All Posts

When Facebook started, it was a place for family and friends to connect, but it has evolved since then to be so much more. In addition to a social platform, it is a leading website used for eCommerce for small businesses to network and sell their products to a wider audience such as selling merch on Facebook.

The first step to getting started is to set up a Facebook Business page, and then you can get started selling your items to the public. Only physical items can be sold on Facebook Marketplace, so keep that in mind.

While Facebook is a great way to sell your inventory, it can also be overwhelming when you are just getting started with Facebook merch and Spreadshop. Luckily, there is a lot of information to get you started, and we have compiled our favorite tips and tricks to narrow it down to you and make it simple. Here is what you should know for selling merch on Facebook.

Facebook Marketplace, Facebook Shops, and Facebook Buy & Sell Groups

First of all, there are a lot of different ways to sell on Facebook, so it is important that you understand the many differences between all the different avenues you can take. The different ways to sell will be better for different people, so only you can know what is going to work well for your situation.

Facebook Marketplace

Facebook Marketplace sounds like it is an eCommerce platform, but you can’t actually sell products there. You can list your own products or search for products you want, but then you have to get in contact with the owner in order to arrange for payment. There are no tools for sellers to help process payment, tax calculation, or shopping carts.

Because it is more of a way to post personal ads to local people, it is not aimed at supporting business owners, just regular users who sell things occasionally. If you are trying to sell things regularly as a part of your business, then this is not going to be a great tool for you to use.

Facebook Shop

A better approach for small business owners is to create a Facebook Shop. It has the capability to be much more like an online store with checkout so customers can buy things right from your store. The only catches are that transactions are only available in the US, and there is a selling fee of either 5% per shipment or $0.40 for shipments $8 or less.

You do also have the option to create a Facebook Shop but redirect customers to a different website to make a purchase. This can save you money in fees and makes sense if you live outside the US. You can link a button to an Amazon shop, eCommerce site, Shopify store, or any other website used to sell your products.

Facebook Buy and Sell Groups

Facebook buy and sell groups are another way you can sell things online. It is different than the other avenues in several ways. For starters, it is not yours, and you rent it for the sake of advertising. You also have to manage all the listings in different buy and sell groups separately, even if it is for the same product. While this does have some benefits, it can also be time-consuming.

Research First

Before you jump into selling merch on Facebook, you want to do enough research to know you are making the right decision for the path you are taking. While you can change your tactics and make adjustments later, you don’t want to have to start all over and have wasted a lot of valuable time. It is much better to do a little research before you start because it will save you a lot of time later down the road.

In addition to knowing how you want to sell merch on Facebook, you also want to do research into the market for the product you are going to be selling and your target demographic. When you are researching the market, you should see if there is a high demand for the product you will be selling. You can also do research into how many other people are offering something similar and if you can offer anything different than them.

Making sure that there is sufficient demand for your product or that you can offer something that not many others are offering will help you avoid having a lot of unsold inventory and losing money in your business. If there are other people offering similar products in the market, then you need to make sure that there is sufficient demand to include you as well.

During this research phase, you can also gather information about your target demographic. Understanding a lot about your target audience, who they are, what they want, the struggles they are facing, and how you can help them is crucial to later develop a marketing strategy.

In addition to researching your target customers, you should research your competitors. You can look at how they price their products so you know how you can stay competitive when your products go to market. If you can’t offer a lower price than your competitors, then you should be able to explain to the consumers why your products are worth more.

Photo Use

Selling online will not be successful without quality pictures of your products. Consumers do not want to buy things online if they don’t feel confident that they know what is going to show up. Because they are not in a physical store able to see and touch the item, this means you should invest some money in pictures that will help you sell your products.

Your pictures should be professional-looking and high quality, so the product is shown clearly, and your business gives off the air of a professional company with high standards. The pictures should catch the customers’ eyes, but also give them a lot of information about your product.

