Facebook is one of the most popular and widely used platforms on the internet at the moment. After taking over WhatsApp and Instagram, It has been dominating the world of social media interactions. As a platform it has evolved dramatically over the years, and as a small/medium business owner or budding entrepreneur being active on Facebook can do wonders for your business.
Facebook algorithm is very advanced and enriched with data of over millions of users, making it easy for you to target and acquire the right kind of customers for your business. Facebook marketing alone has proven to be a cost-effective, practical and prudent way of growing traction on your website and social media handles.
Facebook Shops got launched in mid-2019 and is a growing and developing platform for business owners to sell their goods through Facebook. It allows users to list their products, form catalogues and create an engaging marketplace to conduct their transactions free of cost. We're going to debunk everything you need to know about Facebook Shops! Let's start with the What!
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What exactly is Facebook Shops?
Facebook Shops is an interactive marketplace that allows buyers to create a store and sell their physical products without any fee or commission. It's a platform for small businesses to expand their market. Before Facebook Shops; Facebook allowed users to sell through the Facebook Shop page; now, this will be replaced entirely by Facebook Shops as it offers more tools for a seamless in-app shopping experience.
Can I sell on Facebook Shops?
Currently, Facebook is in their testing phase with shops, allowing only a small number of merchants that have been actively selling using Facebook, Instagram or both to migrate to Facebook Shops. They have also exclusively partnered with Shopify allowing Shopify members that have sold on Facebook before May 19, 2020, to sell through Facebook shops.
What do I do if I don't meet the criteria?
Setting up a Facebook business store page is the perfect opportunity for small businesses to get accustomed to the interface, only making the transition to Facebook Shops easier. We've covered the process of setting up in our, "How To" section.
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Why should I sell on Facebook?
Facebook will change the way customers and sellers interact. Here are five reasons that make the upcoming Facebook Shops the perfect platform for growing e-commerce stores!
1. Reach a wider audience
Facebook has over 2.6 billion active users, after merging with Instagram and WhatsApp, they have data about buyer behaviour of over billion users as well. This makes Facebook the perfect pool for any seller to dip their feet in. Find targeted audiences for your product. Facebook's algorithm only improves the more you use it, use Facebook pixels to nurture and grow your audience. Recover your abandoned cart sales through remarketing. Overall you can use Facebook to create, grow and promote your brand.
2. Create an immersive shopping experience
Facebook's new tools will provide buyers with a more immersive and engaging shopping experience. With the help of messenger, shopping through live-streams and allowing buyers to check out from Facebook itself. Until then, however, Facebook still allows sellers to leverage the platform and display ads everywhere; it also allows you to redirect customers from your listing to your website with the help of integration. Even when customers are not buying from you, they can bookmark, save and share your products, allowing them to create a wishlist of sorts to come back to. Integrating with Facebook will enable you to guide a customer through the entire process from discovery to checkout.
3. Loyalty programs
Facebook Shops will roll out the feature to host loyalty programs on the platform itself, allowing sellers to create brand loyalty, and increase brand retention. They will also have a provision to integrate your current loyalty program onto Facebook.
The current layout of having your own page for your business to conduct your transactions enables your customers to create a community around your brand, giving them a platform to connect, share their reviews, feedback and engage with other customers. The social interaction on store pages is more interactive as compared to any other social media platform.
4. Shop from chat and live-streams
Facebook Shops will have a new feature allowing customers to shop from within a chat and checkout and to shop from live streams that are being hosted. The former can be done even now with the help of APIs; you can integrate your website and payment portals with a messaging application, and enable in-app shopping for your customers.
Facebook shops will integrate tools between WhatsApp and Instagram, allowing sellers to make the most out of all applications to showcase and sell their products. Understanding that customer support is the key to successful sales and brand loyalty, Facebook is making an initiative to enable small businesses to manage their customer support with ease.
How do you start selling on Facebook?
Checking all the boxes
To start with, you need to ensure that you're complying with all the prerequisites, here's what you need to start selling on Facebook:
- A business page with admin access
- Agree to the Merchant terms and conditions
- Have a business that deals with selling physical items
Adding the shop tab onto your home page
Facebook has templates and tabs based on the user's preferences and what they use Facebook for mostly. You need to change your settings to Shops from the template and tabs option.
This can be done by logging into Facebook, accessing the settings option from the Facebook store page, clicking on templates and tabs, and adding shops from the drop-down.
Setting up your Facebook store
- Click on the Shop tab and agree to the merchant terms and conditions.
- Select the checkout option; you can choose either checking out via messenger or via your website.
- Add products to your store; you can integrate Shopify or your e-commerce website to add products and collections from your website automatically.
- Start tagging products in your posts and stories to attract buyers through your content.
- Manage your orders through Facebook and start selling.
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Easy 5 minute automations for Facebook and Shopify
You've set up your website, and now you want to automate interactions between Facebook and your website to save time and work smarter! Here's how integration can help:
- Integrate Shopify with Facebook pages to automatically add new products and collections to your page.
- Share new blog posts and updates from your website automatically on Facebook.
- Send a message on Facebook messenger anytime your cart is abandoned on the website to recover your sales.
- Send order updates to customers directly through Facebook messenger.
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With Facebook, you can create an engaging and immersive shopping experience for your customers, while the new features are very helpful and innovative; they can be expanded on with the help of APIs! Get in touch with us to know more about connecting Facebook with your e-commerce website and get on the path to streamline your sales.
If you're still not sold, hear what entrepreneurs selling on Facebook have to say about their experience of using Facebook Shops:
