The shoes in the photo of your favorite brand go straight into the shopping cart and you can choose a matching scarf from the collection: this is how selling on Facebook works. Facebook has been trying for a long time to become a social network that also generates hard sales. In this blog, you’ll learn simple tips on successful selling on Facebook.
Social commerce is the magic word: Why should you sell on Facebook?
Social commerce is one of the buzzwords of recent years. Buying is usually a social act: people meet people and exchange ideas about products. Many people miss this aspect when shopping online. So far, online shopping has mostly worked differently. On the Internet, customers search specifically for products that they have come to know in other places. Window shopping is a thing of the past and nobody comes to the online shop enthusiastically because they have discovered their new favorite item in the display.
Social commerce and offers like Facebook Shops or Instagram Shopping want to change that. Products are flushed into the timeline for interested parties. This is how they discover new brands and items. The special feature: These product suggestions are often based on your own interests or the interests of your friends. The classic “word-of-mouth propaganda” is shifting more and more to social networks.
In addition, customers can interact with your company, rate products or make suggestions for improvement and contact customer service. This strengthens the emotional connection to your brand.
Another important factor is the company’s obsession with collecting data. Facebook recognizes those interested in your products among the mass of Facebook users. On the one hand, you can open up new target groups via social media, and, on the other hand, you can repeatedly draw the attention of existing customers to you.
Selling on Facebook: The most important possibilities
If your business wants to use Facebook to sell, there are a number of options. On the one hand, the Facebook Marketplace is also open to companies. Many of the larger shop portals work together with Facebook and make it easy to offer articles and offers via the marketplace. However, this option has disadvantages, because you can only have little influence on the user experience and shop design in the marketplace. It’s more of an ad than a shop.
The next possibility is to buy buttons, with which the customer can go to your website and put the product directly in the shopping cart. One of the problems here is that it is not immediately obvious to everyone that they are being redirected to another website. You may have a similar problem if you’re running Facebook Ads and it’s not clear that you’re redirecting to your own website. Buy buttons are nevertheless used happily and successfully by many companies.
A third option in Germany has been the so-called Facebook shops since mid-2020. You can create your own shop within Facebook or easily connect your Facebook page to your existing shop. The service is free, but Facebook keeps a small percentage of sales.
What requirements and conditions do you have to meet and know in order to be able to sell on Facebook?
Facebook doesn’t put any obstacles in your way and wants to make it as easy as possible to sell on social networks. The exact requirements you need to meet depend on the sales opportunity you want to use.
Basically, the company page is the most important prerequisite for being able to sell on Facebook. Everything else depends on your project.
As a retailer, you undertake to deliver within a certain period of time. It is sufficient if you send the goods within three days so that they reach the customer within seven days.
If shops want to have Facebook handle all payment processing, they need a bank account and a valid tax ID.
Before you can open a shop, you must agree to the terms of use and policies. It makes sense to read them carefully. They contain important information about images and product descriptions. If you stick to it, you will save yourself a lot of time and trouble.
The 9 most important tips for more sales with Facebook Shops
We’ve put together top tips to help you sell more successfully on Facebook.
Present products attractively
If you want to persuade your Facebook Shops visitors, you need to present your products in a way that arouses interest.
This is even more important on Facebook than with your online shop: Because while people often come to your website with a specific purchase intention and the product photo is not decisive, you first have to use photos to attract attention on Facebook.
You may already know this if you’re in visual industries like fashion or lifestyle. If not, you have to rethink and present your products as if looks were the decisive factor.
Leveraging social commerce opportunities
Shoppable content is important to you if you want to sell on Facebook. Use tags and other functions to enable direct shopping cart transactions via Facebook.
Customize product descriptions
The strong focus on the visual in the first step does not mean that you can do without a meaningful product description. Because your users didn’t specifically search for the product on Facebook, it’s even more important.
The product descriptions must give your visitor all the information they need. If they have to google something first, they may not return to your shop. It is therefore important that you clarify all open questions. The particular challenge here, however, is that the user should not be overwhelmed by too much text.
Maintain inventory
You should prevent the situation where you cannot deliver the goods you have ordered and they still appear in your Facebook shop. Otherwise, you risk losing customers permanently. If you cannot deliver products, this should also be made clear immediately. Facebook charges $20 for chargebacks, so not being able to deliver products can quickly become expensive. You, therefore, need a good link from Facebook Shops to your warehouse.
