The E-commerce boom in the Covid-19 times has been very significant. Who decided to cash in on this big boom? Facebook, of course! Facebook finally came up with its long-speculated e-commerce feature.
With its umbrella brand under which WhatsApp, Messenger, Direct, and Instagram, Facebook has made it easier for small businesses to capitalize on the e-commerce boom by making their products available for sale on Facebook and Instagram.
Combined with the already existing superpower of Facebook ads that also work through Instagram, Facebook has made it even easier and more convenient for businesses to connect to their target market online. Let’s learn more about this impeccable new feature.
What is “Shops”?
Shops on Instagram and Facebook are story-like formats applicable for both the Facebook business page and an Instagram profile. Here you can provide an immersive new storefront experience to your users on their fast-loading mobile devices.
The thing about approaching e-commerce through your own website is a handful, but if you are looking to move some product and want to do it soon, you can utilize this tool.
Brands find it easier to build an audience on social media platforms because it is easier to target your market. The modern customer often likes being marketed just the right product at the right time when they are casually strolling through their social feed, and an ad shows up. With the shop feature, people can also buy items from the storefront as soon as they like.
How does it Work?
You can set up shop for both Instagram and Facebook through your Facebook business account once you link the two. Once your account is approved and eligible, you can create collections in the commerce manager. These product collections are ideal when you’re looking to add a theme to your store and group similar products together.
You can add about 60 products to one collection. Since the shop feature can be linked easily to your business’s Instagram profile, you can send people directly to your shop through stories or posts. The view shop button gives a straightforward CTA to people.
Currently, Facebook Shop is in the rollout phase and is soon expected to engulf the entire market with this super convenient new feature.
Process of Setting up a Shop
First of all, you need to activate the shop tab on Facebook. This requires you to change the template of your Facebook page to a shopping template.
- On settings, click on “Templates and Tabs.”
- Click on “Edit”
- Pick a template of your choice and apply it
After your shop template is activated, you can add products in bulk or manually one by one. After this, you must create product collections. Collections are great to categorize and make it easier for your customers to find and buy products. Here’s how to create a collection.
- On the Shop tab, click on “Add Collection.”
- Decide whether you want it to be publicly visible and do you want to feature it as the first thing on your Facebook shop
- Click Save
You can add as many as 30 products to a collection, but only the first 10 will be visible to your customer on the page.
The next step is to tag products and make them more visible across the page. This way, you can market the products better on your social media. You can tag the products on your posts, videos, and stories, with content formulated especially for marketing specific products.
- After uploading a picture or video, click the “Tag Products” icon
- Ensure that the post’s content is relevant to the product; for example, tag your apparel in a post where it is featured or modeled.
- Click Publish
With all these new features, Facebook has branched into the E-commerce market and will soon take it by storm. After acquiring famous platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp, Facebook has made it even easier for small and medium businesses to integrate all their marketing content and selling platform on familiar apps which practically everyone uses. So it is the right time to be in the E-commerce business, thanks to Facebook!
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*************This blog is compiled by Divyanshu Gupta*************