How To Start Selling on Facebook 

Facebook has come a long way since it was first launched in 2004. Originally a College networking platform, Facebook is now used by over 2 billion active users a day and is a fantastic tool for both businesses and consumers.

One of the more recent improvements to the Social Media platform was the ability to browse and purchase products without leaving the trusted haven of Facebook. Listing products on Facebook enables businesses to reach their consumers in a place they are already actively spending their time, rather than waiting for them to visit their website.

Of course, marketing to customers on Facebook has been a part of the marketing plan for years now but actually selling to customers is a whole new task to master. If you’re looking to utilise Social Selling through Facebook, then you’ll need to understand Commerce and Catalogue Manager. Luckily, we’re here to help differentiate the two.

What Is Commerce Manager?

Commerce Manager is a platform within Facebook where you can set up your ‘Shop’ and manage sales on both Facebook and Instagram. Here you can choose whether customers complete their purchase on Facebook or Instagram, via a Direct Message or on your website – this decision will impact other features in Commerce Manager. 

Within Commerce Manager, you will be able to manage your ‘Collections’ which is how you group relevant products (or services) and see a summary of your sales. You will also be able to look at your Catalogue and fix any issues or actions suggested by Facebook. Facebook will give you insights about your customers and most populate items so that you can explore additional ways to advertise them, such as Facebook and Instagram Ads.

It’s important to note that if you opt to have a ‘Checkout’ on Facebook or Instagram, you will incur a selling fee to Facebook. 

Who Has Access To Commerce Manager?

To meet the eligibility requirements, you must have a Facebook or Instagram shop, abide by the Seller and Commerce Policies and provide Facebook with key information such as:

• Your Facebook Page
• Your Commerce Account 
• A Catalogue With Items To Sell

Businesses with checkout must provide additional information:

• Business Category and Type
• Bank Account Details for Payments
• A Tax Registration Number 
• A Tax Identification Number 
• The Business Representative’s Personal or Business Identity Information (to verify the authenticity of the business)
• Delivery Options / Returns Policy 
• Customer Service Email 

What Is Catalogue Manager?

As above, you will need a Catalogue with products to sell before you can create a Shop in Commerce Manager. A Catalogue will contain all of the information about your products, such as Name, Price, Description and Availability. 

To create a Catalogue, visit: www.facebook.com/products and select ‘Add Catalogue’. 

First, you will need to choose the most relevant category for your products:

Then, you can choose how you’re going to upload stock to your Catalogue, whether that’s manual, in bulk, via the Facebook Pixel or by connecting an E-Commerce platform (more on that later).

Once you ‘Finish’ creating your Catalogue, you can start adding your products. Within Catalogue Manager, you can also connect a Pixel to track Events.

Connecting E-Commerce Platforms

As above, you can choose to update your Facebook Catalogue via an E-Commerce Platform. Facebook is integrated with a handful of sites, but two of the main choices are Shopify and WooCommerce.

Shopify 

If you’d like to connect your Shopify account to Facebook, you will have to log in to Shopify and install the Facebook channel. This will be activated after you’ve set up Instagram Shopping, a Facebook Shop or Facebook Marketing on Shopify.

This will allow Shopify access to your Facebook Business Manager, Ad Account and Page. You can also connect your Facebook Pixel to Shopify to better track your sales conversions.

WooCommerce 

Connecting WooCommerce to Facebook will allow you to sync your WooCommerce Catalogue to Facebook and enable customers to browse your products from within your Facebook Shop or Catalogue Ads.

To do so, download the extension from Facebook for WooCommerce. You can do this by going to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin and launch the ZIP file. Click ‘Install Now’, then ‘Activate’ and ‘Configure’. 

You will then need to go to Marketing > Facebook and click ‘Get Started’.

Once you have connected your accounts, you can choose for your products to sync to Facebook periodically as and when your products update within WooCommerce. You can also select products that shouldn’t sync with Facebook if needed as well as additional information such as your product description and which product image and price should be shown.

How To Create A Facebook Shop

You can access Commerce Manager here: Facebook Shop and select ‘Add Shop’.

You can then connect your shop to a business account and choose which channel to sell from out of Facebook, Instagram or both.

Now, you will be prompted to select a catalogue with the products you’d like to appear in your shop. Finally, you will be able to see a preview of your shop before completing.

Within your Shop, you can create collections that include two or more related products. For example, you may have a festive or seasonal range that works well together so by grouping them in one place, and you could encourage users to purchase more than one item. You can then add a featured collection to customise the look and feel of your shop and optimise your brand exposure.

It’s important to note that Facebook will need to review your Shop and collections so they may take up to 24 hours to show publicly. Before you start selling on Facebook, you must review Facebook’s Commerce Product Merchant Agreement, found here.