There were numerous Facebook buy/sell groups prior to the launch of Facebook Marketplace. It appears Facebook’s decision to enter the e-commerce market was a wise one.
Facebook Marketplace is an increasingly popular way to sell items online because, unlike eBay, it does not charge seller fees, making it safer and more convenient than traditional yard sales and flea markets.
In other words, what exactly is Facebook’s Market?
Facebook released the Marketplace in 2016, and it became a popular place for people to find, buy, and sell goods quickly. Craigslist is an American classifieds site where people can sell or buy things online or in person. Compared to Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace is a safer and easier-to-use platform for local sales.
It’s a built-in buying and selling channel on Facebook that lets people sell things directly to each other. Now, Facebook is making itself even more different from Craigslist by letting eligible sellers offer nationwide delivery for certain types of products. This gives them more customers than sellers who only deliver locally.
Locally, it works very well because it’s easy to look at both free and paid goods that you might be interested in. Before Marketplace, people bought, sold, traded, and bartered through Facebook groups.
For example, you could start a buy-and-sell group for your neighborhood so that people in your area could post items they want to sell and look for other people’s items. It’s a bit awkward, though, considering that Marketplace has a much easier way to do things.
People think of Marketplace as a place to sell and buy used household items because it started out as a place for people to buy and sell things in their own communities.
Its ability to ship also makes it a good place for retail arbitrage, which is the practice of buying popular items from stores and selling them online for a higher price.
Why Should I Pick Facebook?
It can be used to sell for free in the neighborhood. One of the best things about selling things on Facebook Marketplace is that people can use their platform to do so for free.
When you sell something locally, you get the full price. When you sell something that needs to be shipped, you pay 5% of the price. You can either pay for the freight yourself or ask the buyer to pay for it.
Even with the 5% fee and possible shipping costs, this is still a lot less than other markets. Some marketplaces take 10% to 15% of the sale price as a fee for helping to organize the sale.
Another reason is that a lot of people are looking for things on Facebook Marketplace. Facebook didn’t give out exact numbers, but a report said that more than 800 million people use the Facebook Marketplace every month around the world. Most people in developed countries have Facebook accounts, and most of them can use Facebook Marketplace.
As the owner of an online store, you might wonder if you can show off your products on Facebook Marketplace. When Facebook Marketplace was first added, it wasn’t meant to be a place for online shopping or dropshipping.
Its main goal was to let people on Facebook list things for sale and sell them to other people on Facebook. In 2019, Facebook has started adding a number of features to Facebook Marketplace that will make it easier for eCommerce businesses to sell goods on the platform. This is because online shopping is becoming more and more popular.
With these new features, U.S. retailers now have a huge business-to-customer (B2C) opportunity. But only US eCommerce companies can use the official listing partner platform to list their products on Facebook’s Marketplace.
If your eCommerce business is outside of the United States, you can still list products on Facebook Marketplace, but you won’t be able to use features like Facebook checkout. It won’t be too disappointing if you use the listing feature to get people to visit your online store.
Also, you can only use all of the features if you list your item on Facebook Marketplace through one of Facebook’s partners. Among these are popular eCommerce platforms like Shopify, which is the most popular.
In short, the main reasons to sell on Facebook Marketplace are that it’s cheap and you can reach a lot of potential buyers. With so many people on Facebook, it will be fun to see so many people coming to your store to increase the number of orders.
With the help of dropship-empire, the official AliExpress white list partner, and the app in the Shopify APP Store, it can be easy and quick to fulfill orders.
How to Sell on Facebook Marketplace: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners
- Click Marketplace in the menu that runs down the left side of your homepage.
- Click on Create New Listing
- Pick the type of listing for your goods.
Fill in the information about your goods. Click Next, check the information to make sure it’s correct, and then click Publish to move on.
Your product is now for sale on Facebook. Putting an item up for sale and making it public is easy, right? You won’t have to spend that much time on the whole thing.
How to Make Your Sale Go Well:
The more likely it is that your item will sell, the better the picture of it. People want to see it as clearly as possible, so get a true color picture and describe any damage (if there is any) in the photos.
Also, think about showing the item from the front, the side, and the back. When people go to check out, they are more likely to buy if they know more.
On Facebook’s Marketplace, buyers often try to get a better deal. Think about your bottom line before you set a price, and be willing to negotiate if someone offers a little less than the price you’ve set.
Most of the time, it’s better to be flexible and take a fair offer than to wait and ask for a few dollars more. If you decide to list your item at the lowest price you are willing to accept, make it clear in the listing that the price is not negotiable.
