Managers of e-tailers 'should use Facebook' to raise awareness

New research has found that managers of online retailers should use websites such as Facebook to raise awareness of their brand identity and increase their income.

According to Alvenda, users are often reluctant to leave social networks to go elsewhere on the internet once they have logged on, so they are ideal to attract sales, so management training needs to reflect that.

Brian Howe, chief strategy officer at the commerce-enabled advertising network provider, said: "Facebook is a party people do not leave. Retailers see Facebook as a clear path to revenue and brand differentiation."

Mr Howe explained that it can be argued that "the majority of online sales will happen off-site", so e-tailers should look at choosing where they set up shop online as if they were doing so offline.

According to an article by David Gelles and published on FT.com last week, a new wave of sophisticated ecommerce applications is appearing on Facebook, a sign that the world's largest social network could rapidly emerge as a big destination for online shopping.

US floral gift retailer and distributor 1-800-Flowers has opened a Facebook "storefront", an application running on Facebook's fast-growing platform where users can purchase and send flowers.