store shopping patterns that could result in better layouts and product selection.

By Jennifer L. Cherry, Vice President, Marx Layne

Retailers are already promoting deals for Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving and one of the 10 biggest online shopping days of the year. Researchers and retailers are projecting lifts in online sales that day versus 2009, when Americans spent a record $887 million and topped 2008′s prior peak for the day by 5%, according to comscore.com.

When the National Retail Federation’s Shop.org first dubbed this day Cyber Monday in 2005, most consumers didn’t have Internet broadband service at home, so the bulk of the shopping was done at work-where the speeds reigned supreme. Since then, in-home broadband has grown dramatically.

Yet more than half of last year’s Cyber Monday purchases still originated from work computers, according to comscore.com. Now comes the results of a new study by WPP Group’s Lightspeed Research for dealnews.com that 86% of those planning to shop that day would do so from their home computers, with only 13% doing it from work. That’s good news for employers and productivity.

But retailers may have some consumer educating to do, since a third of the 2,001 online respondents in that survey also have never heard of Cyber Monday. While dealnews.com reports people with annual earnings of more than $50,000 have the most awareness of the day, the third of the respondents still in the dark about it doesn’t fluctuate much among age groups or geography.

Researcher Forrester expects online retail sales during the entire holiday season to grow 16 percent in the U.S. compared to last year. The market researcher said consumers are showing a willingness to spend this season, with affluent consumers driving the most growth. Online retailers in the U.S. also expect their holiday sales to rise year-over-year, but are planning aggressive promotions throughout the season, highlighting Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Forrester says.

NPD Group noticed during last year’s bleak economy that retailers offered deals over two weeks, not just on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the traditional start of the holiday shopping season. That has resulted in what NPD’s chief analyst Marshall Cohen called the “graying of Black Friday” since there’s opportunities to get the same great deals on other days.

There’s new research that shows Americans are increasingly more willing to shop online for holiday gifts, rather than face the mobs of people who go to brick-and-mortar stores for one-day-only, deep discounts on Black Friday. A recent online poll of 800 prior Black Friday shoppers by Persuadable Research Corp. for dealnews.com found that only 46% of them plan to definitely shop on Black Friday this year, a 12% drop from last year. It’s not just the crowds and yes, sometimes rude fellow shoppers that is causing this shift, but consumers’ realization that they can find better and earlier deals online. Fifty-nine percent of the respondents said they’d rather shop online on Black Friday than in a store.