New Facebook Shop and Instagram Shop Make Selling Online Easier

You can now sell your products, courses and other offers directly on your Facebook Page or Instagram account!

To help small businesses that are struggling with the economic effects of the coronavirus outbreak, Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that they are launching “Facebook Shop,” a new feature to help business owners recover some revenue loss due to the pandemic.

It’s biggest step in venturing to E-commerce so far, Zuckerberg said that, “I think this particularly important right now because so many small businesses are moving online to deal with the economic fallout from Covid-19. As people are being told to stay home, physical storefronts are having a hard time staying open and millions of people are losing their jobs.”

As the pandemic continues to wreak havoc not only as a public health emergency but also as an economic crisis, many small business owners have been hit really hard. On its State of Small Business Report, Facebook revealed that almost half of small businesses have shut down. The report said that the situation is especially bad for women who run most of these businesses.

To help you during this difficult time, I’ve listed 10 ways you can grow your business in the midst of Coronavirus.

I also pulled together a curated list of my top resources to support you in remaining resilient and feeling connected. You can check them out here>>>

Facebook Shop

The basic idea of the Facebook Shop is to help small businesses in creating an online storefront with ease right from their business Facebook Page. They can then sell their products directly across platforms (yup, all apps owned by Facebook, including Instagram and WhatsApp).

This is let customers have an easier time browsing and buying products without leaving the app.

You can customise the look of your store by making a catalog of your featured products, uploading your own cover image, and choosing accent colours that showcase the feel of your brand. Just like in physical store, your customers can ask you questions, get support and even track their orders. They can simply message your Facebook Shop through WhatsApp, Messenger or Instagram Direct.

To set-up Facebook Shop, use a laptop or desktop. Go to your business Facebook Page and select “Shop” tab. Follow the instructions on the screen and fill-in all required fields. Click “Finish” when you’re done. For your Facebook Shop to appear, upload at least one product to get approved by Facebook.

If you enable “Checkout” on your Shop or make a purchase using Facebook Pay, Facebook will take 5% commission as processing fee when customers buy directly from your Shop. (This is only available in the US so far).

Instagram Shop

As Instagram is owned by Facebook, the a virtual storefront will soon roll out in this platform, too!

Instagram Shop will be available worldwide in the coming months. Once this becomes available, users can directly browse Shops in Instagram Explore, filter by categories like ‘beauty’ and ‘home’ and make a purchase on-platform.

Later this year, a dedicated Shop tab in the app’s main navigation bar will be added.

To set-up your Instagram Shop, simply follow these steps:

1. Make sure your product is eligible for Instagram shopping (guides can be found here).

2. Connect to a catalogue (either using a Catalogue manager of Facebook Partner)

3. Sign Up for Instagram Shopping. Go to your profile > Tap Business > Tap Instgram Shopping > Follow Steps on-screen > Submit account for review (approval process usually takes a few days)

4. Once approved, there will be a notification from Instagram. Complete setup in Settings.

5. Start tagging products in your posts and stories.

6. Create shopping post and story. Start by creating post as usual > click on ‘Tag Products'. (You can feature up to 5 products per image or video and up to 20 products on multiple images in one post).

7. Check Shopping insights to see what your customers want and offer more products.

Take Advantage of These Features

There are several ways small business owners can feature their products and offers in Instagram Shop:

• Via IG Story – by featuring a product on your Shop’s IG story, your followers can tap more for details. From there, it will bring them to your catalog where they can either keep on browsing or go directly to your website. To up your IG story game, you can download my freebie IG Stories Strategy Pack here>>>
• Via IG Stickers – Support Small Business, Gift Card and Food Order stickers are now available. Use these stickers to show support to small local businesses! Just simply tap the sticker, mention either your store or other local business you love, and directly connect your followers.
• Via IG Live – this feature is not rolling out yet but it will be awesome tool to use especially during launch! Soon, you can tag products from your Instagram Shop before going live. These products will be at the bottom of your IG Live video so people can purchase your offers in real time.

Instagram can be tricky with all the new features, what to post and when… it can also be a massive time-suck IF you don’t know what you’re doing. But I would love to help you navigate and take advantage of this new feature in Instagram! I’ve shared 3 Instagram Musts for small business owners and entrepreneurs in 2020, click here to discover what they are.

Head on over to Social Method Society and join my monthly membership program. It is the go-to membership for female business owners wanting to master Instagram as part of their complete digital marketing strategy. It’s the ultimate support-system with everything you’ll ever need to start, grow and skyrocket your business using Instagram (even if you’re new to the platform).

More E-Commerce Features Coming Soon…

It’s particularly important now to know how to leverage the power of Instagram to grow your business as that’s only the start of it.

Soon, a bunch of features will be added. Aside from dedicated Shop tab and purchasing in real-time during IG Live Video…

1. Instagram Shop will make use AI and augmented reality tech to create an a more immersive shopping experience. Zuckerberg announced that are building features to automatically identify and tag products in people’s feed where they can easily click through and purchase things they like. This tech will also allow customers to virtually try the products being offered by small businesses. Soon, you can try if the lipstick colour is good for you, or if the sunglasses match your shape face before buying.
2. Your customers will be able to view Instagram Shop and even make purchases on Instagram Direct in the future. Same goes in Messenger and WhatsApp for Facebook Shop.
3. Loyalty Program will be connected to your account. If your business gives out rewards your customers can easily track the loyalty points they earned by staying loyal and supporting your brand.
4. Small business owners will be able to use third-party platforms to manage Facebook Shops. Facebook is partnering with Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Channel Advisor, CedCommerce, Cafe24, Tienda Nube and Feedonomics so that owners can easily integrate these tools to level up their online storefronts.

Your First Step In Getting the Most Out of Instagram

Instagram is the fastest growing platform for brands and business owners. In fact…. 1/3 of the most viewed instagram Stories are from brands and 80% of users follow brands and businesses. With Instagram Shop coming to the platform, your own small business can have wider reach.

If you want to learn how to turn your followers to buyers, jump on to my waitlist at www.socialmethodsociety.com.

Let’s open the door to more opportunities and growth for you and your business!

Xx

Tracy

P.S. Come follow me on Instagram for regular Instagram marketing tips, ideas and inspiration!