One of the main concerns brands have towards social media (atleast in India) is – will it boost my sale? We have been asked similar questions in some client meetings. It’s proved time and again that selling is not the main use of social media, though sales can be subtly and smartly achieved using social media platforms. However, now it is going to be easier and convenient to sell your products on Facebook with it’s latest Facebook Shop Section. On 31st May 2016, Facebook introduced its shop section on business pages where brands can feature and directly sell their products.
The Facebook Shop section includes:
Merchandising: Product showcase with “Featured Products”
Purchase: Shop section has a message button to the product. So if your customer wants to know details of the products or other queries regarding the purchase, they can directly message you.
Subscribe: This feature allows people to subscribe to your Facebook shop so whenever you introduce a new product, discontinue some products, customers will be notified.
Advertising: Using this feature, brands can create Facebook ads for their products. This will help to boost the selected products from your shop.
Why is this great for small businesses?
This feature allows brands to feature & sell their product directly to the users. Also, it is completely free. So now brands can refrain from sharing product images, website / buy now links every now & then on the page. Generally, the small brands have a loyal fan following on social media if it’s a local shop or it’s convenient over other brands. So it gives brands to share other things with users apart from just product shots, like – work life pictures, manufacturing process, interesting stories about the company, people with their users – present and potential customers. This actually leads to more engagement on the page that helps the brand in the long run. Shop tab is located on the top of the Facebook page along with other tabs like – timeline, photos, about etc.
Facebook has partnered with a payment processing company named Stripe for managing the payments received to the brands. Read more about Stripe and creating a payment account for your Facebook shop section.
To set up Shop Section –
Click the Add a Section link.
Click Add Shop Section.
Read terms & policies carefully and then continue.
Facebook might ask you to enter your password for security reasons.
You’re ready with your shop section. Add the products. For a detailed guide for the Shop section, click here.
