A new Facebook application wants you to create personal “stores” filled with holistic, yoga and new age items. You get paid a 10 per cent commission on every item your friends buy. But is Market Lodge a pointless ecommerce effort?
Digital Journal —
Facebook applications let you play Scrabble or share photos or watch video clips. But apps developers have been slow to jump on the ecommerce train — until now. A new application allows Facebook members to recommend products to friends, and the app’s creator will pay those members a 10 per cent commission on all sales made from their recommendations.
Denver-based
bSocial Networks created Market Lodge to “move social networks to a true ‘social commerce’ model where members are buying and selling products based on their trusted friends’ recommendations,” as its
website proclaims.
Facebook members who add Market Lodge can customize their own stores, selecting from more than 1,200 products sold by 50 different merchants. After the personal store is set up, Facebook users can invite other people in their network to browse the goods they’re recommending. Any sales from the store will earn the “storekeeper” a 10 per cent sales commission. bSocial Networks, which handles order management, earns a 35 to 50 per cent commission.
Available products include self-help books, jewelry, organic food, DVDs, yoga goods and body care products. So far, there are no brand-name or big-ticket items. One Market Lodge user posted her opinion of the available items on the Market Lodge
application “wall,” saying:
I just signed up and then I saw all this new age crap, nothing real, no real movies, or music, or video games, electronics, things I've actually used or want, just no name new age musicians and yoga DVDs, basically just crap. Get better products and I might come back, as of now I'm un-registering.
Market Lodge is hoping to build upon the success of eBay personal stores. Dangling a financial incentive in front of Facebook’s 67 million users may be enticing, but at what cost? Bringing ecommerce apps into the social network may water down the clean layout Facebook is known for, while also marketing yoga DVDs no one wants.
I have two main gripes about Market Lodge: first, its inventory is pathetic. Only a few of my “friends” may be interested in blue chai tea, and even fewer will care about something called “The Complete Holistic Dog Book.” Browsing through Market Lodge’s available inventory feels like strolling through your neighbour’s garage sale.
Second, how attractive is the idea of online stores on Facebook? The application wins points for originality, but its execution may leave a bad taste in members’ mouths. Some people may be wary of buying an exercise ball on Market Lodge simply because their friend added it to their store. What’s to stop someone buying that same product at their local shop? Should the recommendations be trusted, or will store owners simply add items that will ensure them commission?
It will be worth tracking how Market Lodge progresses in the Facebook app universe. As one of more than 16,000 third-party apps created for the site, Market Lodge has an uphill battle in both creating awareness and winning favourable mentions. Its quiet launch last week could be a sign of ecommerce apps to come, but so far the Lodge isn’t worth a visit.
