As if online shopping wasn’t already a popular activity for millions of Americans, the recent shutdown spawned by the COVID-19 pandemic has made e-commerce not only convenient, but necessary for many.

Small business owners, take heart. This can be good news if you use the resources available to you. The push to stay home is driving more people to the Internet to make many of their essential purchases. It is becoming increasingly common for folks to buy everything from food to school supplies to clothing without ever leaving their homes.

Facebook Shops is making the shift to e-commerce particularly easy not only for shoppers, but for business owners.

Is Facebook Shops Right for Your Local Business?

how to set up facebook shops page

Here are several reasons to use Facebook Shops for your local business.

1 - Facebook offers a wide reach to potential customers.

Did you know Facebook has over 2.6 billion active monthly users? You’ll be hard-pressed to find another e-commerce outlet with such a consistently wide reach. Facebook is where many of the world’s conversations and interactions are taking place, which makes it an excellent placement for your product.

Additionally, over three-quarters of Americans have found retail products thanks to Facebook. Most of us are so used to seeing ads and product recommendations as we scroll that we don’t even stop to consider just how prolific a resource it is for entrepreneurs. I know many people who have purchased products they wouldn’t have purchased if they hadn’t seen the products on Facebook.

2 - Most of your potential customers are already there.

As I mentioned above, there are billions of people already using Facebook on a regular basis. There’s a good chance that almost everyone you know has (or has had) an active Facebook account.

This means that instead of figuring out how to drive those billions of users to your shop’s website, you can bring your shop right to Facebook where those users are already actively scrolling each day.

3 - Facebook Shops offers an easy onboarding process.

As a retailer, you can create your catalog of products within the Facebook Shops platform and easily customize the look and feel of your shop to maintain consistency with your brand.

According to Forbes, you can also integrate your catalog into Facebook if it already exists elsewhere. If you choose to process sales through your existing platform (for example, through WooCommerce or Shopify), Facebook waives the transaction fee. Speaking of transaction fees…

4 - They have lower transaction fees than eBay or Amazon.

If you don’t have an existing catalog and choose to use Facebook’s Checkout feature, you’ll pay a 5-percent processing fee. No sweat. It’s still a lower processing fee than what eBay and Amazon charge.

5 - Customers can easily purchase within the platform.

Depending on whom you ask, convenience is king when it comes to online buying. If your current e-commerce platform complicates the buying process by requiring too many steps, a potential customer might get frustrated and abandon the cart.

With Facebook Shops customers can easily make purchases within the platform, which means fewer steps for them and higher likelihood of a sale for you.

Because there are so many people using Facebook, there can also be a lot of noise. That’s why it’s crucial to maintain brand consistency and create clear and visually enticing product listings so your business can stand out from the crowd. If you do this, you’ll have a good chance of increasing your sales growth despite fewer in-store customers.

Check out our infographic below for more details on how to set up a Facebook Shop for your local business.

how to use facebook shops for local business

 

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