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Facebook to Launch Online Shopping Festival on Raksha Bandhan
BANGALORE: Social networking giant, Facebook, is all set to join the ecommerce bandwagon this August. On the occasion of Raksha Bandhan, the company is launching online shopping festival-Tied Together in India. The launch of a website for the same is on the cards between August 12 and August 29 where Facebook is taking the big leap tying up with a popular media agency –GroupM, reports ET.
The social network company aims to reach 10 crore potential buyers by organizing this online festival. The huge user base of the socializing platform is expected to help in traffic generation.
As Shopping Festivals are in vogue, Facebook chose the perfect time to tap the escalating enthusiasm of its 11.2 crore Indian customers for online shopping. Participating brands would be charged by Facebook which will be eventually distributed among the partners. Facebook is currently arranging sponsorships for the event.
"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," a media planner said. "Facebook should be viewed as another media vehicle which has a huge database that can be utilized for commercial purposes."
Google had been involved in many such shopping fests which include Grand Diwali Mela in 2014, in association with GroupM and Amazon, the Great Online Shopping Festival in 2013, the Great Indian Travel Festival (GITF) in association with IPG Mediabrands in 2015, property festival- the Great Online Home Festival in association with Magicbricks and GroupM.
"Companies like Amazon, Flipkart and other ecommerce companies can host an online festival on their own website. But companies like Google and Facebook need to create a new one to host a shopping festival. The idea is to create online intellectual properties (IP) and to make them annual events," said another media planner.
Facebook would charge within a range of 
2 – 20 from advertising companies on basis on “per click”. "For media agencies that associate with such events there are no immediate financial returns and it is a long-term plan," he added.
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