We all know what will happen, it is either businesses adapt or get disputed and phase out. It either as an employee that has been affected by this pandemic, adapts or gets disrupted and phases out too.
Whichever way, the fact remains that the pandemic has created trends that can be maximized to unlock market value this time. In my article on how to create a business model around trends, I pointed out some of the trending opportunities recommended by the World Economic Forum. One of such trends and market opportunities is online shopping.
There are trends that have come to be part of the economic pattern. They have come to shape the world in ways we thought will happen in the next decades. These trends are very good to build sustainable business models around.
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Of course, entrepreneurs and innovators have risen up to build some impressive innovations around some of these trends. Some have pivoted their business models towards where the value is converging in order to fix market frictions.
My interest in this article is to analyse one of such pivots that is around online shopping. According to Techcrunch Mark Zuckerberg said in a live session that “I do think we’re going to continue living more of our lives online and doing more business online.”
The Facebook shop riding on the wave of the Facebook business model. This article will help you to know how pivoting around trends can be effective for an already existing business. Follow me.
Facebook Shop Leveraging on Facebook Existing Infrastructure.
When it comes to pivoting in business, it is easier and more effective for an established business than a startup due to established business’ infrastructure and resources. Here are the facebook infrastructures that the facebook shop will ride on;
The Facebook User Base:
According to Statista there are 2.6 billion monthly active users as of the first quarter of 2020, Facebook is the biggest social network worldwide. When we come to the subject of data, Google and Facebook are the leaders.
While Google is leading, Facebook occupies the second position. With 2.6bn active users on facebook, the two sided customers for the facebook shop is already a settled issue. So, the product will thrive based on the already existing market.
Facebook Group:
The above monthly user base of facebook are grouped into facebook groups based on interest and niches. So, with the existence of millions of facebook groups on Facebook, where people engage on a particular subject of interest, it becomes very easy to target them based on specific products on the Facebook Shop.
Facebook groups are created for a community of people with a common interest. But, mostly, people discuss business related topics. How they can better increase their source of livelihood and how they can learn and earn. So, some organised Facebook groups are very important to facebook because they help in Facebook data analysis .
Facebook Pages:
The facebook page serves two general purposes which are; one, there are influential individuals that have fans and create pages to influence their fans. Two, there are business pages which are dedicated to people that own business, mainly small businesses and startups.
One of such pages on facebook is Strive Masiyiwa page that has a fan base of 5.1million followers. This page is for the purpose of entrepreneurial and business mentorship.
That means Facebook already has data of some businesses with the help of the Facebook page. So, it will become convenient for business pages to be converted into shops.
Facebook Marketing.
One of the ways users of Facebook who run business maximise the platform is through facebook advertisement or promotion. These could be in the form of normal organic content marketing and sponsored ads.
With this, facebook is already associated with business marketing, sales and brand visibility. Adding Facebook Shop to this will make the platform to have comprehensive tools for businesses that use the facebook platform for promotional activities.
Hence, Facebook Shop is here to ride on the success of the Facebook business model. But, how does it unlock value for the stakeholders of Facebook. It does in two ways;
- Helping to Digitize Businesses:
This has become a need in this period as people have resorted to shopping online. With your goods or products on Facebook Shop, your customers can order and you make deliveries without physical contact.
- Adding Revenue Models to Facebook Business Model:
With this product on facebook, the revenue generation capacity of Facebook will increase. Then, this will help the company to maximize profit and create wealth for shareholders.
In the next analysis, we shall consider how Facebook shops make money.
When we know that “the times are a changin”, then we’ll learn to adjust our plans as the times change.