Everything You Need to Know about Facebook Shops

Social shopping is gaining momentum fast. With roughly 50% of the world's population using social media, it was just a matter of time before leading platforms introduced convenient shopping solutions for the audience.

In May 2020, Facebook launched Facebook Shops. This useful tool allows consumers to shop directly from Facebook and Instagram apps.  ECommerce retailers can take full advantage of an appealing shopfront, a simple messaging system, and a seamless selling experience.

Let's take a closer look at what Facebook Shops is all about.

What is Facebook Shops?

Facebook Shops is a free tool that allows business owners to create mobile-optimized online stores in Facebook and Instagram apps. The company leverages the Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp ecosystem to make online shopping easy for consumers while giving retailers another channel to sell their products. 

Shops will be available:

  • On your business Facebook page

  • In your business Instagram profile

  • In stories

  • In ads

Consumers can save products or make purchases through the chat window or live streams. Facebook is working hard to streamline both consumer and retailer experience by introducing new features and functionality.

A little more than a year after the launch, Facebook Shop has over 300 million monthly visitors and about 1.2 million monthly active Shops.

Is Facebook Shops Really Free?

While Facebook has been a marketplace for a while, it generally served as a facilitator between the consumer and the retailer. The new feature that allows shoppers to buy directly from the app takes FB to a new level in the marketplace competition.

The social media giant doesn't charge retailers for using the Shops feature, since it's planning to make money off ads. Online stores can use Facebook Ads to drive the audience to their Shop pages.  

Even though you don't need to pay money to set the shop up, you still have to pay for selling your items through Facebook:

  • Selling fee — 5% per shipment or a flat fee of USD 0.40 for shipments USD 8 or less.

  • Chargeback fee — USD 20 per chargeback

Due to the pandemic, Facebook decided to waive the above fees until June 2022.  

How Do You Set Up Facebook Shops?

To take advantage of the Facebook Shops feature, you need to choose one of the following options:

  • Create your Facebook store via Facebook Commerce Manager

  • Create your Facebook store through an eCommerce platform (Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, ChannelAdvisor, CedCommerce, Cafe24, Tiendanube, and Feedonomics) and connect it with your Facebook Shop.

Here is what you need to do to set up Facebook Shops.

Make Sure You Meet the Requirements

To work with Facebook Shops, you need:

  • To set up a commerce account in Commerce Manager.

  • To become a Business Manager admin with Manage catalogue permissions for the product catalogue in Business Manager.

  • Have a Facebook Page (or Manage Page permission).

You need all the above to set up Facebook Shops whether you are linking your catalogue from another platform or not.

Go to Commerce Manager

Go to Commerce Manager and choose "Get Started." Once you click the button, you'll have to answer several questions about your new shop.

At this point, you can choose to take advantage of your existing shop on an eCommerce platform like Shopify or WooCommerce.

Add Business Description and Products

You need to answer several questions about your business and create a business description. Then you'll be able to add products to the shop or upload them via a spreadsheet list upload.

Once products are added, you'll have an opportunity to edit product descriptions, images, and other information. You can also add shipping details.

Don't worry about getting everything right the first time. You can edit your listings after you launch your Shop.

Fill Out Payout Information

You will need to link a bank, PayPal, or Stripe account to which you'll be receiving your payouts. Facebook warns you to be careful with this data because you won't be able to edit it later on.

You will also need to add taxation information and agree to Facebook Shops Merchant Terms and policies.

Design Your Shop

Once you fill out all the basic information and add products, you can play around with the design of your Facebook Shops. You can change colours and text styles to match your brand colours and themes.

You can also customize your shopfront by changing the layout. In the layout tab, you can choose which collections to feature as well as add carousels of other collections.

While the shop design is somewhat limited, there is hope that Facebook will give retailers more options to demonstrate their brand identity in the future.

Once you go through the above steps, you can check out how the shop looks by using Shop Preview. If you are happy with all the details, click Publish.

Facebook takes about 24 hours to approve a Shop. You can choose for it to go live automatically after approval or wait for your permission.

Why Should You Use Facebook Shops?

Facebook Shops is gaining momentum quickly. It's an excellent way to promote and sell your products on social media without making too much extra effort. The key benefits of using Facebook Shops include:

  • You gain access to a large Facebook audience (89 billion monthly active users worldwide).

  • It's easy to add products and create collections especially if you already have a catalogue on one of the partner platforms.

  • You can use the Facebook Shops catalogue to promote products through Dynamic, Collection, Carousel, or Collaborative Facebook Ads.

  • You give your target audience an opportunity to purchase directly from social media apps, thus improving your omnichannel sales and marketing strategies.

Overall, Facebook Shops is an excellent opportunity to create a user-friendly and convenient shopping experience for your target audience without breaking the bank.

Adding Facebook Shops to Your Sales Toolbox

Setting up Facebook Shops is fast and easy. With selling fees currently waived, it's also free. By adding Facebook Shops to your sales toolbox, you are improving customer experience and enriching your online sales strategy.

Would you like to learn more about convenient eCommerce sales and marketing tools? We are here to help.

Steve Crowe