Gilt Groupe Says F-Commerce Stands for Flash Sales and Facebook

Gilt Groupe, an e-commerce and flash sales site, is experimenting with selling items from a range of categories — on Facebook.

The New York-based company said Facebook users will be able to go to a special page on Facebook, where they can log in using their regular account information to browse items and check out.

The site will officially launch on Monday, featuring items from women’s, men’s, children’s and home.

Other retailers have dabbled in F-Commerce, which is short for Facebook Commerce. But with most experiments today, it’s not much different from shopping on the Web. Unlike how users pay for items in games or buy movies on the social network, retailers don’t have to use Facebook Credits, which would require giving Facebook a 30 percent chunk of the transaction.

A spokesperson confirmed it was not using Facebook Credits and said that the platform was built in-house.

In a release, Gilt explained that it will offer products on the Facebook page that will not be available on its regular site. For example, Gilt Man will launch its first sale with a themed event called Man About Town featuring clothing, shoes, and accessories, and Gilt Home will offer a Vera Wang Home sale that will be available first on Facebook and then later on Gilt. Gilt Children will also have exclusives from Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants, including a 1.5-foot tall Lego model.

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