Under 40, affluent, female & love to shop? You’re in the high risk category for impulse shopping!

What’s the most important thing to know about selling on Facebook?  Ask Facebook commerce specialists such as Dean Alms of Milyoni and Jeff Sable of Moontoast and it won’t be long before the word IMPULSE comes into the conversation.  The one thing that f-commerce detractors and promoters agree on right now is that people rarely go to Facebook specifically to shop (yet), so when they buy something it’s an unplanned purchase, i.e. it’s an impulse purchase.

Dean Alms compares Facebook commerce to going to a baseball game. “You are there to enjoy a ballgame, but during the game you are likely to buy some food, beverage and maybe even a ball cap or T-shirt. You never went there to ‘shop’. Those that appreciate this role of Facebook will do better in the future than those that see Facebook as just another E-commerce channel.”

Now the really good news is that we can use this insight – that f-commerce is about impulse buying – to build a Facebook store designed to sell.  How?  By building off six decades of research into the what, why, who and how of impulse purchasing (for useful overviews of this research see here, here, here, and here).

The ideal f-commerce consumer

If f-commerce is largely driven by impulse purchases, then success in selling on Facebook will be contingent on attracting impulse buyers.  People who buy on impulse are people who make unplanned, spontaneous and often emotionally-driven purchases in response to retail stimuli, often with a disregard for future consequences.

read the full article at Social Commerce Today.