How to Sell Products on a Facebook Shop in 5 Simple Steps

This guide walks you through everything you need to know to sell products on a Facebook Shop in five easy steps. We’ll discuss how to set up your Facebook business page, explore your options for listing products on Facebook, plus look at marketing tactics to drive sales and make your Facebook Shop a success.

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Step 1: Set up Your Facebook Business Page

To set up a Facebook Shop, you’ll need to have a free Facebook business page. You can’t create a Facebook Shop in a personal Facebook account. The Facebook Shop feature is only available on pages.

Source: Shopify

This isn’t a problem since every business really needs to have a Facebook page. It offers many business marketing advantages over personal accounts, including:

• A page gives your customers a way to find, follow, and like your page and posts
• It gives you a huge array of free marketing opportunities, like these
• It offers a wide variety of budget-minded advertising tools, like these

And…

• It lets you sell your products directly to Facebook’s huge audience of more than 1.7 billion users right from your Facebook page

With access to such a huge audience, any business owner would be remiss to not set up a shop on Facebook! Maximize your sales with Hibu, an official Facebook Marketing Partner. Their services have been proven to increase visits to your website from Facebook, saving you time and frustration while increasing revenue. Contact a Hibu representative today.

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Once your business Facebook page is complete, it’s time to create your Facebook Shop. For that, you’ll need a way to list products and accept orders and payments through Facebook. The best way to do this is with a Facebook-friendly ecommerce platform, but that’s not your only option. Let’s look at your choices.

Step 2: Look at Your Facebook Shop Selling Options

Of all the social sites, Facebook offers the most complete in-app shopping experience via the fully integrated Shop. There are two ways you can go about populating a Facebook Shop with products and accepting payments:

1. Upload product data and connect a payment processor directly to Facebook Shop for free
2. Use a paid or free ecommerce platform that does this for you, plus lets you sell products on your own website, on blogs, and on other social channels, too

Let’s take a closer look at both of these options.

1. Upload Products to Facebook Shop Yourself for Free

You can enter products for sale directly to your Facebook Shop for free. Facebook has clear instruction that walk you through every step. You can see how to set up your Shop and connect your payment providers here. For payments, you have the choice of PayPal or Stripe.

See how to enter products directly to Facebook here.

Is this Right for You?

If you sell just a few items and/or only want to sell through a Facebook Shop, this might be all you need. The benefit is that it costs you nothing to add a shop and enter as many products as you wish.

The Downside to Using Facebook Shop Yourself

One downside is that you have to manually manage orders and this can be time-consuming if you move a lot of product. You’ll have to log into Facebook to process and manage orders one by one. See how to do that here. You also have to manually mark orders as shipped, as they explain here.

Another downside is that you can only sell your products on Facebook. So, you’ll spend time entering products and have no other sales outlets. The ecommerce platform option, listed in #2 below, gives you many more selling opportunities, plus a suite of time-saving order management tools. Let’s explore them now.

2. Use an Ecommerce Platform to Sell Products on a Facebook Shop

Many top ecommerce platforms, like BigCommerce, let you list and sell products in a Facebook Shop, plus many other places if you wish. What these platforms offer over the Facebook-only option is a full suite of product listing, order, and shipping management tools designed to save you time. But that’s not all.

Time-saving benefits aside, the biggest plus is that you can sell just about anywhere using an ecommerce platform: your own website, Amazon & eBay, Pinterest, blog posts, and more. Going this route, the time you spend entering products into a selling system can deliver returns far beyond Facebook. Even if you don’t want start your own website or sell on places like eBay or Amazon at first, the option is there if/when the time comes.

Is this Right for You?

If selling online is a priority, you need to extend your reach beyond the Facebook audience. Ecommerce platforms let you do just that. They also make every ecommerce task as quick and automated as possible, from product entry to shipping updates. Plus if you ship, or hope to ship, more than 10 orders per day, you really should consider this time-saving option.

