Facebook is without a doubt one of the most important social media sites right now. It started out as a way for friends to stay in touch, but now it’s a way for businesses all over the world to connect.
Because of this, it is important for every business to have a Facebook page. You can advertise this way. But building your shop on Facebook is a better way to do it.
Today, we’ll show you the steps you need to take to make a Facebook store.
The process is the same as building a Facebook page, but the shop lets you show your items for sale in a store-like way instead of as individual posts or shout-outs.
Is a Facebook Shop really necessary?
You might think that this is extra work or that Facebook already has a lot of competition, but it still makes sense to make a Facebook Shop because it has millions of users all over the world. It’s likely that more than half of the people in your country have a Facebook account.
People spend a lot of time there, so if you market your Facebook shop well, you can get free foot traffic.
A person spends about 40 minutes a day on Facebook, on average. While they are looking at what’s popular or what their friends have posted that day, you can show them your products and make a sale.
Also, it’s free to set up a shop on Facebook. You don’t have to pay for anything, like a hosting service for your website. You will only have to pay for the cost of advertising.
Putting up a Facebook shop lets you:
- You can add as many items as you want.
- Make pages for products and groups of products.
- Check out a report on how your shop is doing.
- Reach out to millions of people in your country who use Facebook.
- Now that you know about these benefits, you might look at Facebook differently. You have nothing to lose, really.
Things to do before opening a shop on Facebook
There are different rules for each country on Facebook. Because of this, there are some parts you can’t use. Since the company is based in the US, most of its rules are based on US laws. But Facebook can make the same rules for users in other countries if it wants to.
Whether you are from the U.S. or not, you will need the following to set up your Facebook shop easily.
Facebook profile: This is the person’s profile, and it’s the first thing anyone can do on Facebook. When you create an account, you must use your legal name.
If your Facebook account is fake, Facebook’s security team will find out and may shut it down.
Facebook business page: There are two kinds of business pages. This is the page for the business and brand/persona.
The difference between the two is that the profile is a person’s own information and the profile is the information about the person who runs the business pages. Also, you can’t promote your profile page by advertising or selling on Facebook; you can only do that for your business/brand page.
US users need to have their bank account number, routing number, and other important information ready. You also need to have your tax information or your employer identification number ready.
In other countries, you might not be asked about these things.
Here’s what you need to do to set up a Facebook shop as your online store.
Set up a page on Facebook and shop.
Set up a Facebook page as a first step. This is not your normal profile page, as this is a Facebook account for your business. You have to make a Facebook account before you can make a page.
The owner of the account that makes the Facebook Page will be the administrator. This would be hard to do on a phone or tablet, so you should probably do it on a computer.
See this picture to learn how to make a page.
When you click “Create Page,” you’ll be taken to a page where you can fill in a few details and decide if the page is for a person or a business. Fill out the registration form with your business’s name, address, and other information.
Now, on your Facebook page’s home page, go to the left and click on the SHOP button, as shown below.
When you click that, a window will appear. Click the GET STARTED button.
Before we go any further, you may be having trouble finding the SHOP button. If it’s not there, do the following:
- Click on Preferences
- Click on Tabs and Templates.
- Scroll down and click on ADD TABS.
- Find Shop and add it; it will now be on your Home page.
We can keep setting up the shop now. After you click “GET STARTED,” you must check the box to agree to the Merchant Terms and Conditions. Click the Continue button. Next, pick how you want the customer to pay.
You can choose between Message to Buy and Check Out on Another Site. After you click “Continue,” a new window will pop up where you can choose the currency. Click SAVE now.
Now that you can see your shop, you can start adding items.
It’s important to remember that Facebook would ask different questions based on where you lived and what kind of business you chose.
If you are in the US, you may be asked to get ready your Tax Identification number. If you are making an online store, you will also need to fill out your Shipping Policy, Refunds, and Shipping options.
There are rules you should know about Facebook.
Some of these things are:
- After the order has been placed, you have three days to ship it.
- The item must be sent to the customer no later than 10 days after the order was placed.
- There should be a way to track shipping.
- You can’t ship outside of your country; you can only sell in your own.
Put in Products
Adding your products is the second step in making a Facebook Shop. You can post your items by clicking the “ADD PRODUCT” button on your shop page.
You can add photos or videos, as well as the name, price, and a description of the product.
If your product comes in different sizes and colors, just click on EDIT OPTIONS at the bottom and then click on ADD OPTIONS.
