European budget airline easyJet is poised to become the first airline company to enable users to plan and book flights entirely on Facebook.
easyJet currently offers a "Holiday Planner" Facebook app that helps fans plan trips with their friends through Facebook and email. Users can coordinate destinations and dates, propose a range of budget options and then invite friends along for the trip.
However, users must go to a destination website to complete the transaction -- a step easyJet wants to remove altogether by adding booking functionality to their Facebook app.
Facebook has become a popular platform for hosting marketing campaigns and driving traffic to various destination sites, as Toys"R"Us famously did with their Black Friday preview on Facebook. We're now seeing a shift toward conducting the entire experience within Facebook - a trend that may render destination sites all but irrelevant. It's certainly a more convenient option for users who will not have to create a login and store credit card information on separate sites.
It's a shift that could also generate an unprecedented amount of revenue for Facebook. According to the Department of Commerce, online purchases totaled $134.9 billion in 2009. If companies set up e-commerce functionality on their Facebook Pages, the social network could realistically charge companies for a percentage of those sales in addition to attracting more advertising opportunities. Facebook currently charges developers a whopping 30% of their Facebook Credits revenue.
Would you book a flight through Facebook? What other brands would you like to see open storefronts on Facebook?
[via thenextweb]