As the quest for new traffic sources heats up, some forward-looking website operators place an increasing emphasis on garnering mainstream sources of adult website visitors.
While a delicate touch and creative marketing when working with these sources will maximize returns and avoid terms of service violations, a heavy handed approach can easily backfire, making careful planning worthwhile.
Last year, retailers across the board began to realize the importance of hopping on the social shopping bandwagon
One such arena is social shopping, with marketing via Facebook leading the way. Such is this outlet’s growing popularity as an e-commerce platform that there is a new term to describe it: “f-commerce.”
F-commerce involves allowing users to browse items, add, like and share them on their wish list, and to solicit feedback from friends and others who have purchased the item.
According to Social Times, an upcoming report by shopping search engine SortPrice will reveal that SortPrice-built Facebook storefronts offered more than $3.78 billion worth of merchandise in 2010, accounting for more than 7.6 million products. This figure represents a 60 percent increase from 2009, during which the company offered 4.6 million products. These offerings covered approximately 53,000 different categories of products and 28 different product industries.
“Last year, retailers across the board began to realize the importance of hopping on the social shopping bandwagon,” SortPrice CTO and cofounder Asaf Klibansky stated. The company has reportedly built stores for more than 1,500 online retailers, to “tap into the enormous audiences available to them on Facebook.”
SortPrice is not alone in this arena, with countless other companies exploring the emerging market possibilities. Although product categories such as apparel and home and garden supplies are most popular, the sheer volume of visitors makes the venue an appealing choice for adult marketers able to pierce the veil of f-commerce in 2011.
