Facebook Shops for Business: Setting Up Your Online Store

Online shopping is becoming increasingly popular as the online world evolves. People are enjoying the benefits of Internet shopping and even spend more on online than offline purchases. With that, Facebook launched its newest feature in 2020—Facebook Shops. 

How to Set Up a Facebook Shop

If you can remember, Facebook started a Marketplace in 2016. It’s a platform for buying and selling within Facebook users’ local communities. Now, you may confuse Facebook Shops with Facebook Marketplace. The main difference between the two is the way products are advertised. In a marketplace, you’ll see a general list of products based on your location. Facebook Shops is more brand-oriented, which means that owners have control over product listings, promotions, and customer engagement. It’s like an extension to your Facebook business page. 

You might wonder: how do Facebook shops work? This guide will show you why Facebook Shops is a good addition to your business’ marketing strategy. If you haven’t created a shop yet, don’t worry—you’ll learn the entire process here. We’ll begin by getting to know Facebook Shops. 

An Introduction to Facebook Shops

Digital shops are among Facebook’s recent drive to empower online selling and support small businesses. The platform is most convenient for small-scale sellers who can’t afford to build concrete stores as big retailers do. Moreover, Facebook decided to roll out this feature because many brands were migrating online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

You may ask: is a Facebook shop free? Yes, the platform is free and available to all. You only need to pay for ad sales and boosting customer engagement but it’s entirely up to you. After all, Facebook Shops’ main goal is to create a seamless shopping environment for Internet shoppers. Instead of redirecting your consumers to different websites to buy your products, you can do all the transactions on a single platform. However, some brands would still opt for purchases to be done on their official website. 

Why Setting Up a Shop is a Good Idea

Now that we’ve introduced the concept of Facebook Shops, let’s discuss why it’s a good addition to your business’ marketing strategy. 

Facebook Shops is open and available to all kinds of businesses—from small to at-home, to large retailers. You don’t have to reach a threshold to be considered a viable business. This option is good for everybody, even if your business is just a side hobby. It’s also beneficial to large retailers who got tired of traditional advertising and want to reach online buyers more conveniently. Additionally, if you set up a Facebook shop, you have a ready audience in the form of Facebook users. 

We all know that Facebook’s biggest advantage on advertisers is its number of users. Currently, the platform has around 2.7 billion active users and it’s continuously growing. These users could be potential consumers—an untapped market and a goldmine for any retailer. Facebook Shops is sure to draw more potential buyers, especially as it promises a seamless shopping experience for all. 

Facebook as an Online Mall

With the ongoing pandemic, social media is becoming more of a hangout place for people. This case was highly transparent when restrictions were imposed and most physical gatherings were forbidden. Therefore, it’s no coincidence that most physical shops are set-up on a platform where people congregate and hang-out. 

Think of malls, for example. Before COVID-19 forced the shutdown of establishments, it was normal to hang-out at the mall. People love having what they need near them. Thirsty? There’s a fruit stand on the corner. Need a new outfit? There’s a row of shops ready to help you find one. Sometimes, you don’t even know what you want until you see it in the mall. Facebook Shops operates on the same principle, except it’s all online and the mall in this case is a social media behemoth. 

Moreover, Facebook Shops is easy to create and update. There’s no need to worry about building a site from scratch—the platform got you covered. You just need good product photos, social media advertising plan, and customer engagement skills to promote and sell your products. Facebook Shops also provides analytics to businesses. You’ll see all the details in one dashboard—demographics, customers’ purchasing behavior, engagement rate, reach, and other key metrics. 

Now, if you wish to use another tool for your eCommerce analytics, you may check our Casting Asia review. 

Setting Up a Facebook Shop

After discovering the nitty-gritty of Facebook Shops and its benefits to businesses, you may ask: how do I set up a shop on Facebook? Are there any Facebook shop fees? Here’s how to get started with the platform. 

Own a Facebook Business Page

Technically, you can’t create a Facebook shop if you don’t have a business page. Unlike the Marketplace, you can’t directly advertise products using your personal account. Facebook Shops is targeted towards a larger consumer base; hence everything should be business-related. Again, it’s like an extension to your page and the official online store of your company. 

Pro Tip: Grow your page followers first before creating a shop. That way, you’ll be merely redirecting your fans to your online store and expect a higher audience reach. You may also tap on influencers to help promote your business page and shop. Look for influencer tools online or check out our Join review to connect with relevant creators.

Be a Business Manager Admin

Having your own page doesn’t automatically mean that you can create a shop. Another thing to ensure when you set up a Facebook shop is that you’re a Business Manager admin. This enables you to manage your pages, catalogs, messages, and ads all in one place. Most pages are co-owned by other users—whether your employees or business partners. And not all admins are managers, some are contributors while others are editors. So, make sure you have the main control and assign yourself as a Business Manager admin. 

