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Connecting with people has always been at the core of our experiences with Facebook. Browsing and discovering new things aren't only for academics, scrolling is now considered muscle memory.
We rely on Facebook for the latest news and trends, the new releases in music, the upcoming trailer of your favorite movie franchise, or maybe a little bit of history. We even use it now to know the news instead of picking up the daily paper.
Nobody sends snail mails anymore. They are even called snail mails now for a reason, as opposed to just being “mails” from the last decade. Facebook has become a huge part of our routine, that it began to shape our lives and decisions on a day-to-day basis, as much as we like to admit it or not.
Facebook is everywhere, not to mention, unstoppable.
Ever since Facebook became the biggest social media platform not too long ago, marketing went nuts. What once was solely about creating and cultivating connections between family, friends, strangers, and interests, Facebook, surprisingly, went on to establish these important connections between businesses and their consumers as well, revolutionizing the way we came to know marketing, advertising, and even shopping.
And because Facebook has long evolved from being just a social networking site to a powerful shopping platform, the fine-tuning of one of its features is a long time coming.
Introducing Facebook shop- the ultimate Facebook tool for thriving small businesses and consumer convenience.
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What is Facebook shop?
We have all heard of Facebook's Marketplace, now say hello to its close relative, Facebook Shop. A no-brainer, Facebook Shop is the latest addition to Facebook's growing set of features catering to both businesses and consumers and is designed to make the selling and shopping experience easier on both ends of the marketing spectrum.
An easy-to-make, easy-to-use tab, this feature eliminates the number of friction that consumers go through when making a purchase, increasing the rate at which a business on Facebook or Instagram sells. Win-win.
A fairly new feature, Facebook Shop has been rolled out in the face of the pandemic and is expected to help businesses make the move from physical stores to online convenience easier and smoother-- a huge actionable step from the social media giant.
Facebook Shop is the upgrade of the traditional Page Shop tab that was launched a couple of years ago as Facebook's way to keep up with the emergence of online shopping and e-commerce sites.
Facebook Shop features certain embellishments that allow businesses to exhibit their products the way they like, incorporating branding, as well as organizing the inventory in an accessible manner called collections -- making it easier for customers to find the products they are looking for.
With such easy access, purchase is only a matter of, "Which color looks good on me?"
How does it work?
Because Facebook is all about comfort and convenience, setting up a Facebook Shop doesn't take a village. To make it a possibility, first you must create a Commerce account on Facebook's Commerce Manager, become a Business Manager admin to your page, be it Facebook or Instagram, make sure that you have Manage Page permissions for both the page and the catalog and then you're good to go.
To set the actual shop, simply go to the Commerce Manager and find the Create Your Shop feature and tick your options. Once you have created your Facebook Shop, you can now go to the more fun part-- creating your collections.
Facebook Shop lets you feature your products through a catalog called collections. Each collection can have at least 6 to 30 products.
You can also label each collection with a name as well as put descriptions. Furthermore, you can integrate branding by putting up a cover media to your collection and choose accent colors to make your shop stand out and capture your market’s interests. As they always say, it's that easy.
Who can use it?
Facebook shop has been developed to assist small businesses in staying afloat amid the pandemic. This is especially important, as throughout the duration of this crisis, not only once did we see businesses of all shapes and sizes, some of which are older than this century, close up shop as the pandemic slowly kills businesses and industries all over the world.
It is in the development of Facebook shop that the vision for businesses, both big and small, to try to adapt to the changing times and continue to thrive is alive and hopeful.
What sets Facebook Shop apart from its predecessor is that it provides a native mobile shopping experience.
Shops will be presented in a full screen view, allowing the user to fully navigate on the interface, browsing through collections that are personalized for them; a shopping immersion.
You can even take it to the next level if you want to. With the use of an ad, businesses can promote their products both on Facebook and Instagram stories and reach more people who may be interested in your products.
Because purchasing is now made easier with Facebook Shop, consumers don't have to juggle between several apps and sites trying to manage their multiple online purchases.
They don't have to leave Facebook at all, which is what makes Facebook Shop a powerful tool for businesses to use to their advantage, all free of charge.
While a relatively small chunk of small businesses has migrated to the Facebook Shop feature and are enjoying its fun perks, other businesses are still waiting for notifications via email on their page’s availability to use the new Facebook feature.
Once the powerful feature has been rolled out globally, people may no longer find the need to leave Facebook or Instagram.
