Ready or not, geolocation features – which will allow people to automatically communicate their position in the real world – appear to be coming to Facebook.  And although that may sound like bad news for ecommerce, this could be very beneficial to online operations, too.

Look at it this way: companies that are entirely offline won’t be clued into the existence of these features, meaning they won’t be able to take advantage of them.  And the same goes for firms that haven’t learned how to take advantage of the sorts of social media opportunities created by Facebook.

Meanwhile, ecommerce sites can perhaps become more successful than ever by simply trying to reach folks who might otherwise shop at those places.  It’s unlikely that Facebook will bar organizations without brick-and-mortar stores from using its site, after all.

So imagine that someone is wandering towards a Footlocker store, checks his iPhone, and sees a discount code for The(Imaginary)ShoeShack.com on Facebook.  That ad could quite possibly result in an ecommerce sale that wouldn’t have otherwise occurred.

Keep a close eye on how Facebook handles this geolocation issue, then.  Exactly what sort of features it’ll introduce – and when it’ll do so – remains unknown for now.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 11th, 2010 at 8:30 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

About the Author: Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest eBusiness news.