eBay Enters the Social Commerce Scene by Integrating with Facebook's Open Graph Tool

Online shopping market giant eBay has taken hold of the social commerce scene by integrating their platforms with Open Graph, a tool developed by Facebook.

Facebook’s Open Graph tool, in addition to connecting a website to Facebook, also allows you to insert and retrieve information with a new set of tools for programming. Basically, using Open Graph turns websites into social objects that are part of the continuously expanding Facebook network.

Open Graph was integrated with eBay’s GSI Commerce and Magento online shopping platforms, giving shoppers sharing functions capabilities such as “own” and “want” buttons, similar to the ever-popular “like” buttons on Facebook.

“By integrating Facebook Open Graph functionality, we’re enabling developers to seamlessly implement social shopping into their commerce experiences for retailers and customers,” senior manager of eBay media relations Johnna Hoff said.

The latest version of Facebook’s Open Graph platform was unveiled in September, along with its new Timeline format. Since then, Open Graph has made waves in social commerce, with more and more websites integrating the platform into their designs.

In addition to the integration with Facebook, eBay also launched its X.commerce open commerce platform this October. Hoff explained that this platform gives developers the means “to create new technologies and experiences that merchants who use Magento can use to scale and grow their businesses.”

It is widely expected that eBay’s integration of Facebook into its platform will make the shopping experience in eBay’s website more efficient, more interactive, and even more fun. Frequent users of eBay – shoppers and merchants alike – would welcome the upgrades. The changes are expected to increase the site’s activity and, as a result, attract more online customers.

The direction for social commerce is gravitating toward the maximization of the online communities created by social networks. With the development of platforms and their integration into commerce, similar to what eBay has done with Facebook’s Open Graph, social commerce is well primed to continue flourishing in the near future.