Facebook and Instagram have rolled out a brand-new feature perfect for small businesses looking to try e-commerce. Shops allow you to sell products right on Facebook or Instagram with catalog listings, integrations with major e-commerce platforms, and an internal checkout feature. In this podcast episode we get an in-depth look at all of this from expert guest Brooke Taylor, Digital Channel Specialist at Marketing Essentials.
Listen to the podcast here, or access the full transcript below!
Podcast Episode
Full Transcript - Start Selling Today on Facebook and Instagram Shops
Jenna:
Hi, welcome back to another Brew Session with Marketing Essentials. I'm your host Jenna, and I'm joined with one of my cohosts Jessica today. Jess will be returning on our next episode. And Brew Session is your chance to join us every week with your favorite brew, whether that's a cup of coffee or something stronger as we discuss everything digital marketing.
Jessica:
And on tap for today, last episode, which you can find on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts, we gave you some tips and insight on marketing in a post pandemic world. So today we're going to kind of continue that theme and tell you about a really easy way you can now sell your products using Facebook or Instagram, no fancy website required.
Jenna:
So our guest today is BrookeTaylor. She is a Digital Channel Specialist here at Marketing Essentials. Brooke is our expert on all things social media. And she's going to be telling us about how you can use Facebook and Instagram shops to get a quick start on selling online. So, Brooke, I've heard a little bit about these newer features on Facebook and Instagram, but I haven't personally dived into them yet. So I'm excited to be talking with you about it today. So maybe start by telling us a little bit about Facebook and Instagram shops. What are they?
Brooke:
Yeah, so Facebook and Instagram shops is a super new cool tool that Facebook is rolling out with just this week. Actually going back to the beginning of the year, Facebook promised that over the next decade that they were going to put a lot more focus around commerce and payment tools.
Brooke:
So I think this is kind of just the tip of the iceberg here. Facebook is also specifically mentioning that they are rolling out shopping experiences to help small businesses, which is really neat. So with the Facebook shops you can discover a brand and explore product collections and make purchases without ever leaving Facebook or Instagram. You can find the shops easily from a Facebook page and Instagram profile, Instagram story, and Facebook ads. The shops do offer these cool fullscreen experiences. They have Fullscreen photos and customizable collections, so you can really showcase your product. And I also do need to mention that if you do decide to set up your shop on Facebook and Instagram, any change that you make on Facebook will automatically change to Instagram. So if you're on the back end making a change, like adding a new product or changing a price, it will automatically update to both channels, which is really nice.
Brooke:
Facebook also promises that Facebook shops is easy to set up and here's why. It is integrated directly with Shopify, WooCommerce, Big Commerce, and pretty much any other business tool like that. If you don't use any of those business tools, no worries, because has you covered with their own catalog manager. So what retailers can do is take those accounts and they can connect them with the Facebook Shops. So it automatically uploads that catalog that they already have to the Facebook Shops. The huge benefit of all of those is that users can check out and complete their purchase directly on Facebook and Instagram. So it's basically like a store directly on the channels. So this really could potentially have a big impact for a lot of small businesses. And if you do think about it, it is kind of the perfect time for this to happen because everything involving COVID-19, everybody has changed their shopping behaviors.
Brooke:
Everybody's buying online, everybody's shopping online. And Facebook has mentioned time and time again, that this could potentially even help businesses in their recovery efforts for everything dealing around COVID-19. Just a couple key notes. Shops will be rolling out over the next several months. So if you don't see that it's available yet, it will be available soon. Businesses are supposed to be notified by Facebook notification or email that it will be available to them. And the product listings will be managed through the commerce manager, which is a lot like the ads manager, where you run your ads. And right now Shops will be for physical goods only at launch, but Facebook is looking to expand into other services like courses and online offerings, which will be really neat too.
Jessica:
So Brooke that all sounds really cool. What kinds of businesses are you thinking would really benefit from using this feature?
Brooke:
So really any small business with a product catalog is really going to benefit from this feature. It also seems like maybe those businesses that are really on trend right now, especially on Instagram, like any handcrafted business. Just for like a quick example, anything that you might see on Etsy, Facebook actually on their rollout page has an example of a company called Spearmint Baby. They have a screenshot of a phone and what the product catalog will look like, and there's a picture of these two cute babies and their cute outfits and their headbands. And it really showcases the product really nicely. And it's really kind of genius because what are mom's doing in the middle of the night, when they're feeding baby they're scrolling through their Facebook or Instagram.
Brooke:
And if they come across a product feature like that, where they can just click shop and have their whole checkout experience right on one channel, I think it's going to be a great benefit for any business like that. And also anything having to do with health, wellness, natural products, all of this that's kind of on trend right now will do well with the Facebook Shop. And then again, I kind of mentioned before, but the business must have a physical product. So Facebook will, of course, put everything through an approval process. So much like your ads on ads manager, you won't be able to sell anything that you can't advertise on Facebook. So there's going to be a little bit of an approval process there to get used to, but it really isn't a great opportunity for any small business to not only be able capitalize on their brand exposure, but also drive sales directly on Facebook at the same time. And also one other great feature is Facebook is also going to roll out a new ads feature where you can set up ads and just put a small budget towards it and really drag people from those ads directly to your Facebook Shop.
Jenna:
So for these Facebook and Instagram shops, are these paid or are these free features that come with the platforms?
