Alexis Kestler
Facebook Shops is one of the newest Facebook eCommerce features. It enables you to create a mobile shopping experience for your customers more easily than it is creating a website from scratch.
That was especially important this year because a lot of businesses found themselves forced to move their sales online. Facebook saw an opportunity there. A lot of website building tools allow you to create a web shop easier than it was ever, but still, along with other things business owners had to do, it is not a piece of cake. It requires time, money, and other resources.
So, how does the Facebook Shops experience look like? In this post, I will what is it and how to use it. Hopefully, it will encourage you to start your shop if you didn’t or to benefit from it if you already have.
What is Facebook Shops?
Facebook Shops is a mobile-first shopping experience where businesses can easily create an online store on Facebook and Instagram for free.
It allows business page owners/admins to create an online store that can highlight a product or collections of products. Setting it up is simple on your desktop computer. Fonts and colors are customizable.
You can also connect with your customers through WhatsApp, Messenger, or Instagram Direct. That will make communication so much easier!
How to use it?
Fulfill the Requirements
Creating a shop is free for all business pages, but Facebook has set up a few requirements. To set a Facebook Shop you must:
- be a business manager/page admin
- own your Facebook page and catalog in Business Manager
- have Manage Page permissions for the Page and Manage catalog permissions for the catalog in Business Manager
If you don’t know how to create and manage catalog, you can check the instructions here.
Access Facebook Commerce Manager
To start setting up your shop, you have to go to Facebook Commerce Manager. You have to keep in mind that you can only do this from your computer, not from your phone. You will get the option to choose a shop or catalog.
When you click on the Get Started, you will get another choice. As you can see, you can link your eCommerce site or sell directly through Facebook.
Add your Information
In this step of setting up Facebook Shops, you will need to fill in some information about your business.
Add Products and Shipping Information
After you fill in your business information and follow the creation steps, you will get to the point where you can add your products. You can add it one by one, or in bulk.
When you finish adding your products, you can add or update descriptions, and other important information. This is the point where you will enter your shipping information as well.
Facebook Shops will want you to add products at this point, but keep in mind that you can still add, remove, and edit them later when your shop is already launched.
Customizing your Shop
When you fill in and add everything you need to, then comes the fun part. While designing your shop, Facebook allows you to make basic changes to layout and style. You can adjust text style and size, button colors, etc. Shop Preview is a helpful feature and you can see how your shop will look while designing it.
Launch your Shop
When you finish all the necessary steps and feel like your shop is ready, you can publish it. When you launch your shop, make sure you post announcements on your social media accounts to gain some customers.
What you Should Keep in Mind
Facebook Shops can be a great option if you don’t have the resources to build an eCommerce website, or you just want to expand your sales strategy to social media. With a minimum effort.
It can be a great opportunity, but there are a few things you should keep in mind. First of all, you will need to invest some effort in the promotion of your new shop. If nobody knows about it, how will your customers find you? You can promote the whole shop, deals, or just certain items.
The next thing is to prepare for the extra task of running your shop. If you have a big list of items, it may not be that easy to manage everything. Especially if your customers rush in to buy great quantities of your products. So, you need to be prepared for every situation.
Connect your shop’s style with your brand style. Try to match the colors and other things to stay consistent. It will look more professional and trustworthy.
