This comes as no surprise that Facebook serves to be the largest social media platform in the world. Moreover, do you doubt that the Facebook store continues to be the top consideration when businesses think of a social media platform where they can connect with their customers. Facebook lets the merchants come online and sell their products and services to the potential buyers after creating a eCommerce store on their Facebook Page.
If you take a look at the platform from a business point of view, you’d see that a lot of businesses have invested their time and efforts on Facebook, and are quite content with the same as well. From the individual entrepreneurs to the small vendors and the big brand names, everyone is busy making a strong customer relationship on Facebook by targeting the bigger masses.
Here are some of the stats that may help figure out the prominence of a Facebook marketplace:
- There are 2 billion monthly active users on Facebook. Out of this, over 1 billion daily active users. Thus, if you are looking to boost the visibility of your products, then, this is an ideal platform for you.
- 60+ million businesses have a Facebook Page. No just this, 39% of the FB users like or follow a Facebook page to receive a special offer.
- In addition to this, 32% of Facebook users engage with brands regularly.
However, everything comes with its advantages and disadvantages. So, what are the pros and cons of using F-commerce?
Pros
Multitudes of users
The biggest social network has about 1.74 billion active users every month. This itself says it all about the very first advantage of selling your products and services on the Facebook Store. For the Prestashop store owners, Prestashop FB store module is an effortless means to sync their store with the the Facebook shop. The best part of Facebook store is that all the users are interconnected some or the other way whether it is through the mutual friends or groups that they follow, shared content liked posts and more. Doesn’t this sound like a perfect place to set up a business?
Think of it as a busy street with numerous people and you being there in the middle promising to show something unusual. People would want to stop by and see what you’re showing off. Likewise, when you signup as a seller on the store, you bring the attention to your products and users will be compelled to see what you offer.
Customized page design
The very first thing after you do all the setup of Facebook store is to do things that will attract the visitors to come and see what you’ve in stock for them. If you have a customized page that is attractive and visually very appealing, visitors will surely stop by at your Facebook store. After all, the very first thing that you need to focus is on getting users to come to your Facebook store. You can do that by sending out catchy messages or sneak-peek of what you deal in and let the users do the rest.
Wider exposure
The options of “like”, “share” and “comment” is not just there for the pleasure purpose, but the hidden meaning of the same is very useful for the sellers. You might have seen sellers posting status updates and images of their products that they want to sell online. The users can like your images, comment on them and also share them with their friends by which the popularity will increase. Hence, your reach widens and so does the exposure for your products.
Direct contact with the consumers
Being a platform that lets both seller customers come together under the same roof, Facebook lets the consumers directly contact the sellers with the help of messages, video chat, voice call and even commenting on the posts updated in the thread. This is the way that consumers clear the doubts that they have regarding the product that is being showcased in the post.
Better analysis
When you update your seller page with rich content is useful for the potential customers, you will be able to get a better insight about the activities that your customers are indulging in on your page with the help of the on-site suite of analytic reporting. The different information that you are accessible to is where did your consumer log in, how long did they interact with your store, their age, and other demographics.
Integrate your website with Facebook
Facebook integration can greatly improve your search engine optimization. When you update content on your website and share the same on the social media platform, it will drive the traffic to your website in the form of backlinks.
Cons
The development cost
One of the biggest drawbacks of selling your goods on the Facebook store is the freaking expensive development cost. If you have the capability to set up the Facebook shop yourself, very well or else you would have to spend your riches to get it done.
The loading time
We all know that Facebook app is extremely heavy and takes a while to load properly. This is one thing where the consumers can change their minds and leave your store that very moment.
The store owners, these days, tend to delve in the ventures that are more fruitful. The discussion whether Facebook store is better than an online marketplace has become prominent with the increasing competition in every field. If you are in the same dilemma of choosing one, then, here are some key consideration point for you.
Which one is better: An online marketplace or a Facebook Store?
Easy of setting up
If you consider the ease of setting up, then, the latter one for sure has an upper hand. Creating a marketplace involves a lot of complexities. Even the process of setting up the basic infrastructure is easy with the availability of multi vendor marketplace extensions like Prestashop marketplace addon, Magento multi vendor marketplace extension, OpenCart marketplace module and others. Yet, the process of motivating the sellers to your site is difficult. However, with F-commerce you get a larger customer base and ease of management.
Traffic
Name any site and the traffic of Facebook will definitely be higher than it. Hence, if you are looking to expand your audience base, then, Facebook is definitely one of the ideal platforms for you.
Better customer interaction
Interacting with your customers is the key to build a lasting relationship. Whether you own an online marketplace or you sell your product as a third-party vendor on any other site, customer interaction is a must. Even in this aspect, my vote goes for Facebook marketplace. The target customers are more likely to raise a query and interact with you when they are scrolling their social media account. Moreover, creating a personal connect becomes way more easier when you interact with them on such platforms.
How can you create a Facebook Shop?
Knowband offers a feature-rich solution for the various CMS platforms in the form of Prestashop FB Store module, Magento Facebook shop extension, and other. You can integrate your store with the Facebook page of your site.
Let’s take a look at some of the edgy features of these Facebook integrators by Knowband:
- The extension offers configurable navigation menu that is easily displayed on the FB page.
- Provides the search field to search categories and products.
- The plugin also allows the e-merchants to track the performance of the pages using Google Analytics ID.
- The admin to add homepage image and logo as per his choice.
- The store admin can display featured products and categories on the FB store with great ease.
- The entire product listing is synced with the FB store at a button click.
- Clicking on the products will automatically redirect the users to the online site.
F-commerce is for sure the future of online selling. All you got to do is take a look at the pros and cons of selling at the Facebook store.
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