Brooke:
So Facebook is stating that it is a free tool, but it is only free to a point. But Facebook will only charge when there is a transaction processed. So having it as free, you can set up your Shop, you can showcase your products. And then there will be just a small fee when a transaction is processed. It's actually 0.5% on anything over $8. And then they have a set flat rate fee of 40 cents on anything under $8. And this is only when someone processed the transaction directly through Facebook checkout. If somebody comes across your product on Facebook and then somehow manages to find the product on your website, that fee will not be processed.
Jessica:
So what are some of the reasons why businesses should try this new feature on Facebook and Instagram?
Brooke:
So obviously for the increase in revenue and sales the huge benefit is the use of the internal payment mechanism, the Facebook checkout, that new feature. Being able to discover the Shops through Instagram Explorer. Facebook will also be offering organic exposure through Facebook suggestions as you're scrolling through your newsfeed. Those suggestions always pop up based on other things that you're browsing. And then also being able to discover the shops through the ads like I had mentioned before, and then also with Facebook, what everyone loves about Facebook is all of the insights and data that you can gleam from Facebook. So not only will you be able to get data from Shopify or WooCommerce if you're using any of those product catalogs, but also from Facebook itself should have their own metrics and insights that you can review to benefit your business.
Jenna:
Those were some really great tips, Brooke, thanks for joining us and sharing this with us. And hopefully we'll have you again on here in the near future.
Brooke:
Yeah. Thanks guys.
Jenna:
And now in today's house blend segment, we're going to talk about a few trending news headlines in the sales and marketing space. So the first trending thing is that some consumer products have seen an increase in sales during the pandemic, including things like beer, American cheese, golf, paper, napkins, and breakfast cereal. According to Ad Age, one reason for the uptick in consumer packaged goods could simply be that more people are spending time at home and they're looking for comfort and convenience in what they buy. I definitely know some of this to be true. I've just seen it with the uptick in local beer sales. A lot more people golfing out more so than usual, even myself. So I'm not surprised to hear these studies come out.
Jessica:
Yeah, I think it's interesting. Some of the shifts that we're going to see. I know some of these products like cereal was always touted as something that's on the down swing, but kind of interesting that it seems to have come back during this time.
Jenna:
Yeah, definitely.
Jessica:
So our next headline. This one has to do with Google My Business and they've added a feature called support links that will allow businesses to promote things like gift cards, purchases, or posting donation links within their Google My Business listing, and this way people who are reading those listings can easily support that business and help keep them afloat during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
Jenna:
I think that's a really cool feature that they're rolling out because again, a lot of the businesses, especially when you think of like restaurants and retailers, that haven't been able to stay open, really allowing them to promote those gift cards that people still can get is an easy way to keep those businesses afloat. And, you know, if you do want to spend your money locally, but don't feel comfortable going inside stores or restaurants yet, that's a really good way to help do that is to purchase those gift cards. So again, I think that's a really good feature.
Jessica:
Next up. We have a couple of listener submissions and remember always, if you would like your question to be answered on an upcoming episode, you can visit our Instagram page @mktg_essentials and submit your question. So our first question somebody asked, people seem nervous about returning to my brick and mortar store. So how can I communicate about all the safety precautions that we're taking here?
Jessica:
So there's a couple of ways that I think you can do this. First I would say, would be to create a section or a website, or maybe a blog post, just kind of outlining these measures that you're taking that way. When people visit your website, they automatically see, you know, all the things that you're doing, they're kind of reassured. And that you also would want to post on social media. Actually Facebook live I think would be a great way because then you could physically show people any changes, like if you're wearing masks, if there's more space set apart in your store, things like that. And finally just kind of know this isn't gonna go away anytime soon. So people are going to continue thinking about this. So don't be afraid to make regular posts or updates about your efforts and make sure you always answer any questions or comments that you get right away.
Jenna:
Yeah, definitely. Really great tips. So another question that we had come in was we've tried Facebook live and it never seems like we get many viewers. So what are some ways we can increase our viewership? So there's a few things I can think of. And first is really try and promote ahead of time that you're going to be going live. So on your Facebook page, you know, start talking about it and saying, Hey, we're planning on going live X day, you know, Friday at 7:00 PM, we're going live. We'd love to have you join us. Sometimes all it takes is that personal invitation to have them join. Otherwise they may be hesitant to jump in because they're unsure what you're talking about and they don't know if it's worth their time. So another tip we have is to go live regularly until more people become aware.
Jenna:
So sometimes it may be missed in their newsfeeds, or you may catch them at a time where they just don't have the time to jump on a Facebook live video right now. So if you can do live sessions that occur on a daily or a weekly basis that will start to generate I think a little bit better of a response and viewership. So another way is definitely engage with the visitors who do jump on because this is a way to keep them from jumping off and to encourage them to jump on the next time or talk to their friends about joining the Facebook live event as well. And if it's a Facebook live event, consider offering some type of incentive. So this doesn't have to be anything big, but think maybe a small gift card or gift basket, or, you know, just something really small that if they join and participate in this event and, you know, engage with you during the Facebook live event, they can be entered to win that drawing or that incentive. So that's a really great way to get people on board.
Jessica:
Yeah, those are great tips, Jenna. And again, I would just say, don't be discouraged if you don't get a ton of viewers or first time. Just kind of treat it as a learning experience and don't be afraid to go back and keep trying that.
Jenna:
Yeah, absolutely. I think that's a really great point is don't get discouraged if you know, the first one or even the first three times you jump on that. You're not getting a lot of viewers. Because again, you just got to build that momentum sometimes before you see really that uptick in viewership. Alright, so that wrapped up our listener submissions, like Jessica said, don't be afraid to submit your own listener submission through our Instagram page and that's all we have today. So thanks for joining us, be sure to tune in next time. And we look forward to having you.