If you’re looking for a dedicated ecommerce platform, check out BigCommerce. It offers robust online selling features, including easy product listing creation, check out security, and inventory and store management tools. You also get an easy-to-use dashboard, store setup utilities, and beautiful mobile-friendly store themes. Click here for a free 15-day trial.

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The Downside to Using an Ecommerce Platform

The downside is cost. In most cases, you’ll need a monthly paid account with an ecommerce provider, though there are some free options which we’ll detail below.

So, we’ve covered the two primary ways you can list products to sell in a Facebook Shop: Entering items directly to Facebook, or using an ecommerce platform to do this for you.

If the ecommerce platform option sounds like the right fit, read on to see our comparisons of several top providers. But if working directly with Facebook Shop is right for you, skip down to Step 5 to see how you can market your products once your Shop is live.

Step 3: Compare Ecommerce Platform Options for Facebook Shops

Shopify, BigCommerce, and Ecwid are top names in ecommerce, and all connect seamlessly to Facebook Shop. But they aren’t the only ones. If you already sell online, there’s a good chance your online store provider integrates with Facebook Shop, too. If they do, you just need to follow their instructions to connect your store listings to your Facebook page. Then you can skip to Step 5 in this guide to see ways to market your products on Facebook and grow your shop.

Now let’s take a look at your lowest-cost ecommerce platform options. These let you quickly launch a Facebook Shop for minimal costs, plus sell on other social media sites and online marketplaces if you wish. A few even support a website at the listed prices:

Again, there are plenty of ecommerce platforms that integrate with a Facebook Shop. Those we discuss above are our top picks for free or low-cost Facebook Shop options. Other ecommerce platforms include it in their standard, and generally more expensive, online store plans.

If you’re looking to launch a Facebook Shop with a stand-alone website from the get-go, you’ll want to consider the following full-featured ecommerce store platform plans. You can see a more detailed comparison of top ecommerce platforms in our article here.

Once you’ve settled on an ecommerce solution for your Facebook Shop, it’s time to create your listings and take your store live.

Step 4: Create Products and Link Them to Your Facebook Shop

Each ecommerce platform listed above makes it quite easy to enter product information and images, plus set up payment methods, shipping rates, and store information. But each does it a bit differently. We won’t cover them in detail here since every platform we list provides terrific startup tutorials that walk you through every step.

Instead, we’ll cover the basic information that you’ll use to create your product listings and store information pages, no matter the platform. Having this organized and ready beforehand makes the process of building your Facebook Shop listings quick and easy. Then we’ll cover a few final steps to complete in your Facebook admin screen once your Shop is live.

If you’re completely new to online selling, check out our article How to Start an Online Store. It covers everything you need to know to start selling on any website.

To create your product listings, you’ll need to assemble four key things:

1. Good images of your products
   See how to capture great product photography with your cell phone camera here.
2. Detailed product descriptions
   Don’t be shy when describing your products. Good descriptions should be chock-full of details that sell your product, plus any sizing, measurements, weights, or other necessary details.
3. Product size and weight information
   These numbers can be entered with your product information in most ecommerce systems so you can print accurate shipping labels. It’s optional, but can be useful.
4. Product numbers or inventory SKU numbers
   These are the numbers or product codes you use to track products in your online store. Not sure how to set product SKU’s up to track your inventory? Learn how in our article here.

You’ll also need to put together four pieces of store information to let customers know what to expect when they order from you. You can create one page or several in your online store to display this information. To learn more about setting up store information pages, check out our article here.

1. Your Store Contact Information
   Email only? Email and Phone? Don’t forget to list your customer service times here, too.
2. Customer Service & Privacy Policy
   Here’s where you list your order fulfillment times, return, and privacy policies.
3. Shipping Rates and Policy
   You’ll set up shipping rates in your store dashboard, but it’s nice to have a page that lists them so customers can see what you charge for shipping.
4. “About Us” Information
   Brag a little about how you got started and how you got where you are today. This is a branding opportunity and personalizes the customer experience.

