Business Week says Facebook is about to make a major push into retail, partnering up with small companies and big companies to sell stuff on the site. Right now it appears that Facebook would be the shopping mall and that different brands (JC Penney and Delta Airlines are mentioned here) would do the e-commerce through their brand pages. So it makes you think about Facebook as a competitor to Amazon or eBay. The question, though, is in the design architecture. Facebook at the moment seems built around socializing and sharing and your friends. If it’s to make a big play into retail, it would seem like the setup needs to be different. Keep in mind, Google has tried for years to be a shopping site but it’s just not set up to do it like Amazon or eBay are.
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