Facebook Shop: An Easy Set-Up Guide & Best Practises In Advertising

What is a Facebook Shop?

Facebook Shop is a powerful e-commerce tool integrated with Facebook. With its help, businesses can show their products to millions of people, selling them directly on Facebook or Instagram (for US shops only).

It’s a free feature with a limited country availability (you can verify if you’re eligible here), which allows you to grow your business across social networks. With Facebook and Instagram being visited almost 25 billion times every month, which is more than Amazon and Naver put together, running a Facebook e-commerce store is a great opportunity for any online business, enabling you to reach your customers where they’re present the most.

Some 8-10 years ago the main user goal for people who came to social networks was to communicate with each other – not to look for purchase inspiration. However, as social networks, along with their users, grow more focused on value and content than ever before, they become an integral part of social commerce. And data proves it.

How do Facebook Shops work?

Facebook Shop page allows you to have a catalog with an unlimited number of products for your online commerce store and get them to appear in Facebook Marketplace, giving you access to a much larger base of potential customers. You can group these products into different collections, and choose items to display to shoppers.

Customers interested in a Facebook Shop product have the option to browse related products, save them, share them, or, for US shops, buy the items directly from the app. The effortlessness of the process ensures a seamless shopping experience for the customer, improving the possibility of converting your target audience.

Your page is also fully customizable – you can choose fonts and colors for your shop to align with your brand’s style.

Another benefit of owning a Facebook Shop is that it’s linked to Messenger, Instagram Direct, and WhatsApp, which means businesses can directly and easily communicate with their customers without resorting to third-party apps.

Setting up a Facebook page doesn’t require having any preexisting online store, which means the entire operation could be run via Facebook, if that’s your business model. All you need is a Facebook account, a Facebook business page, and you’re good to get started.

How to set up a Facebook Shop?

#1 With Shopify

If you are running a digital store on Shopify, creating a Facebook Shop is incredibly easy. To link your Shopify store to Facebook, click “Facebook” in the list of Sales Channels, then choose to set up a Facebook Shop. Choose your Facebook page, and connect your account. Facebook will review your store and notify you of its decision to authorize your store, or sign in to your Shopify store to find out the verdict.

#2 With Commerce Manager

If you’re running an eCommerce store via your own website or another platform that doesn’t support Facebook integration, you’ll need to set up a Facebook Shop manually. Here’s how you can do it:

1. Go to Commerce Manager
2. Click on the Add Shop button.
   
3. Choose one of the three checkout methods (Checkout on Another Website, Checkout with Facebook or Instagram – for US-based businesses only, and Checkout with Messaging). Click Next.
   
4. If you want to sell products on Facebook business Page, choose your Page or create a new one. Skip if you want to sell on Instagram Shops only.
5. If you want to sell on Instagram, select your Instagram account.
6. Select your Business Manager account or create a new one.
   
7. Select the catalog you want to use for your shop and click Next. Please note that you won’t be able to change this catalog later.
8. Look through your shop details carefully, review and agree to the Seller Agreement, and click Finish Setup.
   
9. Go to the Overview tab and follow the advice Facebook gives you to start using your Shop effectively
   

Best Practices for Facebook and Instagram Shop

Once you have created your Facebook Shop, you can start promoting your products either organically on Facebook and Instagram, or going the paid route with dynamic, collection or storefront ads. Furthermore, Shops come with plenty of useful features that, if utilized well, could drive growth and visibility for your business across one of the most relevant social media networks. Here’s how you can make the most out of it by following Facebook Shop best practices: 

#1 Tag Your Products

Tag products from your shop in Facebook and Instagram posts to make them more interactive and attractive to users, who can like, comment on, share and save the products. The higher the engagement, the more increased your brand’s reach becomes, reeling in more potential customers.

#2 Utilize All The Available Features

Create customizable collections, showcase featured products, and interact with potential clients in Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram Direct, offering customer support. Customize your shop style to create a unique and personalized experience, and optimize your shop’s layout to decrease the bounce rate.

#3 Regularly Update Your Catalog

Keep your catalog updated, especially availability and prices. A well-stocked catalog is a sure way to keep your customers engaged, maintain a good reputation, and boost your conversion rate. For shops in the US, you can also opt for a Facebook Commerce Manager feature that allows you to add the exact number of products into the inventory details to avoid overselling your stock.

#4 Provide Accurate Titles And Descriptions For Your Products

Providing accurate titles and descriptions for products is crucial when it comes to Facebook Shops, allowing customers to learn more about your products and drive them to a purchase decision. This is where you can highlight your product’s features, main selling points, and other details that could be relevant to potential shoppers. Also, make sure your titles and descriptions are concise and easy to read.

It’s also a good idea to add brief creative descriptions to your product collections, engaging users by highlighting what makes your brand stand out against competitors.

#5 Make Sure Product Links Are Correct

Make sure your product links are leading to correct and valid landing pages, and aren’t broken. Links must direct customers to the correct product page for each item and must be hosted on your business’s website domain. Depending on how you manage the catalog, product links could be edited either manually or updated in the data feed.

#6 Regularly Check and Update Rejected Items

It’s crucial to check if any items in your catalog are rejected on a regular basis. Don’t hesitate to ask for an additional review if any items are rejected for no obvious reason (as sometimes Facebook rejects “innocent” items, too).

#7 Offer Incentives

It can be a good idea to offer incentives for your Facebook Shop visitors. Make a banner with weekly specials or a promo code in your shop. Make these offers exclusive to Facebook friends, and they will serve as great incentives for users to add the page as a friend and follow the updates closely. You could also provide incentives for referrals through coupons, special offers, and discounts, boosting sales and growing your customer base.

Going the Paid Route

Besides valuable SMM options, you can benefit from using Facebook Ads together with Facebook Shop.

Once you make a post in your feed with tagged products and a “View Shop” call-to-action, you can use it in your advertising campaigns in the Facebook Ads Manager. Use various types of goals (Engagement, Conversions, Traffic) to find out which one works best for you.

It’s important to note that tags will be available only on the social network where the post was originally published. For example, if you promote a post on Instagram, users will see it with tags only in Instagram feeds, while in Facebook feeds it will be displayed without any tags, and vice versa.

It’s also worth mentioning that Facebook is gradually introducing a new feature – Shop Ads, that will be launched directly from the Commerce Manager. The feature is meant to provide a more personalized experience to users, tailoring ads to their preferences and shopping behavior, directing them to shops, where they’re most likely to make a purchase. The feature is already available in the US, and it’s important for businesses and advertisers to keep an eye on it to be the first to benefit from the new types of Facebook and Instagram Ads.

A Look Into The Future

According to Statista by the end of 2021, we’ll have 3.78 billion social media users around the world, streaming to networks not just for communication or content consumption, but actively looking to research or purchase products or services. Advertisers and businesses should keep this trend in mind, while planning out their social commerce strategy, and consider which tools they should utilize to maximize sales and engage their audience. 

Facebook Shop is a powerful feature that has a great potential for development and uses in social e-commerce marketing strategies, that is constantly being upgraded and improved by Facebook developers. The latest update introduced the possibility to automatically tailor your shop for each customer, and even more features are to come.

With that said, at a time of the rapid growth of social media networks and e-commerce, taking advantage of Facebook Shops is a must for businesses that aim to keep up with the most recent trends of consumer behavior. Get started today and set up a Facebook or Instagram Shop to elevate your business.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. Book a consultation now!