How to Set Up a Shopify Facebook Store in 5 Steps

If you use a Shopify Facebook store, your customers can purchase products and services from you without ever leaving the Facebook platform. Customers can also share your products with their friends and followers with the click of a button. Shopify Lite is the lowest-priced plan, so a Facebook store costs you only $9 per month.

The five steps to setting up a Shopify Facebook store are:

1. Create a Shopify Account

Shopify offers a 14-day free trial, and to get started you’ll need to create an account. You’ll add your email address and a password to use for your account. You will also have to name your store when you create an account. Many people use their name as the Shopify store or something closely associated with it. It’s easy to change your name later if you choose to do so.

After creating an account, Shopify will ask for your name and address so it can pay you for any sales you make. Shopify will also ask about your store and its revenue, but don’t worry if you’re just getting started or even playing around. It’s got an option for both of those scenarios, and Shopify even provides suggestions for getting started. For example, it can help you find a name for your store or even help with finding a product to sell.

2. Add Products to Your Shopify Store

Right after creating your account, you’ll come to your product page. If you don’t have time to add products right away, it’s easy to find the page again to do so. After you’ve added products, you can edit them later.

To add a product to your Shopify store, follow these steps:

• From the Shopify dashboard, go to Products and then All Products
• On the All Products page, click on Add Product
• Here, you’ll enter a title for your product, a description, images, pricing, and shipping
• Click Save Product

As you add products to your store, keep in mind that you can always change the product details later. You may find that your pricing needs adjusting, or maybe you’ve got additional distribution centers throughout the country and can lower the shipping costs.

3. Choose a Shopify Theme

A theme is the visual representation of what your customers see when they visit your Shopify store. The colors, format, and fonts all play into the theme, or template, of your store. If you only want to sell on social media, you don’t need to complete this step if you choose the Shopify Lite plan since that’s the only one without an online store.

If you are using an online store, you’ll have access to many free and premium themes to choose from in the Shopify Theme Store. You can also upload a theme you’ve made or purchased elsewhere, such as on Etsy. Many of the themes you purchase through Etsy will be pre-made, however, you can also find web designers who will custom make one for you right on Etsy.

Import a Shopify Theme

Talented web designers and developers create attractive Shopify themes you can upload quickly. Themes found on Etsy range from $10 to $3,000, depending on how robust it needs to be. Other popular places to purchase themes include Envato Elements, ThemeForest, and Template Monster.

When purchasing a theme, you will receive a zip file. This is a compressed group of files you will then upload right into Shopify by clicking Upload Theme. You should not have to do any configuring to make the theme work, other than uploading your products, images, and details about your products.

Use a Theme From the Shopify Theme Store

In the theme store, there are 10 free themes and 64 paid themes, which are $140 to $180. Whether you use a free theme or a premium one, you click a single button to change your entire Shopify store to your new theme. Each theme comes with its own set of features and styles.

Some themes are meant for Shopify stores with huge catalogs, whereas others are meant for smaller stores. All it takes to change a Shopify theme is the click of your mouse, so don’t be afraid to try out several themes before deciding on one. You might consider a theme that includes a social media feed, such as Instagram or Twitter. Or, you could even find a theme with marketing popups or banners.

4. Customize Your Shopify Theme

Once you’ve uploaded or imported your Shopify theme, you need to customize it to match your brand identity design. For most themes, you’ll have a place for some sort of header section at the top of your store. Many stores use a logo while others prefer text only. Some themes have a slideshow to import your own pictures, or you can choose from many of the free stock images Shopify provides.

In the footer section of your theme, include social media links as well as a list of your store’s policies. This usually includes a privacy policy, terms and conditions, license rights, how to download your products if it’s digital, and your return or refund policy. Many shops also include links to their categories, which makes it easy for customers to find similar products.

5. Connect Shopify to Facebook

In Shopify, a Facebook store is called a Facebook Shop, and it is considered a sales channel. Sales channels include places such as the Shopify storefront you created in step four, eBay, Amazon, Instagram, and buy buttons you can add to your blog or website.

