A few days ago (May 19, 2020) Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of the social network Facebook, announced the gradual launch of the shop feature for businesses, both on Facebook and Instagram.
The goal is to help small and medium-sized businesses in this difficult economic period caused by the Covid-19 pandemic with a completely on-platform purchasing experience. So, allow anyone, even small business owners, to easily connect with customers and potential customers and make sales easier.
How does Facebook Shop work?
Each Facebook page will have the ability (starting this summer for the US market, by the end of the year for Italy) to easily and free of charge create a single store to allow customers to purchase, both from Facebook and Instagram .
Companies can choose which products to include in their catalog (further on in the post you will find the list of unauthorized products/services) and customize the style of the shop with images, colors and fonts.
The shop's functions will be like those of a complete e-commerce : browse the collections, place an order, save the products you are interested in, manage shipments. Customer care will also be well developed: it will be possible to communicate with your customers via WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram Direct.
Another available function will be related to live: it will be possible to buy in real time during live broadcasts . The products will then be shown at the bottom of the video, and the user with a simple click will be able to access them to learn more or buy.
What products can I sell with Facebook Shop?
Facebook has been very clear about the products that cannot be sold through the new feature, and they are: services, medicines, subscriptions, downloadable content, alcohol, adult products, animals, body parts or fluids, job offers, supplements, explosives, weapons, ammunition and poisons.
In the meantime, how to sell on Facebook?
The shop function is not yet available in Italy so Facebook itself recommends, especially to small businesses, the use of its partners such as Shopify and Woocommerce.
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