Once you have this information gathered, it’s time to enter it into your ecommerce platform. If you’re using Shopify, this article takes you through the entire process, step-by-step.

If you’re using a different ecommerce platform, this is what you’ll do:

1. Login to your account and follow their getting started tutorial to setup your store information and product listing pages.
2. Then visit their online support page for the Connect Facebook Shop instructions.

Again, each ecommerce platform handles store set up a bit differently. But all listed above offer a complete step-by-step guide that leads you through the entire process. You can see how each works by clicking on the get started links provided in the tables above.

Whatever ecommerce platform you choose, once it’s connected to your Facebook Shop, the new Shop section will automatically appear on your Facebook page, like this:

Source: The Horse Junkie Facebook Shop

Note for website owners! If you have an existing Facebook page with a Shop Now button that’s connected to your website, you have one more step. From your Facebook admin page, you need to edit the button link to connect to your Facebook Shop. To do this, click the button in your page admin screen. It will give you an option to change the link to your Facebook Shop, like this:

Source: The Horse Junkie Facebook Shop

After all of the above is complete, and your Shop section appears, you probably won’t see your products immediately. Don’t panic. Facebook reviews all new Shops to make sure images and content meets their guidelines, which you can find here.

It can take 24-48 hours for your Shop to be approved and populate the section. So go into this with a little patience. Once approved, as you add new products, they should automatically appear within 20 minutes or so. If not, you can re-synchronize your listings from your store dashboard to send new items to Facebook. Here’s how to do that with a Shopify store:

Source: Shopify

Once your products are approved and live, you’re ready to start selling. Now let’s explore ways to promote your shop, grow your Facebook audience, and make some sales.

Step 5: Market Your Products for Facebook Shop Success

There’s one really nice thing about having your products listed for sale in your Facebook Shop:

Your products and potential customers are already there!

Your Facebook Shop products are primed and ready for promotion to your Facebook followers and countless potential customers. With your products already housed on Facebook, you can quickly select certain products or categories to promote via Facebook posts and ads.

Plus, viewers don’t have to leave your Facebook page to learn more about your products or make a purchase. This increased engagement within Facebook leads to more sales for many Facebook Shop owners. This is why Facebook Shop is fast becoming a favorite sales channel for online sellers, big and small.

There are many ways, both free and paid, that you can market your Facebook Shop products to followers and larger audiences, including:

• Feature products, sales, and special deals via regular posts. Learn more here.
• Feature products and specials via boosted posts which are budget-friendly paid posts designed to reach larger audiences. Learn more here.
• Run Facebook ad campaigns with featured products. Learn more here.
• Distribute offers and host contests to engage your audience and attract new viewers to your page and products. Learn more about offers here, and contests here.

In fact, with your Facebook Shop in place, your Facebook marketing deserves some real attention. Here are two articles that will show you, step by step, how to craft plans for free Facebook marketing and paid Facebook advertising that meets your selling goals and budget. See How to Market Your Small Business on Facebook for Free and learn all about paid advertising in Facebook Advertising: How-To Guide for Small Businesses.

The Bottom Line

Selling products directly to your Facebook audience isn’t hard to do using the Shop feature included with every free Facebook business page. Top online store platforms that integrate seamlessly with Facebook offer the easiest Facebook Shop solution, especially if you’re new to ecommerce. They make the product listing, selling, and order management process a breeze.

Once the ecommerce side is neatly handled, you’ll have plenty of time to focus on Facebook’s many free and paid opportunities to promote your Shop. With plenty of perseverance and a good marketing plan, you’ll start to see your Facebook audience grow and, more importantly, start making sales.

Don’t forget to check out Hibu to boost the traffic to your Facebook shop. Click here to get in touch:

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