Veena
Last Updated on July 9, 2024 by Team Experts
The Facebook Marketplace has helped small business owners sell their products online for a while now. However, with the advent of new technology and a better understanding of customer needs, you can expect to see even more changes this year.
In 2017, Facebook launched a new marketplace platform. It was a risky move because it’s still in its early stages and has plenty of room to grow. In the next few years, you can expect Facebook Marketplace to evolve significantly.
The company has already outlined some of the upcoming features that will make it stand out from other marketplaces. This guide will help you navigate the maze that is Facebook Marketplace in 2022.
What is Facebook Marketplace?
Facebook Marketplace is a Facebook product, and as such, it has its own section of the social network. The Marketplace allows small business owners to accept payments by virtual currency instead of physical currency or credit cards.
These merchant funds can be transferred between buyers and sellers without affecting the fiat value of their exchange rate or currency control. However, transactions can only be completed by Facebook Messenger and not via the social media platform’s additional messaging application.
Who Should Sell On The Facebook Marketplace?
The Facebook Marketplace is a place where businesses can sell their products to customers.
Here are some examples of who should sell on the Facebook Marketplace:
1. A business that already has an established customer base or brand name.
2. Businesses that have multiple products, which allows them to run promotions and sales through the Marketplace easily.
3. Businesses with digital products, such as e-books, software, apps, games, etc., can be sold more easily on the Marketplace than in stores or online marketplaces like Amazon or eBay.
4. Businesses with products that are wanted by consumers but previously had no place to sell them.
5. Small-time business owners who may not know what they would like on Facebook Marketplace or how best to use the Marketplace in their company’s marketing strategy, yet have ideas for what products they could sell.
6. Internet marketplaces that collect a commission on each sale or purchase made through the platform’s various featured categories and ads, which instead of taking money directly from a transaction, platforms like Facebook Marketplace work to increase an e-commerce business’ revenue-based simply on the fact that they have made a sale.
How to Use the Facebook Marketplace?
To use the Facebook Marketplace, go to your personal Facebook account and click on the marketplace tab. Then, you will see a list of items that are available for sale.
Once you find an item that you would like to purchase, select the “Buy” button at the top of the screen.
After clicking “Buy”, you will be redirected to a confirmation page where you can confirm your purchase or cancel it if necessary.
You will then be taken back to your profile where the item is now in your shopping cart with its price listed under it. You can also view any other information about this product before purchasing it by clicking on its image or name located in blue text near the top left corner of your screen.
Items you can sell on Facebook Marketplace
People can sell anything from personal items to merchandise on Facebook Marketplace. This includes furniture, bicycles, antiques, and other items that people can ship to their buyer or seller’s door. All items are selected for sale based on the popularity of the product in categories like home & garden, clothing & accessories, dining out / Restaurant, housewares/dishware, and miscellaneous.
Consumers can be creative and choose items they want to sell that do not appear in competing services like eBay, Craigslist, or Amazon Marketplace because those sites don’t allow businesses as part of the selling process.
Does Facebook Marketplace charge a fee for It?
There is no fee for listing an item or completing the sale of that item. This means users are only charged when payment is made directly through Facebook’s virtual currency instead of through credit cards or other ways to convert local currencies into USD. The Marketplace accepts thousands of different forms of payment, including gift cards, debit, and credit cards.
What Do You Need To Start Selling On Facebook?
1. The first thing you’ll all need to begin selling on Facebook Marketplace is a personal account.
2. You will also need an email address or contact information that can be used as your seller’s contact network for this platform. Otherwise, no one even gets notified about the listing because it comes from a throwaway email address.
3. You’ll also need to create a Facebook Business Page, which is simply an extension of your personal profile for selling goods or services online and notifying friends and family about it in the News Feed. It will only take you 10 minutes max (or less ) to do this and let you see information about all of your previous activity as a Facebook user. The Facebook Business Pages also has access to ads that little businesses use for promoting their services or merchandise online.
4. Last but certainly not least is the Community Tools features a section where sellers can post a link to their website, upvote other sellers, which helps the ones you entrust with your items reach more customers for them.
How to sell things on Facebook Marketplace
1. Start selling now
Listing an item on Facebook Marketplace is free with no fees, so you’ll be ready to start selling the minute you choose to list your item. When chosen for sale through Facebook’s Marketplace, items may be posted up until 48 hours before they sell, with the option of extending that time to up to 60 days. Before posting an item for sale on Facebook, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with the following areas of discussion:
2. The Marketplace Design
The centerpiece of any listing is your product photo or image, where buyers can view what they are bidding on and how you want them to pay for the item. If you’re selling a good that is fairly small, it also may be an option on Facebook Marketplace to post a thumbnail preview of your product as part of your listing design. By posting a photo or image on sale through Facebook, buyers can see what they’re intended to purchase and can even zoom in on the image for a closer look.
