A new wave of sophisticated e-commerce applications is appearing on Facebook, a sign that the world's largest social network could rapidly emerge as a big destination for online shopping.
1-800-Flowers, the US floral gift retailer and distributor, last week opened its “Facebook storefront”, an application running on Facebook's fast-growing platform where users can purchase and send flowers.
At least 20 more such storefronts will appear on Facebook in the next two months, according to Wade Gerten, chief executive of Alvenda, the software developer that built the 1-800-Flowers storefront. “You'll see a lot more coming out in the next couple of months,” he said.