If you do this, you can start adding categories like sizes or colors and then put a price next to each one. You have to move the button to show if there are any more of the product or if you are out.
Facebook will give you a new option to add a collection page once you’ve added a product.
A collection is a group of things that all belong to the same group. You can, for example, make a collection called “Jeans.” There are different kinds of jeans in this set. How you make your collection is up to you, and it will depend on how big your inventory is.
When you add a collection, it makes it easy for a customer to find the product he wants without having to look through all of your products.
Add Payment Method
This might not be available in every country, and Facebook usually only works with Stripe. If you live in the United States, you can link a bank account where customers can put money in.
In some places, you can link your PayPal account to your bank account.
Adding a payment method is easy because all you have to do is enter your log-in information on a pop-up. Once you’ve added your PayPal or Stripe account successfully, your customer will be able to pay you right away with these services.
Facebook will ask you to set up a payment method if it is available in your country. If you can’t find a link to add a payment method, it means that Facebook doesn’t let people in your country use this feature.
When you add a bank payment method, Facebook will ask for the following information:
- Tax details
- Identification number of the employer
- Your first and last name on paper
- Routing number for a bank
- Number of bank account
- Account holder’s name
- Make sure you get all of these right, because you can’t change them later.
Managing Orders
On the left side of your shop, scroll down to see the orders and the orders that are still being processed.
If you can’t see these buttons, you need to go to the Publishing tools. Sometimes the Publishing tools button won’t show up. If that happens, just click MORE and look for it.
When you click on orders and pending orders, you’ll be taken to a page with the order details for each customer and product. This is where you have to mark it as done or ask your customer for more information if you need it.
When an order comes in, Facebook will send you a message on its own. You can’t always be at your computer, so you have to download the Facebook app to your phone so you can hear the notification.
Sell your store
The easiest way to get people to know about your Facebook shop is to ask friends and family to “like” it. Ask them to tell their friends about your Facebook page. It is easy and free.
The other way is to post about your products in Facebook groups. Find groups that are interested in the same things you are, and try to help them out. Then, get your page out there.
There are also Facebook groups for running an online business. You can post links to your products on these groups for people to see.
You can do the same thing if you go to Reddit or another forum. The problem is that many forum sites have rules about advertising.
First, you have to give their readers something of value by helping them solve some problems. After a while, you can add clickable links to your Facebook shop.
Advertising is the best way to get people to know about your shop. This can be done in a number of ways on Facebook, such as by boosting an existing post or making a new ad video or campaign. The cost is almost nothing because you can control how much you spend on advertising.
You can even advertise for as little as $5 a day. The great thing about advertising on Facebook is that you can choose where to advertise, to what age group or gender, and you can also choose who will see the ad based on their interests.
If your product or store has something to do with phones or other gadgets, you can choose people who are interested in electronics here. If you do this, Facebook will only show your product to these people, so your advertising costs will be more focused.
How to use Shopify to set up your Facebook store
You don’t have to make a Facebook shop if you already have a Shopify store. You just need to make a Facebook page for that store and connect Shopify to Facebook.
If you do this, all of the items in your Shopify store will show up on your Facebook page. But you can still choose to show all collections or just a few. On your Shopify Settings page, you can turn these on and off.
You can also choose to show your Facebook store on the Messenger app, which is a Facebook chat app. If you connect the two, a customer can look at your products on Messenger and then ask you questions.
The only time this isn’t true is if you make a NEW Facebook page for your Shopify store.
Follow these steps to connect your Shopify store to your Facebook page:
Go to your Shopify admin page and sign in.
- Find the plus sign (+) under or next to the Sales Channels section.
- Click on Add Channel, then choose Facebook. Once Facebook is chosen, click on Add Channel again.
- You’ll get a pop-up, and you’ll have to sign in to your Facebook profile page.
- Next, you have to decide which page you want to link to your Shopify store.
- If you go to that page, Facebook will look at your store.
- Most of the time, Facebook will review your store in less than 48 hours. Once your application is approved, the products in your Shopify store will automatically show up in your Facebook shop.
If your store was turned down, you may have broken one of Facebook’s rules. For example, it is against the law to sell dangerous chemicals, materials for adults, and weapons.
If you don’t think you’re breaking any of Facebook’s rules, you can write an appeal to Facebook, not Shopify.
Questions People Usually Ask
Now that you’ve set up your Facebook shop, let’s try to answer the most common questions people have.