3. The Posting Process
Before you post an item, it is recommended that you preview your listing to make sure everything looks correct before posting it live (whether live sales start immediately or after 24 hours ). For additional help in the process, read through this link to learn about Facebook’s steps for posting an item on sale with Marketplace.
4. Get started with your listing
Once you’re ready to post an item, click on the Marketplace tab on Facebook. After choosing this option under the ‘Sell’ creator name area in your business page’s sidebar, it is time to begin posting what you’ve got for sale. You’ll then need to click on the “Add a product” button to increase your inventory.
5. Market items for sale via Facebook
After being chosen through marketplaces, you can use Facebook’s advertising options in the order it appears more often next time buyers see your item and have their interest peaked. For this, place a paid ad that will take your potential buyers from the ads tab to your profile.
6. Review your stats
Before you give up the day, make sure to review Facebook marketplace statistics for purchases and payment history. With such a robust platform available at hand, it’s important to know how successful of an advertising campaign you’re having, as well as if all items sold meet 99% of buyers’ needs. For help at getting used to the Facebook marketplace process, review this guide on how to sell merchandise on Facebook.
How to advertise on the Facebook Marketplace
The Facebook Marketplace is where people buy and sell all kinds of things, like cars and furniture. It’s a great way to find a business partner or make some extra cash. You can hire someone to hire an expert for your Facebook ads management. Here’s how to advertise on the Facebook Marketplace:
1) Create an ad that matches your business
If you’re selling an item that’s clearly for sale, you can use the Facebook Marketplace product feed to create your ad. If you want to sell items on behalf of a third-party business, click Marketplaces Manager in the left column and select “show products from a brand” to show the items of that business on your page.
2) Add photos
Before you can advertise, you need to create a Facebook product ad that includes images or videos. To do this, click Report next to Facebook Marketplace and select monetize an existing offering. Then, click Upload a File and select the product image you want to use.
3) Preview your ad
To preview your ad, select “Marketplace Manager” in the left column, and click edit next to the image you want. This will show a screen where you can make several changes before publishing it. Then choose to Submit when finished making edits.
Pros and Cons of using Facebook Marketplace
Pros of using Facebook Marketplace
1. You can easily sell products or other items to distant friends.
2. You don’t need to set up a Facebook Shop for selling your goods online, unlike the regular website of Facebook itself where you have to create an account and then register your presence there before listing anything for sale on that site at Facebook.com/seller.
3. You don’t need to deal with the speed of shipping or taking care of customers in person, compared to when you set up an account and register your presence at the regular Facebook site, where social media fans can purchase from you via providing instant feedback immediately after the transaction.
4. You can list or sell many items simultaneously, compared to when you create an account and register your presence on Facebook.com/shop, where only one item can be sold at a time there.
5. You don’t need to pay transaction fees here, unlike the regular site of Facebook itself where you must pay transaction fees before selling anything on that site.
Cons of using Facebook Marketplace
1. You need to keep your listing active nonetheless, except when you’re on Facebook and it is shut down for maintenance. This absence of the site’s availability may lead many customers who wish to purchase something from a seller not yet online during the period when there was no blue text at your profile, seeing an expired posting there due to the scheduled downtime of Facebook, thus making them highly doubt or not try out buying at all.
2. You needn’t expect customers purchasing things from you to keep the items they purchased for an appreciable length of time, unlike when it is possible for shoppers on regular Facebook to buy many items at once.
3. Facebook doesn’t seem willing to allow more than one vendor service of the same type of goods on its site, unlike Wikipedia, where you can list or sell more than two types of products via that website’s registered sellers listing process (there are 3 types of businesses listed there so far, as a maximum).
4. You need to keep the photos and description of your item easily visible on FB Marketplace/Shop at all times, unlike for regular Facebook users where they consider these features enough or unnecessary provided that their friend’s like them (which helps their personal popularity rating on the social network), apart from not needing to keep anything visible at all there, if paid attention only to their News Feed.
5. You can’t help people who are seeking you online during posting downtime of your listing by email or phone calls that are optional for regular Facebook users, unlike on regular Facebook where you can just tag a friend in search for them via email or phone call.
Tips to Increase Your Facebook Marketplace Sales
•Perform proper research
The increase of social media has led to a rise in popularity for “selling” items on Facebook. It is important for businesses to understand how they can use this marketing strategy to their advantage. A lot of people have been taking note and capitalizing on the market, and there are businesses that are making thousands of dollars per month by utilizing this strategy.
