Online shopping from your Facebook news feed? Yes, it’s true.

Image from InsideFacebook.com

Well, almost.

Just a few moments ago, I read an interesting article from Inside Facebook about American Eagle. American Eagle and Aerie (their product line of dorm wear and intimates for women) worked with MediaFORGE to produce an “widget” for Facebook, and an interesting one at that. This widget lets you browse products from AE and Aerie if you are a fan of their company pages.

Image from InsideFacebook.com

According to Inside Facebook, you click the play button and you are shown a variety of products that the company is featuring or highlighting. Once you click on the link you see, you are redirected to the ae.com or aerie.com where you can view more details about the product and order it if you choose.  There is easy sharing among users in their Facebook statuses as well.  However, it is not possible to view multiple items at a time, at least for the time being.  I am sure something will come about and change that soon.  Since the launch of this app last week, both AE and Aerie have seen slightly higher activity on their fan pages.

This widget makes it amazingly simple to see AE and Aerie’s featured products, even if it is only one item at a time (for now).  While the article didn’t highlight any increased traffic to their websites, I’m sure the AE and Aerie websites saw higher clicks as well as the Facebook pages.

However, I hide fan page notifications and updates on my news feed for pages to update too often, as I find that incredibly annoying.  I do the same thing with people.  So for someone like me, this new widget is useless and ineffective.

Is this the direction in which all retailers should be going?  Where else should they be going?  What are other ways to reach Facebook users who hide fan page updates?

The world, commodified.

Uh, since when has EVERYTHING become a commodity?

Since starting my new job a month ago, all I’ve wanted to do on my time off is sit in my house, sleep, and do nothing that requires heavy energy.  Therefore, my exposure to pre-holiday sales, decorations, etc. has been minimal to none at best.  And I’m not an idiot- I know that the holidays come earlier and earlier every year.  Not because people want to get excited about spending time with their families or each other, like I used to think when I was a child.  Not so Santa can get his list together earlier, like we used to tell my brother, who is 11 years younger than me.  Because every thing has become about the dollar value attached to it.  And that makes me sick.

When it comes to holidays, you could say that I’m a traditionalist.  I don’t listen to Christmas music until the week of Thanksgiving, can’t watch “Elf” after New Year’s Day, and don’t drink Peppermint Mochas until it gets REALLY cold out.  But considering my work experience in retail- I worked for 2.5 years in American Eagle Outfitters, who (like the rest of retail) sets their store for Christmas in October and sets up for spring before Christmas is over- and related experience in advertising, we will be prepping and shopping for the holidays all year round.  The National Retail Federation just posted a press release about how to make the most out of, wait for it, your GIFT CARDS this holiday season.  Another press release gave guidelines to retailers on how to control crowds on Black Friday, and considering the economic state of the world, will carry through until Christmas Eve.  More importantly, another press release shows that retailers will show an increase in social media use this year to promote their EARLY holiday specials and such, because it’s free.

Holidays aren’t the only things suffering from commodification, though.  Our nation’s struggle to ensure healthcare for all citizens has boiled down to who can afford the care the most, one’s quality of education depends on how much they are willing to spend on it.  Call me a socialist, but I would rather see our world in a state where money didn’t matter, whether it be regarding healthcare or the shopping season for a holiday.

What do you think- do you agree that money is too much of an influence?  Or do you think that this is the direction in which the world is rightfully going?