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the Free CMSWire NewsletterThis week, MarketLive has announced that it is offering its eCommerce Platform-as-a-Service on Facebook, Google Docs adds new functionality — again, Microsoft research shows SMBs offer more mobile functionality than large enterprises and SMB channel partners need vendor support.
E-Commerce on Facebook
Facebook looks set to dig itself deeper into the SMB space with the release of MarketLive’s e-Commerce Platform-as-a-Service, enabling merchants to create e-Commerce stores within merchant-administered pages on Facebook.
So it’s not a Facebook release, but if it does what it says it can do, then a lot more businesses are going to be looking to Facebook to beef up their sales.
The MarketLive Social Store for Facebook allows retailers to reach millions of Facebook users, convert them into buyers and build strong relationships that drive repeat sales and improve customer loyalty.
According to MarketLive, by now over 50% of the U.S. population has a Facebook page, and with MarketLive, merchants will be able to sell to them by making it possible for shoppers to not only “Like” and share their opinions about products, but to buy them without leaving the Facebook environment.
The MarketLive Social Store for Facebook is integrated with the MarketLive Intelligent Commerce Platform and delivers a branded and flexible commerce experience, including product catalog information, promotions and discounts, shopping cart and checkout functionality.
It is managed through the MarketLive administration console and uses built-in Facebook widgets that support social shopping.
Who’s Viewing Your Google Docs?
The inimitable Google Docs and Apps progression continues, making both an increasingly attractive option for SMBs that are looking for collaboration functionality, but not the price that they may have to pay with suites such as Office 365.
While Google Docs still can’t really compete with Office — yet — every week it just gets better, adding function on top of function. This week there were a number of new improvements, not least of which is the ability to see who is reading your page and how many people have read the Google Doc that you have shared.
By clicking the Discussions button and then the Document stats link, you can now see the 7-day activity of your doc. Simple as that.
It's also added a discussion pane that now shows the selected text for each comment thread, making it easy to figure out which part of the document each discussion pertained to. It's given the pane a visual tune-up. For a full list of the new updates, have a look at the Google Docs blog.
If you’ve ever had the suspicion that no one is paying attention to the docs you share, then this functionality will either confirm or disabuse you of that suspicion.
SMBs Are the Most Mobile
In case you weren’t aware of it already, SMBs are more flexible that large enterprises, and to ensure that they stay that way, most cite the availability of mobile applications as essential for their business, according to new research by Microsoft across Europe.
The study, commissioned by Microsoft and conducted by Vanson Bourne, interviewed 1,500 workers across 15 European countries on their attitudes toward flexible working.
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