ABDKFacebook has recently announced Facebook Shops to help small businesses. Now, Customers can browse and buy directly from the Facebook page or Instagram profile.
During this pandemic, every business/retailer is trying to create their digital presence to be able to survive. Facebook has developed a new tool which allows you to create your shop online on Facebook.
Facebook has been used for commerce since the early days when users used to post a picture of the product and write “For Sale” and then sharing the products on the Facebook page to attract customers. Which is widely adopted by businesses and termed as Social Commerce.
How Facebook Shops Work
Facebook Shops are a set of free tools to create online stores on Facebook and Instagram, You have to add the items you want to feature, merchandise with product collection and tell your brand story with customizable fonts and colours.
Customers can connect with businesses through WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram to ask their queries, get support, track deliveries in the Facebook shops.
Facebook said in a blog post
We’re also working with partners like Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Channel Advisor, CedCommerce, Cafe24, Tienda Nube and Feedonomics to give small businesses the support they need. These organizations offer powerful tools to help entrepreneurs start and run their businesses and move online. Now they’ll help small businesses build and grow their shops on Facebook and use our other commerce tools.
Facebook also said
We’ll also be adding features across our apps, like Instagram Shop, live shopping features and loyalty programs to help people discover and shop for things they love.
Facebook shops are visible on the Business Facebook page or Instagram profile or discoverable through stories and ads. Customers can browse all the products of the store, save products they are interested in and can place an order on the Facebook app or business website.
Facebook Shops Features
- Facebook page shop or Instagram profile shop will automatically be converted into a shop
- If you have Facebook page and Instagram profile connected you will have a shared storefront on both Facebook and Instagram
- Create collections to attract customers and customize your shop
- Organize your products into collections with different styles
- Showcase your brand and products in a native mobile experience using Facebook shops
- Unified presence on Facebook and Instagram
How to Create Facebook Shop on Facebook
Most businesses have already have a Facebook page and must be sharing their products so far, follow the steps below to create your Facebook Shop if you are interested in using Facebook Shop features:
- Open your Business Facebook Page or Create a new Facebook Page
- Click on Shop Tab from the Tabs Menu
- Accept Facebook Merchant Terms and Policies
- Select Checkout Method
- Select your Currency
- Click Add product
- Fill the details and click Add Product
- Add as many products as you want
As soon as you create your shop on Facebook and add at least one product that gets approved, your customers will be able to see your shop on your Facebook page.
You can also showcase your products as Featured Collection and share it on Facebook and Instagram. Follow the steps below to create a collection:
- Click Create Collection
- Add details of your products and cover image and click Next
- Add product one by one or Select multiple products and click Next
- click Confirm Details
- After creating collections, Select collection under Featured Collections and style them as you want
How to Activate Facebook Shop on any Page
If you didn’t get the Shop Tab, that might be because you are not using the Shopping template for your Facebook Page. You will never get the Shop Tab if you don’t change your page’s template to Shopping. Follow the steps below to change the Facebook page template.
- Open your Facebook Page
- Go to Page Settings
- Click Templates and Tabs
- Click Edit to change the current template
- Select Shopping Template (Click View Details and Apply Template)
- You will also see a Shop Tab in the tabs section under Templates and Tabs settings
- Open your Facebook page again and you will see a Shop Tab.
Follow the steps above to create a shop and add products.
Conclusion
Facebook shops can be set up on one platform and can be accessed from both Facebook and Instagram. It is simple and free to create a Facebook shop.
In the future, customers will be able to shop within a WhatsApp chat, Messenger or Instagram Direct and order a product.
If you still didn’t get the Shop Tab, you will likely get it in the coming month. Soon, Instagram Shop, live shopping will also be integrated with Facebook shops.
Facebook will roll out an Instagram shop, starting from the US to discover and buy products from the Instagram Explore.
Businesses will also be able to tag products from Facebook shops to live video where they can probably explain the features of the product to allow their viewers to buy live, hence live shopping.
Facebook is not inventing anything new with Facebook Shop rather it is trying to tap into a market which is already available on their platform. Many stores sell their products through Facebook but currently Facebook never offered them tools to make it simple. As of now many stores have to rely on external websites where they send their customers but with Facebook Shop, businesses will be able to showcase their product and close the deal right inside Facebook through this new launch. How useful it turns out to be for businesses can not be assessed at the moment and only time will tell. What do you think about Facebook Shop and do you see any potential of this new endavour of Facebook ?
Taj S
Dr-Hack
Abdul Raziq
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