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Expanding E-Commerce Through Facebook

August 15, 2013

It’s difficult to advertise for a restaurant as most places within a type of cuisine have similar dishes on their menus. Pictures of decor, ambience and the dishes themselves are all over every restaurant’s website and ads. What can make them stand out more? By actually reaching out to their audience through social e-commerce and giving them another method to engage with the restaurant themselves.

OpenTable, an app for restaurant reservation service, is very popular as people can use it on almost any device, especially mobile ones. Last minute reservations for that special occasion or just a hangout with your friends is easy when you can make them in the palm of your hand. However, people also depend on reviews to see what places have the best dining experience. Who can give you the best advice that can cater to your needs? Your friends. Social media networks like Facebook allow you to check in to places, comment, like and discuss your experiences, making them very critical for e-commerce.

These discussions on social media are what makes the networks so viable to our everyday lives and dining is an essential part of that. You can see what your friend’s eat, what their opinion is on each dish and their overall experience right through Facebook. By adding OpenTable to the Facebook network, you can now click on each restaurant’s Facebook page from your friend’s status and directly make a reservation for that restaurant.

By having this new connection through social media, restaurants are now more directly connected to their prospective customers. People won’t have to put more effort into looking up the restaurant on a separate app or call to make a reservation. Placing all of these aspects into one location makes things easier for people, giving the restaurant more of a chance to gain reservations. This is one of the most direct e-commerce methods and makes all the difference.