As “F-commerce,” or Facebook Commerce, has become the latest social buzz word, retailers are increasingly turning to the largest social network as another customer touch point to harvest not only engagement, but real revenue opportunities.

Laura Geller Makeup, a top-selling brand at Beauty 360 and QVC, has extended its social media efforts by launching an e-Commerce store within the brand’s Facebook page. The cosmetics brand tapped technology from dotbox, a New York-based social commerce agency, for a content-based approach to commerce. In order to build on the success of the existing e-commerce strategy, Laura Geller’s executive team chose to socialize the brand’s existing online shopping experience by setting up shop on Facebook.

Smart phone technology has given way to a new channel through which to communicate with shoppers and enable commerce. The fascination around mobile for retail started with mobile marketing and the ability to communicate via SMS text messaging, and very soon graduated to mobile commerce, which is widely regarded as an additional shopping channel that many retailers are seeing grow at a rapid pace. Now Quick Response (QR) code scanning is giving retailers including Macy’s, Target and Best Buy a competitive edge.

In late February, Macy's announced its plans to supplement its “Backstage Pass” campaign with customized QR code and SMS technology to deliver exclusive and engaging video content to users' mobile phones. The retailer is leveraging QR codes to extend its brand by bringing celebrity designers and fashion authorities more directly into every store location nationwide. Macy's Backstage Pass offers consumers essential tips, information on the latest trends, advice and inspiration straight from their favorite style icons, according to a company press release. Macy's Backstage Pass codes offer 30-second films to users' mobile phones that provide fashion inspiration, advice and tips.

Merkle has announced the release of its new database marketing suite aimed at multi-channel retail specialists. Called Retail Marketing Suite (RMS), it includes both off-the-shelf and customizable customer relationship marketing solutions aimed at integrating data for better campaign and data management.

“It is no secret that the multi-channel aspect of retailing is increasing significantly and will continue to do so, but for a lot of specialty retailers, marketing and its resulting data is still dependent on traditional channels,” said David Geisinger, VP of Merkle’s Database Marketing Group. “FSI’s, direct mail, even email, is lacking some kind of multi-channel integration. We believe RMS will help that business.”

Concept:
M2SYS provides biometric identification technology to retailers for workforce management and point of sale applications. By utilizing biometric technology, which identifies an individual by their physiological characteristics, RightPunch is designed to help retailers stop preventable loss, lower costs, prevent time theft, increase productivity, build customer loyalty, achieve higher ROI, establish airtight access control, solidify role based security, boost operational efficiency, increase speed and comply with PCI requirements.

One of the trickle down effects of using biometrics is that it can potentially keep costs low (i.e. - boosting loss prevention means businesses will not have to pass that cost along to customers).