E-commerce and Social Networking

E-bay
E-commerce is simply an online shop. Sellers set up online shops, this is a specialised type or website and will typically have a payment processing interface. In the online shop there is usually web pages with pictures of products with product descriptions. They way it works is exactly as if you were to shop within a literal store, shop for the products that you want to buy and place them in their virtual basket. Once all desired products have been placed in the virtual basket they can then pay for them. Items are payed for usually on a separate page.

The major purpose of ebay is to allow people to buy and sell items nationally or even internationally. This website however is an online auctions which means random people sell their second hand goods to other people. This means that it is not ebay that is directly selling all the products. As a result of anyone being able to sell anything on ebay then it means that it has a very broad target audience, buyers and sellers ages can range from 18 up. There are 2 ways of buying good from a seller on ebay, one is by buying the object instantly or by having the winning bid in an auction. The auction allows someone to place a bit on an object and this sets a benchmark for all bidders bidding on that item, this benchmark must be exceeds for another person to win the bid. There is a time lapse for when bidding must end and the winning bidder has bought the item.
This website does do quite well to achieve it's purpose as it does use quite simple and efficient techniques to allow all age groups to use it with ease. Unfortunately sometimes with an online auction something doesn't get sold to the winning bidder and therefore the person is unsuccessful at selling their item. However this is not a fault on ebay's behalf as it is just lack of interest on the particular item. This can also be a major disadvantage to selling something on ebay. But on a good note it is easy to advertise an object for sale on ebay as long as you have an account.

Snoox

This is a new type of website that works via a new concept. Snoox is the first website of it's kind that allows people to socially recommend different forms of entertainment and shops. It is truly unique because instead of asking strangers it allows you to see reviews and recommendations that your friends and family have given. The idea behind this website is based on the fact that most businesses and ventures exist and rely heavily on word of mouth through people that have tried their products or services. This means that, for example, if individuals want to see how good a restaurant is then they can log onto Snoox and see what their friends and family say about it. After all you are more likely to trust what a friend says then a complete stranger.
This idea has existed of a long time but it did not get much recognition because it ran through Facebook and therefore it couldn't make it's break because in theory it was a sub app for Facebook. Now that it has been separated from Facebook it has been very successful. Within 5 days of it becoming independent it gained 10,000 users.

E-commerce linked to Social Networking
Social Networking websites are being used more and more by businesses as a method of advertisement and also recognition. This is because businesses have realised that a lot of people nowadays use social networking sites on a daily basis and so and advert would be seen by most people at some point. Just to hammer this point home here are some facts and figures about facebook in general:
-Today, Facebook is valued at over $10 billion and it has over 400 million active users and 70% of them actually live outside of the USA.
-An average user spends more than 55 minutes each day on Facebook.
With these facts listed you can see why businesses have opted to use Facebook as a means for occasional advertisement. Really you would be silly not to use social networking sites with them sort of statistics.

Why Businesses Should Use Social Networking Websites
-Facebook is a very good way for a business to expose their brand and also obtain some recognition as a business. This can be performed through making pages, setting up events and heading up groups. All of this contributes towards getting the business recognised.
-Another reason businesses should use Facebook is because it is a good way to engage with customers that are both existing and potential. This is usually done by sharing industry news and updating customers on new and great offers from the business.
-Lastly, Facebook is a great way for customers of a business to give feedback on what they think about the business but not only that they could give potential improvements. This is good as it allows the customer to speak their mind via the comment window.

Why Businesses Should Not Use Social Networking Websites
-Way too often businesses become reliant on Facebook as a direct form of advertising and this can have a major negative effect on Facebook users in relation to the business. Users do not want to constantly be bombarded with business offers and other advertisements after all they are on Facebook to socialise. So constant adverts will just make them want to stop being a fan and so the business will get negative views and people will not want to consume what the business has to offer.
-A rarer occurrence is how some businesses make the mistake of using Facebook as predominantly a website for their business. This is bad because all of a sudden it instantly narrows your customer base because a lot of people still don't use Facebook within their daily lives, so not having an individual website will cloud the business' existence. In essence the business would want to use Facebook as a means to enhance their web presence.
-Lastly a complete no go area would be using Facebook as another email list. This would be because it could get confusing for the customer and they could become intolerant. It is also bad because it will cloud the business' distinction for the customers and this could become a permanent thing if they were to pass on business to their friends through word of mouth. Besides Email is still a lot more professional and effective.