With a Business Insider report recently revealing that Apple is presently negotiating the purchase of New York-based social e-commerce website The Fancy, analyst firm Telsyte believes that the deal would not only help Apple expand its e-commerce footprint, but will also probably make the company far more successful than what social network Facebook has been in the e-commerce arena.

Noting that Apple's Fancy e-commerce would likely trump Facebook's, Foad Fadaghi - the research director at Telsyte - said that Apple and Facebook are two distinct companies; and though Facebook boasts a strong and growing user base, Apple has a comparatively much higher average revenue per user (ARPU).

During the course of a conversation with ZDNet, Fadaghi said that, if Apple takes over The Fancy, it would be quite "interesting" to see it making attempts to "monetize" its user base just like the social network does. Fadaghi also pointed out that, out of Apple and Facebook, people are more used to spending with the former than on the latter.

Further adding that its loyal user base will help Apple easily leap from micro to macro purchases, Fadaghi said that Apple is "potentially quite powerful" in terms of utilizing its high density and billing relationships with its users for selling other products and services to them.

About the "biggest differences" between Apple and Facebook, Fadaghi said: "Facebook is a social platform for interacting with family and friends, not somewhere you'd think off the top of your head to go purchase something from."