Blogshops and their variants on Facebook emerged in SE Asia as crude solutions to overcome order processing and payment facility barriers required on standard e-commerce online platforms.  They represent very crude approaches to enable mass participation of online commerce.

In this article, we can see that the same problem occurs in other parts of the world as well.  The difference here is that while the option for manual payment processing is mentioned here (and described as primitive), it is not considered as a viable approach.  In Malaysia and Singapore, however, the inconvenience is tolerated and a model of online retailing is developed that is based on the uniqueness of the hosting platform.

From: http://www.mizalla.com/blog/2011/06/17/social-commerce-f-commerce-and-the-paypal-dilemma/

Social Commerce, F-commerce, and the Paypal Dilemma

Posted by Pascale M. under Advice & Tips, E-commerce Solutions, Social Media for Businesses |

We just received a letter from Mohammed, a florist in Beirut. Mohammed was speed-reading through our blog and came across a post about F-commerce.

He mentioned that he has relatively no experience in online retail but he’s interested in expanding his business on Facebook. The main set-back he says is that existent e-store Facebook applications allow monetary transactions only through Paypal. Lebanon is on the list of Paypal’s blocked countries, which makes it impossible to expand a business through F-commerce. He also mentioned that he doesn’t have a website or e-store at the moment and that he’d like to know more about the concept of F-commerce.

“…How can I keep myself updated on the status of F-commerce in Lebanon? Will it be authorized and what do I need to make it happen on my Facebook page?”

The thing is, Facebook signed a deal with Paypal in February 2010. PayPal processes payments on Facebook and handles payments for Facebook Credits (FB’s virtual currency).

There are a bunch of interesting applications out there that allow retailers to add their products online. Pavement for instance, is an application that integrates an online shop with a business’ Facebook Page. Paypal however, is needed to process payments on the F-store, which leads us back to the basic dilemma. Mohammed can opt for another application like BigCommerce SocialShop, where he can link his e-store to his Facebook Page, add a shop tab, and automatically upload products from his site. When customers click on a product, the application will take them to the original website where they can shop freely, using the website’s payment gateway.  But Mohammed doesn’t have a website.

In this case, one can choose to upload products in an album on Facebook, mention details about items and pricing in the comments section, and set an e-mail account in order to process client requests. That’s a primitive solution, we know. Hiring a developer to develop a tailored application will reap better outcomes, however, other payment gateways cannot be integrated with FB applications yet. Mohammed can choose to open his own e-commerce website, which requires a registered Lebanese company, design, development, social media, and advertising; in other words, unforeseen expenses for a micro-business.

Mohammed needs a service that allows retailers to benefit from a ready to use e-commerce platform that contains all the tools required to market and sell products with minimal operation costs. This will allow him to expand his business with an electronic branch that is fully run and maintained for him.
That’s exactly what we do here at Mizalla.com. We’ve created real solutions for merchants in Lebanon, the Middle East, and North Africa. For inquiries, a simple phone call will do. Click here, for further details.

Oh, on another note, we’re secretly hoping that Mohammed will add his feedback in the comments section on this post. Let’s see how this goes!