You should include several pictures for each product from different angles so the customer can see all aspects of the product. There should be pictures that show all the colors, features, and size variations you offer. Showing the product in action is also a great idea if you can do it. The more your customer knows about each product they might buy, the more likely they are to make a purchase and be happy with that purchase.

One thing to keep in mind when posting pictures to Facebook Marketplace is that if you upload regularly sized images, Facebook may crop them for a preview, and no one will be able to tell what it is. You can avoid this by uploading square pictures.

Creating the Listing

When you are ready to start listing your merch to sell on Facebook, you will need to craft a listing that will appeal to your customers. Most people don’t go directly to your page to browse your items. Because they are looking for a particular item, they will search for that item and then look through all the vendors selling it to choose one.

If your product doesn’t show up near the top of the results, then you are not going to attract many customers. Optimizing your listings using SEO is how you rank higher in search results. In order to optimize each listing you create, you need to know what keywords potential customers are using most often when they search and then use those keywords in your titles and descriptions of items. You can use online tools to research keywords or look at how successful sellers are marketing their products.

Customer Service

Often, customers will reach out to a business through messenger on Facebook to ask questions before making a purchase. Because this is a live chat feature, the more responsive you can be to customers, the more sales you will make.

If you respond quickly to potential customers and answer their questions, then they are more likely to buy from you. This lets customers know that you care about them, you care about your business, and if there is an issue that you will resolve it quickly. On the flip side, if you don’t respond quickly, the person will likely go somewhere else.

Because you are a small business, you may not have the option to have 24/7 customer service available. That is okay. Respond as quickly as you can by prioritizing customer service during your day. You can also indicate on your page your customer service hours so customers will have accurate expectations when they send you a message.

Return Policies

No matter how high-quality yoru products are, there will be customers who need to return items for various reasons. Facebook lets individuals set their own return policies, so you have to make the call on when and how you accept returns. This information should be clearly stated on your Facebook page so customers can find it easily.

Making sure that they know the return policy will help you because you will have fewer customer service issues, and it will also make buying from your store a more enjoyable experience for your customers. Unhappy customers who aren’t aware of the return policy will not buy from you again and may also tell other people about their negative experiences as well. Mitigating these problems through good communication is essential.

Using Groups

Because of the social nature of Facebook, it is important that you engage with the community to be successful. There are numerous groups and pages on Facebook that are specially designed for people who are buying and selling items. Posting your page in a large number of groups will increase the reach of your marketing strategy while not costing you any of your budgets.

Using these groups to engage with more subsections of people will help you establish yourself as an authority and increase brand awareness for your business. Even though you may not be selling directly in these groups, it will help to boost your good reputation and drive more traffic to your store.

This is effective, but it can also be a little bit time-consuming. One way you can make sure that you are using your time wisely is to do research about your target audience and then pick groups that will allow you to connect to them.

One thing to keep in mind is to post useful information, but don’t come across as spam. If you post things a lot that is all about your own business and don’t offer any value to your customers, then people are not going to take you seriously. You want to promote your business through your ability to help the people you want as customers.

Cross-Selling

While Facebook Marketplace is a great way to sell your items, you don’t want to rely heavily on one platform. Because Facebook owns Instagram, it is easy to cross-post and sell your items in both places. Diversifying your marketing strategy allows you to reach more people, but it also acts as a safety net if one platform has a glitch.

In addition to reaching more people, you can also connect with the same people on different platforms. Doing this increases your brand visibility and establishes you as a company people can trust. Other eCommerce platforms may also partner with Facebook, which will allow you to connect more accounts seamlessly.

Invest in Yourself

It can be hard to be noticed online because of the vast number of pages available for users to browse. If you use high-quality images and optimize and have competitive prices but still aren’t seeing very much traffic to your page, then you may need to take a look at paid advertising.

This is easy to do through Facebook. When you list an item on Marketplace, you can click on “boost listing.” Doing this will turn your post into a Facebook ad. You can customize who Facebook will show the ad to, how much money you want to spend on it, and how long you want the ad to be visible. This little boost may help you get started being more visible online and get started selling merch on Facebook.