Facebook India ready to start its Online Shopping Festival ‘Tied Together’

Facebook got bitten by the ecommerce bug!

The social networking service is soon going to kick-start an online shopping festival ‘Tied Together’. The festival that will bring together the best of both worlds – social media and ecommerce, will start on August 12th and will conclude on August 29th.

The Game Plan

Facebook will set up a website in alliance with GroupM, world’s largest advertising media company. The social networking site will use its platform and vast user database to direct traffic to the shopping festival site.

All the companies interested in joining this event will be asked to pay a fee, which will be distributed among Facebook, GroupM and other media agencies. The social networking site is on a hunt for title and principal sponsors that will have to shell out Rs 3 crore (start rate). Rates for other associate sponsors are Rs. 1.5 crore per brand.

What makes it tempting?

Facebook India has over 112 million active users, which makes it second largest user base after the US. Needless to say, the brands who take part in this shopping festival will get a golden chance to pitch their products/services to a large number of target market. Especially when the shopping event period (August 12-29) will witness many holidays/festivals across India such as Independence Day, Teej, Onam and Raksha Bandhan.

A media planner shared with ETRetail, “Online shopping festivals have become a popular trend in India, especially with the rise in the number of ecommerce companies, which are driving the growth of online shopping in the country. Facebook should be viewed as another media vehicle which has a huge database that can be utilised for commercial purposes.”

In 2012, Google India had collaborated with Indian online shopping portals to create the yearly shopping extravaganza, Great Online Shopping Festival (GOSF), which has been hugely successful. Let’s see what wonders Facebook creates with Tied Together.