How to Set Up a Facebook Shop to Sell More Items

Remember the pandemic when everyone was at home for two years and addicted to online shopping? Online shopping and e-commerce grew 3.4% in 2020, and e-commerce sales are now projected to rise from $792 billion in 2020 to $1.6 trillion in 2025 as shoppers look to continue the trend towards the growth of online shopping. Facebook Stores play a big role in all of this.

Meta launched Facebook Shops in May 2020 and positioned the online shopping platform as a resource to help small businesses sell online. Good time, much?

What is a Facebook Shop?

The Facebook Store is an online store that exists on Facebook and Instagram and allows users to browse, shop, and make purchases either directly on Facebook or by going to the company’s website to complete a sale.

Facebook and Instagram users can find businesses in the Facebook store through their Facebook page or Instagram profile.

What’s great about Facebook Stores is that the feature can be discovered organically or through ads, meaning there’s plenty of room for social media marketers to optimize for both channels.

Why create a shop on Facebook?

There are many benefits for businesses of all sizes to take the Facebook Shops train. Here are some of our favorites.

Hassle-free and easy payment

Facebook Shops is a one-stop shopping experience for your customers, designed for direct-to-consumer brands. They can interact with your business via Facebook Messenger, navigate to the relevant product, and then checkout directly on Facebook.

This ensures a hassle-free shopping experience. There is no need to direct the buyer to an external site where it is easier for him to get distracted and decide not to buy.

Simplified cataloging

If you have an e-commerce website for your business, you will understand how difficult cataloging can be. However, with Facebook Shops, storing product information and updating it is very easy. Whenever you need to make changes to your product information – like images, descriptions, price, and more – just go to Commerce Manager and update your products in minutes.

Easy shipping process

Everything about delivery is pain. We’ll get it.

Luckily, Facebook Shops makes it very easy, offering the seller (that’s you!) the option to use whichever shipping method you prefer, as long as they offer tracking and proof of delivery.

If you need to customize shipping details, go to Commerce Manager to edit your shipping details, including shipping cost, speed, and destination.

Increase your reach with ads

With nearly 3 billion monthly active users, Facebook is a hive of activity, with hundreds of thousands of people around the world browsing the platform at any given time. By advertising your products on Facebook and your Facebook shop page, you instantly introduce your business to new audiences and potential customers while increasing conversions for your shop.

Provide a new level of customer service

Being able to communicate with the brand and resolve my complaint from the comfort of your couch? Sign me up!

Facebook Shops gives customers the ability to interact with businesses via Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram to answer questions, track orders, or resolve customer issues. Just like a traditional brick and mortar store.

Pro Tip: If you are an e-commerce store that uses Facebook Messenger or any of its related apps to communicate with customers, you can save hours of work per week by using an AI-based customer service chatbot like Heyday.

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You don’t need a website

It may come as a surprise, but not every online commerce business needs a website. By using Facebook Shops, businesses can eliminate the need for a website because customers can have the exact same shopping experience on the Facebook Shop platform.

Think about the money and time you spend on developers and hosting and all the other costs involved in running a website. It’s adding up!

How to Create a Facebook Store in 6 Easy Steps

Setting up a Facebook store

1. Go to facebook.com/commerce_manager to get started and click next.

2. Select the way the customer places an order. You will notice that you can choose from the following options:

A. Checkout on another website (direct your audience to a domain you own)

b. Checkout via Facebook or Instagram (customers will be able to pay for their product on the Facebook or Instagram platform)

V. Checkout via messaging (direct your customers to Chat Messenger)

Please note that the ability to pay directly on the Meta-owned platform using Shop Pay is only available in the US.

3. Select the Facebook page you want to sell from. If you don’t already have a Facebook page for your business, now is the time to create one. Click “Next.

4. Connect your Facebook business account. Set it up if you don’t have it. Click “Next.

5. Choose where you will deliver your products. Click “Next.

6. Review your Facebook store and make sure all information is correct, then click Finish Setup.

Facebook shop requirements

To start selling products on the Facebook Store, businesses need to meet a few requirements. According to Meta, these include:

• Compliance with Facebook policies, including the Terms of Service, Commercial Terms, and Community Standards.
• Domain Ownership Verification
• Be located in a supported market
• Maintain an authentic, trustworthy presence (and enough followers!)
• Provide accurate information with clear return and refund policies

Setting up a Facebook store

No matter how big or small, businesses can offer products from their catalog and customize their Facebook store to match their brand’s colors and style.

