You already know Facebook as the central hub for sharing photos, planning events and connecting with friends, but with the introduction of e-commerce to the social-networking giant, you may make it your primary shopping destination, too.

A new study by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies found that consumers are 51% more likely to buy from a company if they are a Fan on Facebook. Companies have been trying to gauge the monetary value of social media for years, and we’re getting closer to finding out.

More agencies and developers have started to explore the potential of social commerce. Brand Networks worked with Coach to help “socialize” their Gift Finder promotion this Holiday Season. Our Tab-based Facebook application enabled users to shop for friends and family, assemble the perfect Gift Bundle, share it, and ultimately click through to purchase it on Coach.com.

Also late last year, Payvment introduced an application on the Facebook platform that allows companies to build an e-commerce storefront within their Facebook page. Unlike other e-commerce sites on the web, this allows the over 400 million Facebook users to shop, order and buy using PayPal without ever leaving their account. The application features an Open Cart Network, which allows all items searched within Facebook storefronts to collect in one shopping cart for check out.

Fluid Social’s Fan Shop embeds a fans-only shopping site into a tab on a Facebook fan page. With its Fluid Socialize feature, consumers can discuss purchases with a network of shoppers or private chat with a friend. The interactive agency has executed the platform for such brands as Rachel Roy and Nine West.

Off the Wall is leading the social shopping curve. In addition to shopping through an e-commerce storefront within Facebook, the agency developed a widget that allows a brand to post a status update with an item for sale. Fans can then purchase the product directly from their feed or the brand’s wall and share the status update with friends.

Adgregate Markets is currently developing Shopfans, to “take social shopping to a whole new level of social engagement,” but the features of the application are yet to be released.

Another trend on the social commerce radar is group buying: city-specific sites that offer steep promotions for local restaurants, retailers, and services. Group-Buy site Groupon works by having you sign up for daily emails deals, which you pay for online and can print the voucher to redeem for anything from a Shiatsu massage to helicopter lessons. LivingSocial works along the same lines while encouraging sharing among social media platforms. After buying a deal you can connect with Facebook, Twitter and other social sites to let your friends know; if 3 friends buy the deal, your purchase is free.

So what does this mean for the future fusion of e-commerce and social media? If Facebook is any indicator, the lines between e-commerce and social media will dissolve into social commerce- a network-while-you-shop phenomena. For companies, this transforms Facebook from a marketing tool to a sales tool.

Stronger relationships between retailer and consumer will develop. Unlike traditional e-commerce sites, where the consumer and buyer worlds remain independent, social commerce fuses the two. The retailer can put a face(book) to a name, learn about the buyer’s interests and establish direct communication beyond the standard sales confirmation email.

Most importantly, this development foreshadows the shift from individual buying to social buying. Consumers will have the ability to post their purchases to the newsfeed, allowing friends to see and comment on what they have bought, producing word of mouth buzz without any additional work from the retailer.

We’re predicting this is the Year of Social Commerce, shaking the retail industry one Fan page at a time. How do you plan on using social commerce to turbo-charge online sales?

(Posted by Natalee Ranii-Dropcho, Intern)