The first step that anyone should take is conducting the proper research before selling an item on Facebook. Before selling, businesses must understand the importance of doing so because it will help them have a better return on investment (ROI). Take your time to learn about other products being sold through pure social media marketing strategies and how you can utilize what they’re doing to increase your and your business’s ROI. Also, find out if there is a cheaper way for businesses to sell on Facebook than through buying ads.
It will be helpful for those who want the quickest ROIs possible on their items, as well as those who prefer to make their money through social media marketing strategies and want a cheaper way to sell.
Many Facebook users who advertise will only be able to afford one ad because of how expensive it can be. The last important step that businesses should take is seeking out the best ads for selling items on Facebook. While most Facebook users are moving to mobile, it does not mean that they will leave the social network.
•Optimize for keywords
Before you advertise your items on Facebook, it is important to do research about what are some of the most popular keywords that people use when searching for products. Choose a list of around 15 trending keywords and optimize your post with those terms in order to increase conversions by 150%. Selecting specific keywords is of great importance because it will help you sell through promotional materials and increase the chances of shoppers actually purchasing items.
An important step to take in order to use Facebook’s ads as a marketing platform successfully is conducting proper research regarding which ad programs work well for your products. There are so many different Facebook ads to choose from, yet there are limited choices for organic buyers. Make sure you know which advertising plans are well-received by both your target customers as well as the Facebook community so that you can make informed decisions when it comes to choosing an ad program or not.
•Include high-quality photos
Facebook’s ads are a great tool for businesses looking to advertise their products on social media, but there are some important steps that you should take before advertising. The first step is to identify the top keywords that people use when searching for items. Another important step is to include high-quality photos for each of your posts.
Having perfect photos is just as important for Facebook’s marketplace ads as it is for any other type of social media ad competition, so make sure you are providing top-notch images to boost the effectiveness of your marketing effort. The speed with which buyers decide whether or not they are interested in an item depends on the images provided. If your ad does not have high-quality photos, you can expect to see a far lower level of response when it’s time for buyers to read your Facebook post or page description.
•Leverage Facebook Messenger
Facebook Messenger is a social platform that allows users to engage with businesses and brands. Its main function is the ability to leverage the chatbot technology of Facebook into new ways of communication. One such example is using this platform as a lead generator for your business. By simply having your business’s profile on Facebook Messenger, you can provide immediate customer service.
You are able to ask customers questions about their purchases or other issues related to your business using this channel of communication. As your audience grows through making use of the platform by messaging brands and discussing purchases with them, they will naturally talk up the positive experience because it’s easier than traditional calling and emailing services.
•Engage in Relevant Facebook Groups
Facebook groups are a fantastic way to engage potential customers and increase sales. There are many types of Facebook groups that relate to lifestyle, interests, and other demographics that you can leverage for increased sales. The best place to start is by reaching out to a group that relates to your industry or product. For example, if your product is furniture, you can look at groups that focus on leather beds or outdoor gear to kickstart your Facebook Marketplace sales.
Facebook Groups generally have a v/ page for where business owners can post their ads, so it’s important to have these in place before making an ad to see how it performs. You can also make a v/ aggressive campaign and go beyond the groups you reach out to at first as members will not necessarily look at them unless they deem them too risky or intrusive, so if your goal is driven by reaching new consumers, this may be an alternative method you can use to incentivize your business.
Additionally, the income from Facebook Ads is directly tied to how often someone clicks on a post and shares it with others which means you can leverage this commission for future marketing efforts as well.
•Use Facebook Ads to Increase Your Facebook Marketplace Sales
Facebook ads can help you increase your revenue by reaching new customers through the Facebook marketplace. When making a Facebook Marketplace ad for your business, it is important to be creative with the wording and encourage people to click through on an internal link, especially if they are going directly to your website or ordering from another source. You can also make bets by choosing tracking pixels over requiring users who have signed up to Facebook to take a survey, as the latter could cause them not to see your ad. By focusing on certain word choices and content, you can be more successful in reaching new customers that may later become buyers who come through Ads.
Conclusion
Facebook Marketplace is one of the most popular ways to sell your products online. It’s similar to eBay or Amazon, except that you don’t have to go through the hassle of setting up a store on their website. You can list your items for sale directly on Facebook itself!
The Marketplace was launched in 2011 and has continued to grow since then. As it becomes more popular, there are more sellers joining the platform, which means you will have more opportunities to reach customers looking for products like yours. Now that you know how it works let us know if you are interested in listing your products on this platform.