1. Once you’re signed in to Commerce Manager, go to Stores.
2. Then click “Layout”to customize the elements of your Facebook store.
3. You will then be able to customize your Facebook store, including adding featured collections and promotions, arranging products, adding a featured collection, changing button colors, and previewing your Facebook store in light and dark modes.

How to Add Products to the Facebook Store

Adding products to your Facebook store is a simple, step-by-step process that ensures customers get all the information they need to make a purchase.

The place where your products are stored is called a catalog and you can connect your catalog to various advertising and sales channels to promote your products.

To create your first directory, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to Commerce Manager.

2. Click +Add directory.

3. Select the catalog type that best represents your business, then click Next.

4. Choose how you want to upload your catalog. Facebook Shops gives you two options: manually upload your catalog or connect your catalog from a partner platform like Shopify or BigCommerce.

5. Name your directory with an appropriate name, then click Create.

6. Add items to your catalog by clicking Items in the right navigation pane, then select Add Items.

7. On the next screen, you can enter all the information about your product, including images, title, product description, website URL to purchase, price, and condition.

In the example above, we have shown you a manual way to upload products to your Facebook store. But it’s worth exploring different ways to upload products to the Facebook store, as for larger businesses, a Facebook pixel or data stream might be more appropriate.

Create product collections in your Facebook store

Product collections give you the opportunity to showcase your products in a new light. For example, a spring collection, a vacation collection, or a new mother’s collection, depending on the products that you actually offer in Facebook stores.

Collections can be featured on the front page of your Facebook store and allow visitors to view more specific products grouped together.

To create a collection of Facebook Store products, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to Commerce Manager and click Stores.
2. Click Edit Store, then click +Add New.
3. Click Collection and then click Create New Collection.
4. Name your collection (Spring Sale, New Arrivals, Last Chance, etc.) and then add items from your inventory that you’d like to feature. Click Confirm.
5. Add additional details such as images (Facebook recommends an aspect ratio of 4:3 and a minimum size of 800 x 600 pixels), title, and text.
6. When you’re done, click Publish.

Pro Tip: If you’re using Shopify to launch your online store, you can directly integrate your products without manually downloading each item.

Fashion brand Everlane presents its latest collection at the top of its Facebook store. Source: Facebook.

What is the Facebook Shop Commission?

Which? Did you expect Meta to let you run a store on its platform for free? Facebook has to make money somehow, and Facebook store commissions give Meta a small portion of your sales. Fortunately, sales commissions are not extortionate. Let’s break them down:

• Whenever you make a sale on Facebook Stores, Meta will charge a 5% shipping fee.
• If the shipping cost is less than $8, Meta charges a flat fee of $0.40.
• The sales fee includes taxes, payment processing costs, and applies to all checkout conversions for all products in the Facebook and Instagram stores.

Best Facebook Shop Examples to Inspire You

Rafa

Bicycle brand Rapha is doing a great job with their Facebook shop. We especially like the collections they have created and the ease of navigation in the top navigation bar.

Tentri

Tentree follows the same strategy as Rapha, emphasizing easy-to-browse collections and simple, eye-catching product names.

Sephora

Popular cosmetics mega store Sephora has used eye-catching visuals on some of its images to make discounted items stand out on the Facebook home page.

However you choose to set up and start selling online with the Facebook Store, you know that Hootsuite is always there for you. Sign up for a 30-day free trial and find out how we can help you grow your new storefront today.

LuluLemon

Lululemon keeps things clean, clear and direct on their product listings. By using clear visuals, the focus is on the product (rather than what’s going on around it), which should drive sales.

Are you sure that launching a Facebook store is the next step in your eCommerce journey? Hootsuite lets you manage all of your social media channels from one convenient dashboard, giving you more time to focus on other areas of scaling your business (like writing those pesky product descriptions!) Join now and get a 30-day free trial.