GameStop launches store on Facebook

GameStop and Adgregate Markets have teamed up to launch a new embedded storefront on Facebook. Now you can shop without leaving the comfort of your opened tabs...

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If opening a new tab to purchase games while creeping the walls of Facebook was getting too difficult to manage, GameStop has arrived with a solution. Today, the video game retail giant launched a new Facebook application that gives users the ability to shop and purchase games directly from the social media website.

To accomplish this feat, GameStop partnered with Adgregate Markets to utilize its proprietary ShopFans storefront "solution." In the announcement press release, GameStop notes it is the "first multichannel gaming company to launch a storefront on Facebook." Best Buy launched its own store frontend for users in the UK, late last year.

“Social commerce on Facebook is a natural complement to our trusted store and online networks,” said GameStop VP of ecommerce Kelly Mulroney said. “We have millions of customers already engaging with us on Facebook, and ShopFans gives those loyal fans more reasons than ever to shop GameStop across multiple channels.”

Exploring the storefront, the entire "solution" looks like an embedded version of the actual GameStop online store. The shop also allows users to scan through screenshots and videos of examined game pages.

"GameStop's new Facebook store provides a blueprint for the new social store, where design, usability, and the cool factor are now seamlessly integrated with the Facebook social graph," a very excited Lou Kerner, Social Media Analyst from Wedbush Securities said in the release. “This store is a game changer for the burgeoning f-commerce industry.”

In true GameStop fashion, the new storefront will allow users to "purchase 'pre-orders' on hot games," allow users to select delivery or pick-up options, and give PowerUp Rewards members the ability to "earn and redeem points."

For those interested in security, the release points out that Adgregate's ShopFans is the "only secure social commerce solution on Facebook, publicly endorsed by security and privacy heavyweights: Symantec's VeriSign, McAfee, and TRUSTe."

While GameStop is primarily a brick and mortar business, the game does offer its catalog online for shipment to customers across North America. The company is also looking to extend its digital arm, as evidenced by the recent acquisition of Stardock's Impulse digital delivery service.

Though you can pre-order on the site, we'll take solace in the fact that the new Facebook frontend won't ask us to pre-order and trade-in games every thirty seconds, much like walking into an actual GameStop.

Xav de Matos was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    April 7, 2011 11:30 AM

    Comment on GameStop launches store on Facebook, by Xav de Matos.

    • reply
      April 7, 2011 11:32 AM

      I do not like this. I don't want to integrate my shopping experiences with Facebook. Especially with all the privacy issues Facebook has. I'll keep my Amazon Prime and my Newegg and you keep your facebooks out of it.

      • reply
        April 7, 2011 11:37 AM

        then don't use it

        • reply
          April 7, 2011 11:39 AM

          I won't! :-P But I also would not like to see this become a common thing with a site like Amazon.

          • reply
            April 7, 2011 11:42 AM

            Are you afraid of it becoming a mandatory thing?

            WE WONT LET YOU BUY OUR ITEMS UNLESS IT PUBLISHES TO YOUR FACEEEBOOOOK!

        • reply
          April 7, 2011 11:40 AM

          Damn your logic.

          • reply
            April 7, 2011 11:47 AM

            some problems are really just that easily overcome

          • reply
            April 7, 2011 11:47 AM

            I know, Dravenpourt likes to completely take the wind out of my sails.

    • reply
      April 7, 2011 11:41 AM

      AITOO who doesn't really understand Facebook anymore?

      And I don't mean that in the aspie "omg who has a Facebook account why would I want to talk to anyone?" way, I mean the actual mechanics and services of the site.

      The traditional friends and photos things are fine, but I genuinely have no understanding of how all the apps, facebook connect, groups, games, fan pages and all that shit work. How I get to them, what they offer, how or why I'm meant to use them?

      It all seems very confused and unclear to me and I'm not sure who the people are that are making use of all these services and stores.

      • reply
        April 7, 2011 11:45 AM

        [deleted]

      • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
        reply
        April 7, 2011 11:51 AM

        Facebook gained popularity for its basic functionality, but since then it's basically been slowly transforming into the one-stop website for its users. It's like a separate internet within the internet, so companies are looking for ways to infiltrate that and get the business of people who never leave Facebook.

      • reply
        April 7, 2011 11:53 AM

        It's sort of as if Facebook decided that the problem with the Internet is that it's not controlled by a single company. So they convince everyone to get on Facebook and then they start having people move their stuff to Facebook like selling things and games and shit. Then sinister phase 2 starts.

        I'm seeing a number of companies no longer advertising a URL and instead telling people to go to Facebook and "like" them. Oftentimes they don't have a Facebook URL, they just assume you'll search for them. It's like we're reverting to AOL. And not even the good AOL that was just an ISP.

      • reply
        April 7, 2011 12:02 PM

        I've been developing for it for 2 years and I still can't say I understand it.

        From a developer standpoint, it's basically a shotgun approach where everything is called an "app" and where everything is semi-broken and where services change randomly. Where there's 4 ways of doing anything and the 3 documented ones are legacy.

        So many undocumented black holes, it's amazing they got where they are. They're slowly getting better, but very slowly.

        I can only weep for users. Things probably makes a lot less sense.

      • reply
        April 7, 2011 12:20 PM

        To be honest, I don't think even Facebook really understands it. They're trying to create a service delivery and notification platform, but it's kind of all over the place.

        All I know is that if they don't create a coherent ad delivery service to coincide with their IPO, I will go over there and punch Zuckerberg in the face.

    • reply
      April 7, 2011 11:55 AM

      Facebook = AOL

      • reply
        April 7, 2011 12:26 PM

        strangely, the analogy fits, and is scary that we've come full circle

        • reply
          April 7, 2011 12:38 PM

          I haven't cared too much about Facebook in the past, but when put that way, it really got me thinking. It's pretty scary, specially that consumers now expect to find things on Facebook first and foremost and are forgetting other websites and search engines exist. It's as if Facebook is to the Internet the same thing Word is for Windows; in that some people assume it's the only thing it's useful for.

          Ironically enough, I think the only salvation from that is the proliferation of parallel social media websites - twitter, linkedin, foursquare, whatever. Help keep facebook in check and for it to make sense to have a presence outside of Facebook.

        • reply
          April 7, 2011 5:58 PM

          my parents still use AOL...*shutter*

    • reply
      April 7, 2011 12:06 PM

      That's fine, I still won't shop there though.

    • reply
      April 7, 2011 12:22 PM

      I wonder if they're integrating this with Impulse at all.

    • reply
      April 7, 2011 12:43 PM

      Click like to buy the strategy guide.

    • reply
      April 7, 2011 6:26 PM

      You can link PSN and Xbox Live to facebook so that facebook updates your status when you sign into Live/PSN, right?

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