Facebook Store Revenue Among SMBs Increases 38%

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The second quarter of 2012 looked a lot better than the first for small- and medium-sized businesses using Facebook as a direct selling tool. Total average F-commerce revenue grew 38 percent.

More businesses are jumping on board, with 26 percent more Facebook stores operating this quarter. This despite lackluster Q1 reports and several high-profile retailers backing out of their Facebook Stores over the past year.

On average, companies with both a Facebook store and a web storefront increased the portion of total e-commerce revenue coming from Facebook sales by 5 percent QoQ, to 22 percent. These figures reflect the performance of 40,000 companies in 174 countries (largely SMBs) with stores powered by the second-largest Facebook store-building app, Ecwid.

Over all of 2011, these businesses could attribute 15 percent of their annual e-commerce revenue to their Facebook stores. The first quarter of this year saw that rise to 17.7 percent and settle at its current high of 22.1 percent.

Last quarter, we spoke with Ruslan Fazlyev, CEO and founder of Ecwid, Inc., on his outlook for F-commerce, given the negative perception created when major players like JCPenney and Nordstrom threw in the towel and closed their Facebook stores. He had said at the time, “In their rush to get on the f-commerce train, where did these major players fail? What do SMBs know about engaging customers on social networks that has eluded their larger counterparts? Are SMBs the real innovators in social commerce?”

Indeed, SMBs seem to be leading the charge in the growing field of selling directly through this particular social network. "We’re still in the early days of social commerce and since the rules of this game are still being written, it's important to pay attention to who's figuring it out first. Right now, that’s the SMBs,” Fazylev noted in the August 8th release of their report.

This article was originally published on Search Engine Watch.