Work with collections
With Facebook Shops, you can create collections with six to 30 products. Between ten and 15 products make sense. In this way, the interested party can browse a bit without losing the overview. Make sure that you align a collection as precisely as possible with a target group and only sort products into the collection that really suits it. Also, avoid variations of the same product.
Make sure to name the collections in a way that catches the interest of your customers.
Use coupons and exclusive discounts
If you want to build a loyal customer base on Facebook, it makes sense to work with special coupons and discounts that make the Facebook journey interesting for your followers.
Use retargeting
Shopping cart abandonments are part of online shopping and can have many reasons. People who had your items in their shopping carts are often ready to buy. You should target them again through your Facebook Ads campaigns to remind them of your products again. The success rate here is often significantly higher than that of other users.
Adapt your catalog to the circumstances
Facebook and thus also Facebook Shops are often used on mobile devices. For you and your strategy, this means that you have to pay attention to the changing needs of small screens. Even if more and more people buy mobile, many purchases are impulse buys. Accordingly, customers are more likely to buy products that cost less. You should keep this in mind when determining your strategy and your catalog.
Experiment with video content
Even if video content is not a must on Facebook: Working with videos has proven itself in many cases. This does not necessarily apply to your products and your target group. However, videos have the advantage that in many cases they are well received, build more trust, and can convey a lot of information in a shorter time. Since even a mid-range smartphone produces decent videos, the technical hurdle is no longer that high. It, therefore, makes sense to test this format at least once.
But beware: 85% of all Facebook users watch videos without sound. So make sure to use subtitles. You also have to be aware that many will be watching the video on mobile. Portrait format is therefore mandatory!
Facebook Shops need to be part of your social media strategy
If you want to use Facebook Shops, now is the right time at the latest to systematically make your activities on Facebook more successful with a social media strategy. Because your reach is crucial to how much you can sell with Facebook Shops.
If you are already using a strategy, you must adapt it so that direct sales are a fundamental part of your online shop in addition to leads and sales. Facebook Shops can then be the last part of your customer journey and must be considered in your efforts. Many of your campaigns that used to lead to your shop can now end in your Facebook shop.
This is because, for example, you get new possibilities with Facebook Shops. You can put together personalized collections and thus respond directly to a customer’s needs. And there are other options as well: You can tag products in your photos or mark them in answers and thus forward them directly to your shop. These are little things that should be part of your social media team’s day-to-day work if you’re serious about Facebook Shops.
As with any strategy, testing takes you further. Don’t get stuck on Facebook Shops just yet, but first, check whether the shopping cart value and transactions justify an increased focus on this option. If that’s not the case, you’ll either have to tweak your Facebook shop or your strategy to change that. It’s also okay not to continue on this path for the time being and to do Facebook shopping.
But if you offer Facebook Shops, you must always keep it in mind in your strategy and not neglect this opportunity.
The 5 biggest dangers with Facebook Shops
Facebook Shops are a great opportunity, but there are some pitfalls to be aware of.
You become dependent
Is your Facebook shop shooting through the roof and multiplying your sales? As great as this achievement is, you have to keep in mind that Facebook can change the terms or even discontinue the offer at any time.
That’s why focusing only on Facebook is a big risk. Of course, it makes sense for your business to put a lot of resources into the channel that works best. If you are starting out, it is definitely a tried and tested method to only run your shop on Facebook at first.
With more success, you shouldn’t just focus on Facebook Shops, but push your independent online store forward. At best, your social commerce and e-commerce strategies go hand-in-hand. After all, your Facebook shop is not only designed for performance. Branding effects and the increase in your reach will definitely benefit your company.
In the long run, it makes sense to see Facebook Shops as a supplement to your own e-commerce strategy and not become too dependent on the social network. At this point, I have to give Facebook credit for recommending setting up your own shop outside of Facebook and making it easier thanks to the numerous connections.
You get lost in too many shops and platforms
Not only do you have your own online shop, but you have also represented on half a dozen marketplaces. You sell on eBay, Etsy, and Amazon. What’s more, your social commerce efforts aren’t just limited to Facebook, you’re also active on Pinterest, Instagram, and TikTok.
While it’s always good to try something new and know what’s possible, if you’re dancing at all the weddings e-commerce throws at the same time, you won’t be using your resources efficiently. If you are not a large company with the corresponding workforce, this is even more true. The bottom line is you need to focus your energy and be really active on as few platforms as possible.