Is there a good size for photos and a set of rules for them?
Yes, Facebook has suggested sizes for your cover photo, your profile photo, and the pictures you upload for your product posts.
In addition to its size, Facebook has rules about how people should act. For example, pictures of people without clothes or that are rude are not allowed unless they are art. You can’t also post pictures of violence or things like guns that are related to violence.
If you upload a product, you must also upload at least one image of the product itself, not an image of something else. For example, you can’t post a picture of a dress if the name of the item is “shoes.”
The product uploads don’t get released on their own. All of them will be reviewed and approved by Facebook before they are made public.
Also, you can’t post pictures that trick people. The product photo must show the whole thing, and the square resolution must be at least 1024 x 1024.
Facebook may sometimes ask you to upload a picture of how the product is used in real life. This rule is there to stop scams, like showing something huge that turns out to be a small copy of the real thing.
Facebook may also need white backgrounds, but this depends on the situation and isn’t always required.
It’s also important that your product photo doesn’t say “Call us now!” or something similar.” or “now order!”
Promo codes and offensive text, like discounts and harsh words, are not allowed. Photos with a brand watermark will also not be accepted by Facebook.
Customers can buy more than one item at a time, or they can add their orders to the FB Shopping cart.
It depends. In not all countries, you can’t use the shopping cart on Facebook. And if that happens, all you can do is:
- Have the customer send you a message through Messenger.
- If a customer clicks on a product in your Facebook shop, send him to another site.
- If shopping carts are available in your country, your customers will be able to buy many items at once and pay you directly. But without this, the Facebook shop is just a catalog and not a fully functional shopping site.
How will you sell something if you don’t have a cart?
If your country doesn’t have a Facebook payment option, the customer can send you a message, and you can ask him to pay a deposit.
This can be done in many ways. Examples are:
- Bank deposit directly
- e-Wallets like PayPal, Skrill, and Neteller
- Western Union
- Wire Transfer
- Personal meet-up
If the customer agrees, you can either wait until the payment clears and then ship the item or meet the customer in person to give them the goods they bought.
What are the rules for the things that can be sold?
You can only sell real things on Facebook. This means that you can’t sell things like MP3s, eBooks, or online courses that can be downloaded.
Alcohol, tobacco, drugs, animals, ammunition, guns, explosives, and other weapons are all against the law here.
You also can’t sell things like pornographic magazines or books for adults. Also banned are food supplements and other things that make you look good. In fact, you can’t even sell products with “before and after” pictures.
What’s the meaning? Most of the time, people post pictures of the same man or woman before and after they took a diet pill. This is a common way to show people how well the diet pill works when marketing it.
Facebook doesn’t like this because it’s not true.
You can’t sell anything that has to do with gambling, either. You can’t also promote these things. This means you can’t sell tickets to poker tournaments or other similar events. You also can’t sell tickets for the lottery.
We don’t allow subscriptions or memberships. We’ve already said you can’t sell a digital product. Your product is not allowed if it has anything to do with building a website or signing up for a course.
Products are added by hand, yes.
Yes, items are added to the Facebook shop by hand. If you have thousands of items to sell, the only way around this is to connect your Facebook shop to an existing online store that supports Facebook integration.
Shopify is an example of this, and how to do it was already talked about.
If you don’t have an online store and only use the Facebook shop to sell online, you have to work hard and sweat to get your products up there. This method isn’t new; it’s how many sites like eBay, Amazon, and Walmart do it.
You must also change your prices by hand in case you made a mistake or got them wrong. When you sell something on Facebook, you don’t have to re-upload it. It’s still there, but you have to sort of turn it back on by toggling the “in stock” button.
Conclusion
If you don’t want to build your own website, you can make a Facebook shop instead. You can set up many Facebook shops for your different businesses, and you only need one platform to manage them all.
It is very helpful because you don’t have to spend any money on it. Customers will love how simple and to the point the store is.
But you can’t use Facebook if you want an online store with all the bells and whistles. One thing you can’t do here is make coupon codes. You can’t make games like “spin the wheel” either.
Facebook is great if you want a simple way to sell your products and let people know about them. But there is still a lot to be desired, especially since you as a merchant only have a few payment options.
The good news is that Facebook is probably working on it and taking things one step at a time to make sure it does things right. If you think about it, Amazon used to be a place where people could buy books. Now, it is one of the biggest online stores, if not the biggest.