Fans of AETN’s History and A&E Network original series can now buy items from shows directly on Facebook and will soon be able to do the same with Lifetime in Q1. AETN’s Consumer Products division’s social commerce initiative is now enabling fans of the History original series Pawn Stars and American Pickers, as well as A&E Network’s Billy the Exterminator, Paranormal State and Dog the Bounty Hunter to purchase items directly via the Shop tab on each of the programs’ individual Facebook sites.
For example, here is a link to the Pawn Stars shop on Facebook, which feature Austin “Chumlee” / Corey “Big Hoss” / Old Man “The Appraiser” / Rick “The Spotter” bobbleheads; T-shirts, hats mugs and bandanas from the TV series; complete season DVD sets and more.
AETN will be launching additional Facebook fan shops all three of its main networks in Q1.
The Facebook e-commerce feature is operated by AETN with Delivery Agent, which manages AETN’s online stores. The Facebook platform will, of course, also allow users to review and recommend products to their friends.
An AETN spokesperson tells us for the most part, AETN will market through wall posts on Facebook. They’ll feature one or several products in the FB shop on a wall post in an iTunes-style cover flow and also promote the shops via on-air bugs during the related show airings. “The idea is to get the mass audience who is probably on FB to get used to shopping there.”