Facebook is one of the favorite social media platforms for brands to market their products and boost brand awareness. Now with Facebook Shops, the social media giant is making a new push into eCommerce.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many local stores have been shut. Some businesses have been permanently closed while some have stopped operating temporarily, and if the current crisis continues, a lot more businesses are going to fail.
Thus, primarily to help small scale businesses, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook shops on Tuesday. In his live stream, he said that it is important to rebuild the economy while the pandemic continues.
“If you can’t physically open your store or restaurant, you can still take orders online and ship them to people. We are seeing a lot of small businesses that never had online businesses get online for the first time,” said Zuckerberg.
He also mentioned that small businesses make up the vast majority of Facebook’s more than 8 million advertisers.
Everything you need to know about Facebook Shops
Facebook Shops make it easier for businesses to set up a single online store on both Facebook and Instagram.
From their Twitter handle, Facebook also announced that the facility will soon be available for WhatsApp and Messenger as well.
Creating a Facebook shop is really simple and involves no cost. Mark explained this by saying-
“Our business model here is ads, so rather than charge businesses for Shops, we know that if Shops are valuable for businesses they’re going to in general want to bid more for ads. We will eventually make money that way.”
Though the company has earlier allowed businesses to list their products on Facebook and Instagram, Facebook Shops has taken the online shopping experience to the next level.
It lets businesses upload their catalogs once and then they can choose the products they want to feature from their catalog. The look and feel of the shop can also be customized; brands can set a cover image and choose colors for their shop that reflect the brand.
People can explore shops on a brand’s Facebook page or Instagram account, or find them through stories or ads. From there, they can browse the brand’s total collection, save products and checkout.
The order can be placed directly from Facebook or the customers will be redirected to the business’ website. Direct checkout will only be allowed for businesses participating in Facebook’s Checkout. Facebook charges a small fee for checkout made through their platform.
With Facebook shops, users will be able to get support by dropping a message to the brand through WhatsApp, Messenger, or Instagram Direct. They can also track their order delivery from there.
The company has partnered with Shopify, BigCommerce and other platforms to support small scale businesses.
Facebook to Introduce Instagram Shop this summer
Another tweet by Facebook revealed that they would be introducing Instagram Shop in the US this summer. They will also be adding a “Shop” tab in the navigation bar later this year. It will be a brand new way for Instagram users to discover and buy products.
Brand or Influencers have been using live streaming to showcase or promote a product. Now, Facebook is making it easy to purchase products in real-time. Soon, businesses will be able to tag products from their Facebook shop before they go live, and those tagged products will be displayed at the bottom of the video, making it easy for users to tap on the product and purchase.
Want to integrate your Facebook business page to your website? Try out our FB Store module available for PrestaShop and Magento that lets you list your products on your Facebook shop and provides various customization options.