To link your Facebook account to Shopify, follow these steps:

• From the Shopify dashboard, click the + button next to Sales Channels
• Click Facebook Shop from the list of sales channels
• Select Add Channel
• Choose the associated Facebook page you want to associate with this store
• Click Connect Account

After connecting your business Facebook account, Facebook will review your store to ensure it meets its guidelines. These guidelines include using a currency supported by Facebook and making sure you’re not selling anything prohibited such as adult content or firearms. It can take up to 48 hours for Facebook to review your store, and you will receive a notification from Facebook via email if you’re approved or denied. You will also see when Facebook finishes the review process when signed into your Shopify store.

Shopify Pricing & Features

Shopify plans vary based on what you need for selling on Facebook. Each plan allows for social selling, and more advanced plans offer full-fledged online stores. With more expensive plans come features such as professional reports, third-party calculated shipping rates, and staff accounts. It offers a 14-day free trial, so it’s possible to start making a profit before ever having to pay for your package.

Shopify Pricing Plans

*Note there is also Shopify Pro, which is for enterprise-level businesses and is completely custom.

On May 4, 2020 Shopify released POS Pro for $89/month in addition to the free POS app. We will update this article to reflect the new pricing and features.

Shopify Lite

If you want to create a Buy Now button on an already-created website or blog, or even through a Facebook Shop, you’ll want the Shopify Lite plan. This is a plan that’s perfect for small businesses who don’t want to run or maintain an online store. You’ll use this plan when you sell products in-person using the Shopify point-of-sale app and a card reader.

Basic Shopify

The Basic Shopify plan gives small businesses features similar to an online store, a free SSL certificate, acquisition reports, behavior reports, and a marketing report. With these reports, you can analyze the traffic to determine what changes to make. An SSL certificate stands for Secure Sockets Layer, and it encrypts data between the web browser and server, which protects your customer’s data.

Shopify

With the Shopify plan, you’ll receive everything in the Basic Shopify plan. Additionally, customers can use gift cards in your store, and you’ll get even more insight with even more professional reports. These reports allow you to sort data by categories such as customers over time, first-time versus returning customer sales, and customers by country. Lower credit card rates and transaction fees also make this an attractive option for small businesses on a budget.

Advanced Shopify

The Advanced Shopify plan gives you everything in the Shopify plan, and you’ll get even lower credit card rates and transaction fees. View custom reports such as customers who are at-risk and those who are loyal. Your customers can also enjoy calculated carrier shipping, which lets you integrate with a third-party shipping service to offer more accurate shipping rates. They’ll also get to choose shipping options, such as standard, express, and one-day.

What to Sell on Shopify

When selling on Shopify, keep your overhead in mind. A physical product will need enough profit margins to cover selling through Shopify and any paid advertising. Digital products and services tend to have higher profit margins because the products only need to be created one time rather than replicated repeatedly. Plus, you won’t need to store inventory or ship any physical products when you choose to sell digital products and services.

Physical Goods

Products such as apparel, kitchen gadgets, books, and supplements are physical goods. Many Shopify sellers purchase wholesale goods instead of going through the process of manufacturing their own product. To manufacture your own product, you typically need to source raw goods, work with an engineer to prototype, and then find a place to create your goods.

A popular place to source ready-made wholesale products is through Alibaba.com. This is an ecommerce marketplace that brings together sellers from all over the world. Through it, you can typically purchase a wholesale lot of 100 units at reasonable prices. It’s not unusual to find many products under $10 per unit, making this a cost effective option for selling on Shopify.

You can also sell edible products with Shopify with success. Edible goods include chocolate, candy, fresh meat, small-batch kombucha, ready-made coffee drinks, and grains. An example of this is Alicja Confections based in Ottawa. One of their most popular online products is the Postcard Chocolate Bar.

Digital Goods

A digital product usually allows businesses to have lower overhead because it doesn’t need to produce physical goods. These digital products include membership sites, e-books, digital planners, web design, and music. Your digital goods do not have to be low-dollar, either. Many coaches and consultants use Shopify and charge between $1,000 and $10,000 for their programs.

