eBay, Facebook make shopping social

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook's influence on retail continues to grow as eBay announced that it has integrated the social network's Open Graph functionality into its storefront and fulfillment platforms.

Introduced at its recent Innovate Developer Conference, Facebook's Open Graph software will enable retailers who use Magento to build storefronts on eBay to addnew sharing options including ‘want’ and ‘own’ buttons as part of a new social shopping experience. In addition, the integration of Open Graph into eBay's GSI business unitwill enable large merchants worldwide to offer their customers ways to connect with their friends through shopping, using GSI’s existing Open Graph-enabled content management system. GSI’s commerce platform supports more than 180 retailers in the U.S. and globally, eBay said.

“Integrating Facebook Open Graph technology across eBay’s global commerce platforms represents a powerful way to bring people together across an inherently social activity – shopping,” said Katie Mitic, director of platform and mobile marketing at Facebook. “We’re just starting to see what’s possible with social commerce, and look forward to the new experiences developers create.”

Facebook's partnership with eBay is part of the online merchant's new X.commerce business, which was created to bring together the technology assets and developer communities of eBay, PayPal and Magento enabling greater access to open commerce technology.



With the eBay deal and Walmart's plans to create more than 3,500 store-specific Facebook pages, Facebook has become a major influencer on the retail industry and has significantly changed the way people shop and sell.