If you sell a physical product and your target audience uses Facebook, then it makes much sense to set up a Facebook shop. You will find your Facebook store can be an excellent way to boost your sales and place your product before an audience you can clearly define.
If you have a Facebook store, you can sell directly to your customers from your Facebook page. It is like having a shop on your Facebook page, and your customers do not need to go anywhere else to buy your products. They can click on a Buy button from within Facebook without having to leave.
This means that you can easily set up an online store without having to worry about creating a website and worrying about how to deal with your customers’ credit cards. The smallest of businesses can make sales to customers on Facebook.
How to Set up a Facebook Shop
Why Open a Facebook Store?
A Facebook store, also commonly known as a Facebook shop, is a particular Facebook page that you can set up to sell a selection of your products.
This is particularly useful for small businesses or organizations that sell a few products. It saves them from having to set up a full-scale online shop on your own website.
Also, while, Facebook may not be your first choice as a social platform in many niches, it still has over 2 million total users, many of whom will have an interest in your products and match your target audience characteristics.
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You can either allow your purchasers to buy directly from your Facebook Shop. Alternatively, you can use it to link to a shop on your website, where customers will finalize their purchases.
This latter feature means that it can still be of value to larger organizations that can link from their Facebook store to their website and gain the best of both. They can have the full-scale sophistication of a specialist online shop, yet use Facebook to drive traffic to their store.
You can’t sell products from your personal Facebook account, however, as that breaks Facebook’s Terms and Conditions.
The 2 Ways to Sell on a Facebook Business Page
With the large variety of firms wanting to sell via Facebook, it is no surprise that Facebook offers two ways you can set up your Facebook shop.
If you want a basic Facebook shop that keeps your customers on Facebook, and you only intend to use a limited range of products, then you can set up a simple Facebook Store, connecting payments to a cart on Facebook.
Alternatively, if you have your own website, and use a plug-in like Shopify, you can set up your Facebook Shop to link to products in your website shop.
Most businesses will benefit from having a separate shop on their website as it gives them two platforms from which to sell.
Steps to Take to Set up Your Facebook Store
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You will find that it is relatively straightforward to create a Facebook shop.
Select the Most Appropriate Template
You may remember from when you first created your Facebook Business Page that you selected a suitable template. When you get to the point when you want to set up a Facebook store, you will need to go back to change your page's template to Shopping.
You will know that you have already selected the Shopping template if you see a Shop tab beneath your Facebook Page cover photo.
To do this, make sure you are on your Facebook Page. Select your Settings at the top of the page, and then click on Templates and Tabs in the left column. Then select Edit (beside your current template name). The list of templates will come up, so scroll down until you see Shopping. Click on View Details beside that template, then on Apply Template and OK.
Once you have changed to that template, you will now see a Shop section in your left-hand Page menu. Once you click on that link, you are ready to add your shop. Facebook will provide you with relevant information to read before you continue. Once you have done your reading, click to continue.
Agree to Facebook’s Merchant Terms and Policies
Like most online services, Facebook presents you with its Commerce Product Merchant Agreement. Read this to ensure that you understand its requirements and don’t accidentally breach them. One of the more important rules to recognize is that "You are solely responsible for the contents of your Product Listings (including description, price, fees, tax that you calculate, any required legal disclosures and any offers or promotional content).”
Once you have read these terms, click that you agree and push the Continue button. As with all online terms and conditions, you have no real choice. Either agree with the terms or finish the process at this point and click Cancel.
Select Your Preferred Checkout Method
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Your next task is to select the type of checkout you prefer. You either commit to operating your shop entirely within Facebook or to combine it with a store on your website.
If you want to operate entirely within Facebook, you should select the Message to Buy option. As that name suggests, when your customer gets to the checkout phase of their purchase, Facebook will give them a message encouraging them to buy their products without leaving Facebook.
Alternatively, you can select Check Out on Another Website. In this case, you will be able to include relevant Call to Action buttons that send potential customers’ to another e-commerce website where they can complete the purchase.
If you choose the second option, you will have to provide URLs for each product you wish to show on Facebook that you sell in the online store you have set up using Shopify or another online e-commerce platform.
Although the second option is more complex, it allows you to take advantage of all the specialist services offered by Shopify, BigCommerce, Squarespace, or other such e-Commerce platform/plug-in.
If you choose to combine a Facebook store with your online shop, then it is best to use a website builder to set up your Facebook Shop. If you use a website builder, such as Shopify, you can easily connect your store, and they operate as one large shop, with a single inventory. This makes managing your Stores much easier. Any changes or updates you make to your products in your first store will automatically be “pushed” through to your Facebook Store.
Choose Your Shop’s Currency
The next task is to tell Facebook the currency that you want to use in your Facebook shop. You need to decide how you want your products priced, e.g., in $US, $A, £, €, or whatever you prefer. This is a significant decision for a Facebook shop, as you need to delete your shop and start again if you change your mind. This includes removing and reinputting all of the goods in your store, too.
Write a General Description of Your Products
In the next section, you write a general description of the types of products that you will sell in your shop. What you type here (in about 200 characters) shows up as the overarching description of your shop for your potential customers.
It’s a good idea to include some relevant keywords in your description, but remember that it is intended to give potential customers an idea of what they will find in your shop, so don't make it sound like metadata for the computer's benefit.
Most of the remaining sections won't be needed if you used a website builder to create your Facebook shop. The builder will automatically import product details between your shops.
Add Products to Your Shop
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Your next task will be to add all the data relating to each product you intend to sell via your Facebook Shop. Facebook includes one significant rule in its guidelines – you can only sell physical goods in your store.
You will need to use a computer for this process – you can't yet use a phone for this. You will need to add each product, one by one.
If you're not already there, click on the Shop tab. You then click on Add Product. You will have to add each product individually (and this may take some time depending on the number of products you intend to sell in your shop).
You will need to give each of your products a title. Make sure that it is something that makes logical sense to your target audience. Your titles need to be clear and easily distinguishable so that people don't confuse the products they are buying.
Don’t underestimate the importance of visual assets. People like to see what they are buying, preferably from different angles. You can upload a mix of images and videos for each product.
You then write your product details. Remember to follow the principles of good copywriting. Give as much information as possible about each product - size, dimensions, care instructions, fitting charts, and warranty information. Give a clear description – remember that unlike a physical store, people can’t pick up and examine your products, so they rely on your copy and images. Facebook makes it clear that you can't include website links or company-specific information here.
You also need to include a beginning inventory count. You can click on Edit Options to add details when you have a choice of sizes and colors.
Finally, choose your delivery options, return policy, and product category (if available).
Create Product Collections
You can create Collections to showcase particular products in your shop. Collections also help you group similar types of products together.
Again, you can only add a Collection from a computer. From your Shop tab, click on Add Collection. Then under Publishing Tools, click on + Add Collection. Give your Collection a suitable name, decide whether you want it publicly visible, and also whether you want this Collection to be featured first in your Facebook Page Shop. You can then click Save.
Once you have created a Collection, you can add products to it by clicking on + Add Products. Although you can add as many products as you want to a Collection, Facebook will only display the first ten on your page.
Customize Your Call to Action Button
Facebook automatically creates a Call to Action button when you set up your Facebook Shop. But one of the first rules of marketing is to customize any Call to Action button (and regularly test options to see which gives you the best results).
You can easily change your Call to Action button and link to your website if you prefer to make your sales there.