An example of a business owner who’s mastered selling digital content on Shopify is Sarah Titus. She got her Shopify start by offering digital planners and stickers. While not typical, her first month on Shopify earned her more than $50,000. She now teaches others how to create successful Shopify stores while serving her digital products customers.

How to Market Your Shopify Facebook Store

Marketing a Shopify Facebook store isn’t all that different from marketing any other business. You still need to know who your desired audience is, where they spend time online, and what motivates them. Popular marketing strategies include running Facebook ads, offering a referral program, and using affiliates, which gives a percentage of every referred sale to the affiliate. Even if you don’t get a sale from an affiliate or customer sharing your store with their followers, that’s still free advertising.

Use any combination of these tactics to market your Facebook Shopify Store:

• Ads: Run ad campaigns in places such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Google. You don’t need a huge ad budget for this—sometimes even $5 per day can yield good results.
• Referrals: Many Shopify store owners have success offering so much off an order if a customer refers three people.
• Shipping: Offer free shipping for sharing a social media post about the product or store, which will attract more visitors to your shop.
• Guides: If you’re an apparel store, provide a style guide in exchange for email addresses. This builds up your own list of people to market to.
• Customers: Encourage your current customers to tag you in their posts featuring your products to earn a feature on your businesses’ page.
• Giveaways: Both Facebook and Instagram makes it easy for giveaways to go viral. You’ll ask giveaway entrants to tag their friends and like your posts.

The Benefits of Having a Shopify Facebook Store

One of the biggest benefits of having a Shopify Facebook Store is controlling the customer process and experience. With platforms such as Amazon and eBay, the company maintains the relationship. By selling on Shopify, those are your customers and you get their email addresses. This means you can market to them later on, which translates to spending less time having to advertise your store in the future.

Shopify is incredibly intuitive and easy-to-use because of its visual template editor. If you’re great at web design, you can even create your own templates. Each of the templates from the Shopify Theme Store allow for customization beyond the basic structures of the template with coding such as HTML, CSS, and Liquid.

Another benefit of a Shopify Facebook Store is the ability to get started without having a physical product. For example, you can offer services such as coaching, consulting, web design, graphic design, or an online course. Or, you can dropship a product, which is the process where a product is shipped directly from the supplier to the customer without you ever taking possession of it. To do this, you’d use the ecommerce plugin Oberlo, which has a free option and goes up to $79.90 per month for enormous stores.

Additionally, Facebook users don’t even have to leave the platform to make a purchase from your store. These users can also share a product from your Shopify Facebook store right from the Facebook platform into their news feed, a Facebook group, or even a private message.

Shopify Facebook Store Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

This section includes the most frequently asked questions about how to set up a Shopify Facebook store.

Can you create a website with Shopify?

Using Shopify to create a website is easy, and you’ll even buy a domain name right through them. You can also link an existing domain name or use a Shopify-branded URL for free.

Do I need Shopify in order to sell on Facebook?

In order to sell on Facebook, you need to use a Facebook Partner. Other popular options include WooCommerce and BigCommerce.

Do I need a business license to sell on Facebook?

Standard practice is to have a business license if you’re conducting business activity on any platform. However, your local laws and tax implications may be different. Your tax adviser can provide advice for your unique situation.

Does Shopify report to the IRS?

Shopify doesn’t file or remit sales taxes for your store. You’ll need to check with a tax preparer to ensure you’re charging customers the right sales tax rate. Shopify does provide reports to help make filing and paying your taxes easier, though.

I already have a Facebook Shop, can I set up a Shopify one, too?

If you already have products in the Shop section of your Facebook page, it will remove all products in your existing Facebook shop and replace it with your Shopify products. You will want to import your other shop’s products into your Shopify store using a CSV file.

Bottom Line

A Shopify Facebook store is a great way for people to get started selling both products and services online. Small business owners can even dropship products without ever having to take possession of inventory. Plus, with Shopify’s free trial, it’s possible to start making money before having to even pay for an account.