Social Media

5 New Facebook Shopping Carts

It has been more than a year since I wrote about Facebook shopping carts. That article was titled “Six Facebook Applications to Sell Your Products.”

In this article, I’ll review five new Facebook shopping carts. With the exception of the first option, North Social, each cart can accept payments within Facebook, using services such as PayPal, Authorize.Net and Amazon Checkout.

It’s worth noting that a number of established ecommerce platform providers offer a Facebook shopping component. But for the most part, these are little more than photo galleries with “Buy Now” buttons, which link buyers to merchants’ websites.

1. North Social’s Show & Sell

North Social's Show & Sell is limited to 10 products.

North Social’s Show & Sell is limited to 10 products.

North Social, a provider of Facebook applications, offers Show & Sell, which allows merchants to sell up to 10 products. According to North Social CEO Alex Bernstein, the idea was never to create a full ecommerce cart, but, instead, a simple app to showcase featured products. “Buy Now” buttons link buyers to the merchants’ websites to complete the purchase.

The app features customizable headers to allow some customized branding. There is also commenting capability on each product and the option to share information to the user’s Wall.

Show & Sell lacks many essential ecommerce features. But for a merchant with only a few basic products, Show & Sell could be a suitable option.

2. TabJuice

Nika Water, a non-profit organization, uses TabJuice for its Facebook store.

Nika Water, a non-profit organization, uses TabJuice for its Facebook store.

TabJuice offers a free Facebook shopping cart that enables transactions — using either PayPal Pro or Authorize.Net — to occur without leaving Facebook.

Merchants can upload an unlimited number of products, using many different design customization options. TabJuice claims to be easy to set up and use, not requiring a Facebook developer. Buyers can share purchases and product information with Facebook friends.

3. Lunarmods

Lunarmods charges monthly subscription and transactions fees.

Lunarmods charges monthly subscription and transactions fees.

Lunarmods offers features similar to TabJuice – ease of installation, secure ecommerce transactions using PayPal or Amazon Checkout, and the ability to share products with friends. However, Lunarmods is not free.

The basic starter package has no monthly fee, but it does charge a five percent transaction fee per sale. It also imposes a two-product limit. The next package requires a monthly fee of $19.95 and allows for 20 products. There is also one for $39.95 per month that allows uploads of up to 100 products. Two percent transaction fees are charged in both those packages.

4. Moluko

Moluko supports two types of Facebook stores.

Moluko supports two types of Facebook stores.

Australian-based Moluko supports two types of stores. The first is an independent store where purchases are managed inside Facebook. When buyers click the “Buy It Now” button, they are redirected to PayPal. But they never leave Facebook in the process. The second type redirects buyers to the merchant’s website.

Other features include:

  • Customizable shipping costs based on order weight;
  • Anonymous browsing – shoppers are not required to login with Facebook to browse products;
  • Specify custom product attributes such as size, color and type;
  • Display products per category.

5. Payvment

Payvment powers stores for both large brands and small businesses.

Payvment powers stores for both large brands and small businesses.

I showcased Payvment in an article last year. Since that time the company has gone through two rounds of funding and has upgraded the product extensively, beyond other applications included in this list.

Originally, Payvment was a free shopping cart. While the free version still exists, two premium versions have been added. One is designed for smaller ecommerce merchants and sells for $29.95, while the other is designed for agency use.

Several new features have been added in recent weeks:

Analytics Dashboard. Payvment now has an analytics component designed to help merchants understand the value of a Like as it pertains to a sale.

Feedback Manager. This component gives merchants a better way to view the conversation taking place on their Fan pages. It curates all comments into one place and provides a way for merchants to respond.

Social Promotions. This component enables merchants to select different promotions for each day, then watch the effects of the promotion in real time. Merchants can also schedule promotions.

Shopping Mall. Another recent development is a “shopping mall” that consists of products aggregated from all Payvment stores on Facebook.

Payvment's shopping mall aggregates products from individual Facebook stores.

Payvment’s shopping mall aggregates products from individual Facebook stores.

Payvment plans to introduce APIs that will allow developers to integrate with other, non-Facebook ecommerce platforms. This will enable merchants to manage the Payvment store from their own shopping carts.

Paul Chaney
Paul Chaney
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