It's this supply-side marketing mentality. "Oh look, a social media platform! Let's think about how to use this to push our business at consumers."

Businesses look at facebook and ask, "How can we use this to market more to our customers?" And the answer is to make a facebook page and get bunches of followers and make posts and blah blah blah.

Seems like none of them think to ask "what do our customers want to do on facebook and how can we add value to that experience?"

Your first sentence is spot on. What I think is getting lost in this conversation is that it makes more sense for retailers to incorporate Facebook-enabled functionality on their own website, rather than have an e-commerce store within Facebook.

I founded a company called Snapline (http://www.getsnapline.com) that helps retailers integrate Facebook functionality into their e-commerce site. We've talked to many retailers, and most are still not sure where Facebook comes into play for their business. Small retailers want to engage and increase their Facebook audience, but it's time-consuming to make consistent feed updates and it's impact on sales is pretty murky. Large retailers seeks to gain much more by engaging their Facebook audience, but implementing features on their site that leverage Facebook data is outside their core area of expertise. I think what can go a long way in solving both problems is incorporating functionality within an e-commerce store that doesn't require a lot of manpower and improves the shopping experience.

I think part of why Facebook has failed thus-far as a platform for commerce is that they haven't made-possible the primary consumer advantage of having multiple retailers selling through one platform - comparison. If you think about an aggregator like the restaurant platform Seamless, they provide a mechanism by which you can search across merchants and see all of your options in a way that feels like you're ordering from Seamless first, and the restaurants second.

Facebook has gone the other direction ... treating each retailer like "an island" where there isn't an easy way to at-a-glance see all of the retailers and their products in one view. Sure, food and "stuff" are different things... but I think for consumers to embrace an aggregating platform for commerce, Facebook will need to flatten the view to the customers to allow them to get a view of their buying choices in a less-segregated way than things have been presented to them until now.

Because Facebook is the internet. What is that "site" thing you keep talking about?

What is this facebook you keep talking about? Pinterest is the Internet

What is this pinterest you speak of? Pinspire is the Internet.

http://www.Pinspire.com

This is the problem with Facebook commerce so far - most retailers are simply offering their entire catalog up for sale via FB without any curation or exclusivity. Consumers don't want to browse through thousands of products via FB; but there still exists the opportunity for success through curated content. Brands need to create reason for consumers to shop via Facebook and most brands aren't doing that (yet).

I like the idea of customers being able to start their shopping experience on Facebook; e.g viewing selected inventory on Facebook - or any other site for that matter - potentially allowing them to add a product to their cart, and then drawing customers back to a main e-commerce site to continue and finalise purchase.

The idea of having a total shopping experience hosted within the Facebook ecosystem worries me, because it places too much control in the hands of an organisation that's known to be capricious.

People keep making the same mistake that you do. What do you matter, nothing? It is what the majority do, the same majority who type google into the search query box, rather than the address box.

Because lots of people like to shop together with friends, and most ecommerce sites don't provide a good or even any experience for social shopping. Facebook or someone will eventually get this right. Pinterest is a down that path.

OTOH, I don't see a need for Facebook to necessarily be involved, since I don't think people shop with all their - just a few. Not being a social shopper though, I can't comment much more than that.

Even if I wanted to shop online with somebody else, I would do it on the store's website not on Facebook. I wouldn't mind if Facebook powered the interaction behind the scenes, but I don't feel good about shopping on Facebook.