(http://techloy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/daniel-adekoya_mark-zuckerberg-e1332408673605.jpg)
A relatively new online marketplace called GravitasBay (http://gravitasbay.com) has launched a Facebook app (https://apps.facebook.com/marketplacebygravita) that lets sellers open Facebook shops and allow consumers to buy from there securely online.
Its first Facebook shop (https://www.facebook.com/GravitasFootWear/app_297415463622558) offering CAT and Timberland footwears went live last week and allows buyers to shop for footwears and pay in Naira using Interswitch.
GravitasBay was founded in January 2010 by Nigerian entrepreneurs as an e-commerce platform allowing anyone to reach the growing and promising African consumer demographic securely.
With its new Facebook integration, sellers can now own their Facebook Shops and start selling on Facebook to buyers securely without requiring any software or complex technical knowledge.
The platform has direct integration to the various leading local electronic payment processing systems available in Africa such as Interswitch including internet and mobile payment gateways.
The company's mission is to pull down the barriers to e-commerce into and across the African continent to empower people and brands to start selling over the internet to Africa.
Although this is not the first Facebook app coming out of Africa that lets you make transactions (http://techloy.com/2011/11/24/zunguz-a-new-payments-app-via-facebook-launched/) via Facebook, it is no doubt the first attempt at social commerce via the Facebook platform.
Granted, e-commerce is yet to really take off in Nigeria due to issues related to trust, logistics and payment systems, it would be interesting to see how/if Nigerian consumers online would embrace social commerce in the years to come.
[Image: GravitasBay CEO, Daniel Adekoya and Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg at a recent Facebook event in San Francisco, U.S]
TechLoy