Deals on Facebook Marketplace tend to move quickly, so as you list items, it’s important to keep an eye on your messages. As soon as possible, answer the interested buyer’s questions or talk about a price.
If you don’t answer the question within 24 hours, the buyer may have bought a similar item from someone else.
Compare the price of the item you want to sell with the prices of other items that are similar. What do people around you sell? How are their things different from yours? If you can’t compete, you won’t sell.
Selling on Facebook Marketplace: Pros and Cons
Facebook Marketplace is like a place where all of the trading and selling groups on Facebook are put together. Users can post pictures of things they want to sell, and other users can buy from them. Easy enough. Here, we’ll talk about what’s good and bad about Facebook Marketplace.
PROS:
- Added more potential buyers
Facebook has more than 1.85 billion daily users, so it’s a great place for sellers who want to reach a large audience or buyers who want to find specific items. Because it is based on where you are, people can buy big items without having to pay a lot for shipping.
As a business owner, you can attract potential customers by listing the items you have in stock, linking them to your website, or giving them the address of your storefront.
- Transactions are safer
Both buyers and sellers can use their Facebook accounts to buy and sell on Facebook Marketplace. Even these can be faked, but at least you can look at the person’s profile to see when they’ve been on Facebook, what they’ve done on Marketplace before, and so on. (You can also tell them if you think something is strange.)
Because people have to answer for their actions, the Marketplace is a safer place to buy and sell things. There are no guarantees, and I don’t have any data to back up this idea. I’m just saying that people are less likely to make shady deals when they put their name and face on something.
- Better Mobile Phone Experiencn
When you tap the Marketplace icon in the Facebook app, you go to a local list where you can start scrolling through the items right away. You can also quickly sort listings by where they are or how far away they are, by category, or by price.
If you just want to look at the free stuff, you can click the “free” button. If you have your phone with you, it’s so simple and easy to change your listing.
The better your listing looks, the more likely it is to sell. For example, it’s easy to make your listing look better by adding and organizing up to 10 photos that buyers can look at.
- Convenient Transportation
Who will pay for shipping is up to you. The platform makes it easy and cheap for buyers to make and print shipping labels.
If you pay, the shipping costs are taken out of the sales right away. There will be less trouble with shipping between sellers and buyers, making the whole buying process easier.
CONS:
- Not-Outstanding B2B
Facebook doesn’t have as much experience in the online marketplace as Amazon and other e-commerce sites, so it can’t offer online sales stores or B2B services that are better than those of Amazon and other sites.
- Negotiation That Takes Time
Since Facebook Marketplace doesn’t have a delivery system, most people who want to buy or sell local goods have to meet in person. Getting into a fight over where scheduled meetings will take place can waste time and even be dangerous for both sellers and buyers.
How to Sell More Effectively
Be sure to add tags to your items. There is a tag box at the bottom of each listing. Here, you should put anything that someone might type into the search box to find your listing.
If it’s an electric fan, the tags could say “electric fan,” “desk fan,” etc. This makes it more likely that people who are looking for similar products will see it and buy it quickly.
If you want to start dropshipping on Facebook Marketplace but don’t have an online store yet, you can do so with some other Apps or platforms. You can start selling directly on Facebook Marketplace even if you don’t have a website.
If you have the required features, you can use some of the tools Facebook gives you to process payments, such as on-site checkout and order management tools. You can also use a partner from Facebook’s list to keep track of your inventory.
You can find products on AliExpress and use dropship-empire’ CSV function, which is designed for people who don’t have a website or online store to sell products, to help with your order.
If you want to start your own online store and sell things, here is a step-by-step guide.
You can make paid ads to show on Facebook Marketplace with the AD Manager tool. Design and make ads, set budgets for each day, and choose where your ads will be shown.
If you choose automatic placement (Facebook recommendations), Facebook will put it on Marketplace, Facebook and its news feed, Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network. Advertisements have labels that say “Sponsored by” so that people know they are ads.
Last Words
Facebook is no longer just a place to talk to friends or keep teens busy. It has moved into social commerce and is not going back. Imagine you’re a business owner who wants to get more customers, a seller who needs to make room in their garage, or a collector who wants to find something unique. In this case, you can use Facebook Marketplace to find what you need.
As soon as you sell your first thing on Facebook, you’ll want to keep doing it. This platform makes shopping easy for both buyers and sellers because it is easy to use.
You can sell things from your home on the same day with just a Facebook account. I hope that this thorough guide will help you start selling on Facebook Marketplace.