Otherwise, the administrative effort will be too great and you will hardly be able to gain sound insights from the data you gain. You are not an expert for the respective platform and you cannot, therefore, optimize your success. You cannot have the legal and financial conditions of the different marketplaces permanently available, so the susceptibility to errors increases. All the time you have increased service or backend effort due to technical problems in a channel.
While I’m a big advocate of not getting too dependent on Facebook Shops, you shouldn’t be dancing at too many weddings at the same time either. Focus on the platforms where you’re most successful and where you see the greatest potential. The rest can go.
You neglect the Facebook shop or even Facebook in general
Many companies start on a social network and then don’t pay enough attention to it. Social media marketing and especially social commerce thrive on your company being active on a regular basis. This is the only way you can gradually expand your reach and ensure that your activities become efficient.
This is all the more true for a Facebook shop. If users are surprised that your business is still active on Facebook, if stock levels are not up to date, or if you advertise dusty summer clothes in winter, it will negatively affect your reputation.
Your target audience doesn’t want to buy anything on Facebook
A lot of people have a Facebook profile. And more and more people are really making purchases on their smartphones. However, you may not be able to reach your target group via Facebook.
This may be because your customers are young and have long since migrated to TikTok or Snapchat. Maybe your products are too serious for a social network with a fairly low professional focus. Or your target group is reluctant to give Facebook their data and especially not their credit card number. If you consider how many people are not represented on the social network with real names, you have a rough idea of how many of your followers will definitely not use Facebook Shops. Your items may be too expensive to buy on the go without comparison.
Another problem: users have long been able to use Facebook as a social marketplace, similar to eBay classifieds. So they are used to private individuals making offers on the platform and companies placing advertisements. Many people have heard from the media that there are Facebook shops. In fact, there are not many shops yet, so the offer is rather unknown to customers.
There are many reasons why Facebook Shops might not be as successful for you at the moment as it seems at first glance.
Your target audience doesn’t want to buy anything on Facebook
One of the most common pitfalls of social commerce is losing sight of the “social” and only focusing on “commerce”. Then you can sell your products just as well on any other platform – if not better because your followers on Facebook expect something different.
Because if you want to be successful on Facebook, you have to make sure that your followers are not primarily there to shop. Of course, they want to know about your products – otherwise, they wouldn’t follow you. But social networks are about exchange, pastime, and entertainment. If you do not meet these needs, you cannot use the positive effects in social commerce and therefore cannot sell. That’s why it’s a mistake to only send flat advertising messages on Facebook.
Need to open a Facebook shop right now?
As good as Facebook Shops and the possibilities may sound at first glance, it’s unclear whether success will turn out the way Facebook wants it to. So far there aren’t many shops and it doesn’t seem to have really caught on with Facebook users that they can shop via Facebook.
But: The integration is quite uncomplicated and for many companies, it remains the case that Facebook Shops is a good way to present products. With growing awareness, the target group reached will grow and Facebook Shops could then become a good alternative or supplement.
Ultimately, meaningful involvement in this area depends on how successful a company is already on Facebook and how big the focus is on this channel: If you have a loyal fan base that you carefully cultivate and are already getting your sales from it anyway, then it is certainly more appropriate to open a Facebook shop than if you are not yet present on Facebook.
It is important to consider other options. There are many marketplaces, platforms, and other social commerce offerings that can be more promising for you than Facebook Shops. This is especially true if you are not very active on Facebook and/or do not plan an advertising budget for this platform.
Conclusion: f-commerce instead of e-commerce
At first glance, Facebook Shops looks like a great opportunity, especially for small businesses. F-Commerce is without a doubt. Used correctly, it can skyrocket your sales. But as always in social media marketing, the same applies here: Without a strategy and appropriate use of Facebook marketing, you will not have lasting success.
Then F-Commerce may still be interesting for you if the Facebook ads achieve a better ROI than Google Ads. Increasing your focus on social media, however, makes sense when you realize it’s working through ads, and it’s worth considering.
Even if it were nice: Facebook Shops is no balm for the battered retailer soul without time investment and reach the building. Because the competition is fierce and often started years ago. However, if you dig your way into Facebook marketing and invest enough time, you can definitely reach more potential customers thanks to F-Commerce.
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