Aeropostale, the mall-based US specialty retailer of casual apparel for young women and men, has launched a fully integrated Facebook Store.

Powered by Usablenet’s technology platform, the store combines shopping and social media and extends full e-commerce functionality to the Aeropostale Facebook community which now numbers 5 million.

In addition to being able to purchase from Aeropostale’s entire online inventory, the integrated Facebook e-commerce store allows users to easily ‘Like’ and share items and purchases with their Facebook network – leveraging the viral nature of Facebook’s news feed.

“Aeropostale has 5 million Facebook fans that are engaged and connected to our brand,” says Scott Birnbaum, senior VP of marketing and e-commerce. “The next logical step is to give them the opportunity to shop while in this environment.”

Developed by Aeropostale in partnership with leading mobile technology company Usablenet, consumers can use the Aeropostale Facebook store to search through a ‘shop’ tab, ‘like’ and ‘share’ with their friends, review products and complete transactions all while staying on Facebook.

“For brands to succeed in this new and rapidly evolving multichannel shopping environment, they must engage customers wherever they are,” said Usablenet CEO Nick Taylor. “With the launch of its fully integrated Facebook store, as well as native applications for the top mobile operating systems, Aeropostale is demonstrating its strong commitment to delivering the best digital shopping experience for all consumers.”

Continuing to strengthen its relationship with its consumers, Aeropostale has launched an Android mobile application and will introduce one for iPhone users in the coming weeks. The company has also recently unveiled an HTML5 upgrade to its optimised mobile site through the Usablenet Mobile 2.0 platform that delivers a rich, app-like experience in the mobile browser environment.