IPitch is an online community which helps Australian startups and investors stay connected

For many small businesses with limited budgets, social media may comprise their entire marketing strategy. Facebook fan pages have become a textbook way to find new customers and keep them updated, but the major failing of this technique is the leap it requires customers to make from a company’s Facebook page to their official website if they actually want make a purchase. That’s not a big leap, but it’s wide enough that many customers won’t make it and will never go on to actually complete any sale. Sydney startup Moluko is aiming to answer this problem with a new Facebook application that integrates purchasing directly into Facebook and allows businesses to post galleries of their products and sell directly from their Facebook page.

According to founder Hendro Wijaya, he began noticing more and more businesses using their Facebook fan pages as their exclusive website. This strategy has an incredible ease of use for customers, since they are already on Facebook, and doesn’t require them to be bombarded by email newsletters from a brand but Hendro identified the lack of a point of sale as a real failing in this new trend. Moluko uses Paypal as a payment gateway and plugs it directly into Facebook, allowing a low cost option for creating a Facebook storefront. Moluko is currently set at an introductory price of $15 per month for unlimited product listings and free for six listings.

This is not the first startup for Hendro and his company Blind Optimists. Hendro is a regular at Sydney startup events and an active Silicon Beach group user, and his company was behind online accounting service SandTable. The application is live to test and Moluko is soliciting any input or suggestions on its own Facebook fan page.

• Tweet