Have a Commerce Manager Account

Commerce Manager is the official site for creating a Facebook shop. With this platform, businesses can choose whether purchases will be completed on Facebook, their website, or through direct messages. Commerce Manager provides different tools, including catalog management, a summary of sales activities, and customer insights. Like a Facebook page, you can’t create a shop if you don’t have a Commerce Manager account. 

Note: Commerce Manager isn’t accessible on mobile. The platform requires a laptop or desktop to set up an account.     

Create Your Shop

Now, this is where the main process begins. Say you already have a Facebook page, created a Commerce Manager account, and configured all the necessary permissions, you can now proceed to your shop creation.

Follow these steps:

• Go to the Commerce Manager page.
• Select Create A Shop and it will then prompt you to get started. 
• Fill in the necessary details. The first thing you’ll see is an option where your customers can complete their purchase. It could be your website, Facebook, or a direct message.
• After selecting a purchase option, you’ll then need to put your business information, inventory and shipping preferences, and payouts. 
• Your account name will be in the Business Information section. You’ll also link your Facebook page here. 
• The Inventory and Shipping Preferences section allows you to add a return policy, set delivery options, and create a catalog.
• The Payouts is the more detailed section. This is where you need to indicate your business’ email and physical addresses, select your business category, link your bank account, and include your tax information. 
• You’ve now created your Facebook shop! It’s time to customize it and add products. 

Few notes on creating your shop:

• If you’re an admin of different pages, you have to choose which pages you’d like to create a shop for. If you want, you can create a shop for all of your business pages. But we’d suggest doing it one at a time, so you don’t feel overwhelmed by multitasking all your online stores. 
• Once you’ve linked a page to your shop, you need to agree to the terms and conditions. We suggest reading this thoroughly. While it’s common to just click Agree, you still need to double-check what you’re agreeing to and be aware that the platform will have access to all your sensitive information. 
• In the payment processing details, Facebook uses Stripe. If you don’t have a Stripe account, you’ll need to sign up for one. Stripe is used by many big marketers such as Shopify and Amazon.

Customizing Your Shop

Just recently, Facebook allowed its users to customize their shops. It helped businesses to give their shops a more personalized feel and choose a design that’s more fitting to their branding. 

To get started, click Edit on your Facebook shop page. You’ll see the Layout and Style buttons on the top-left. By selecting these buttons, you can now add or remove your collections and resize your product titles. You may also customize your buttons by changing their colors or reshaping them.

Adding Products and Creating Collections

If you’re wondering how to add products to Facebook Shop, you may do it in three different ways: manual, through your Facebook page, or through an eCommerce store. It’s going to take more time if you’ll add it manually since you’ll be starting from scratch. Just make sure you have all the photos in place, the product name list, and the price for each item. 

On the other hand, if your products are already available on your business page, then you won’t have to do anything. They’ll automatically be placed in your shop. The same is true for an eCommerce store. For example, if your business is also on Shopify, you can directly import your products there to your shop. Just make sure to set up the Facebook Shop channel in your Shopify account. 

When you create collections, you need to group your products according to color, season, special offers, product type, and other varieties. You need to ensure that your shop is organized and your customers won’t have a hard time looking for what they want. You can add up to 30 products per collection and create a featured collection. 

When all of these processes are done, you may now publish your shop. Facebook will review the details and your shop will be visible within 24 hours.   

How Can I Promote My Facebook Shop?

The business doesn’t stop after creating your shop. If you want to yield good results within a short time, you need to promote your online store. Now, you may ask: how much does a Facebook shop cost? Again, the platform is free but Facebook gets revenue from paid ads and boosting costs. 

You only need to follow five steps to promote your shop:

• Select a product or catalog you want to promote and click the Boost button under it.
• Choose your audience. Like a Facebook page, you can create different audience groups based on demographics, age, gender, location, interests, and behaviors. 
• Set your budget. Normally, Facebook allows a minimum of $1 per day. But if you want a higher reach and engagement, you can directly begin at $5-$10 per day. Don’t forget to choose your currency when you set your budget. 
• Set the duration for your promotion. It could be three days, one week, or two months—depending on your campaign. If your product is seasonal, you may re-boost it every two weeks while increasing your budget. 
• Launch and measure the results. Make sure your product is getting enough reach, engagements, and sales. 

Are you ready to create your own Facebook shop?

Having a Facebook shop is a great way to reach a larger audience with less hassle. It’s free to create and provides you with a variety of options. Facebook Shops is great for all types of businesses—whether big or small. You can even set it up anywhere in the world. For example, you can learn how to set up a Facebook shop in the United Kingdom even if you cater to clients abroad. You just need your computer, a stable Internet connection, and your guts and you’re pretty much set.

If you want to explore more about growing your brand on Facebook, you may read our post about “Facebook and Small Business: Expert Tips for Marketers.” Take your shot and start increasing your sales online!