Many resellers are already using social media to bring more traffic to their sales platforms; but did you know it's actually quite easy to sell your inventory directly on Instagram and Facebook?
According to a recent Neil Patel blog, Facebook and Instagram, both now owned by Meta, have billions of users worldwide, and 70 percent of shoppers turn to social media for product discovery. That's a lot of potential eyes on your products, making social selling a no-brainer.
So, why are so few resellers leveraging social selling? The requirements to sell on these platforms include hosting your own website and connecting a catalog, which can seem daunting to non-tech-savvy people. Vendoo and Shopify can help make it a whole lot easier.
Under Meta's Commerce Eligibility Terms, the number one requirement to setting up social shopping is that you are the verified representative of your brand and domain. In other words, your business must have its own website, which you have access to because you'll need to verify that domain before setting up your shop. Only one person can verify they own the domain therefor; you can't simply use the link to your Poshmark closet, for example, to register.
Luckily, Shopify makes it very easy to set up a simple e-commerce website that you can have up and running in just a day or two. In our blog article, Launching Your Own Online Store With Shopify For Resellers, you can read more about creating a Shopify website.
In addition to the ability to quickly set up your own website, Shopify is now an integrated platform with Vendoo which means users can easily import their existing inventory without having to redo all that previous work.
On your reseller website, you can sell all your new with tags or secondhand inventory just like you would on any reseller platform. Shopify will help make shipping, payment, and returns as easy as possible. With your own website, you will completely control your shipping and return policies. This is your chance to implement the rules you want and provide your own stellar customer service.
First of all, your business must qualify under Meta's Commerce Eligibility Requirements. Most notably, you must sell a physical product and have a verified domain (website).
Right now, you cannot sell digital downloads or services using native shopping tools on Instagram and Facebook. While you can still advertise those products on social media, your customers will have to be directed outside of Instagram or Facebook to make their purchases. The brilliant thing about selling eligible physical products is that customers don't have to leave Instagram or Facebook to checkout. In-app checkout eliminates extra steps and ensures you don't lose the sale.
Once you've signed up for a Shopify account and created your basic store, it's time to use Vendoo to populate your Shopify catalog. Your Shopify catalog is a lot like an eBay or Poshmark listing. You'll want to include photos, a strong title, and a great description of your item.
You can use Vendoo to import your existing inventory directly into Shopify. From that point forward, you can update inventory, add new products from Vendoo and easily crosslist them to Shopify. You'll also be able to mark items sold and keep analytics on your sold data.
Using Shopify, you can group your items into collections that will also be displayed on your Instagram and Facebook shops. You can sell by category, season, holidays, or any other categories that make sense for your store.
Use the following steps to connect your Shopify account and populate your sales catalog:
We've already established that Instagram and Facebook are huge players in the global market. Their traffic ensures you will get more views on your products, but if you need more convincing, here are six reasons you should set up Instagram and Facebook stores.
There's very little competition among resellers. While social selling is gaining tremendous popularity among big brands, resellers are largely not using it because of all the extra steps involved in setting up this type of shopping. If you are willing to take the time to set up Instagram and Facebook shopping, you'll stay one step ahead of your competition.
Unlike using your profile or story links to direct shoppers to another platform, native sales allow your customers to checkout without leaving their favorite app. In marketing, the more steps a customer has to take to buy your product, the more likely you are to lose them along the way.
The cost of selling on Instagram and Facebook is lower than the 10-20% fees you'll find on most reselling platforms. Read through to the end of this article for more information on selling fees in the FAQ section.
70% of today's consumers shop on social media either directly or by word of mouth. This percentage is even higher with younger shoppers, such as gen Z, who are more likely to spend a lot of time on social media. Gen Z shoppers also enjoy not having to leave the platform in order to make a purchase.
Your social media posts, stories, and Reels have the chance to go viral and sell more products. If you're good at marketing, you stand a chance to get thousands of views on your products. You can sell in a variety of ways besides just presenting your catalogs, such as live sales, story sales, posts tagged with product tags, and more.
Social media platforms use machine learning to present targeted posts to specific users. Simply put, the social media algorithm is very good at showing consumers what they want to see. This helps you put targeted posts in front of the people who are most likely to buy based on their interests and past purchases.
Social selling will only grow in popularity in the coming years as shopping technology continues to evolve. According to Forbes, "globally, social commerce is expected to grow three times as fast as traditional commerce to $1.2 trillion by 2025." Make sure you're an early adopter in the reselling community to get the most traction early on.
You might also like: 10 Great Marketplaces Every Reseller Should Consider
One way to get traffic to your social shopping posts is by using Instagram and Facebook ads. While ads can be expensive, they do work to boost your reach and potential sales. Luckily, even if you don't want to spend money on ads, there are some interesting ways to get your products to go viral.
Right now, you can use Instagram Reels to boost your brand awareness and sell products. Make fun videos set to trending music, educational videos, or funny videos to get the most reach. Reels are the meta alternative to Tiktok, and they are currently doing all they can to make reels more visible in people's feeds. Make sure to use a compelling caption with a clear call to action, trending hashtags, and product tags with each reel you post.
Create stunning visual posts that showcase your product, then use the product tagging feature to make the post shoppable. Customers can click on the tags in the post to be taken immediately to a checkout page. Make sure to research and test trending hashtags to add to the post's caption, increasing the reach. Use colorful, clear product photos.
Have you ever held a sale on IG Live? If you have products in your Instagram shop catalog, you can tag those products when you go live on Instagram, making it easier than ever to sell during a live show on Instagram. Lives can help you promote products, announce drops, and hold sales or promotions.
Your success with Instagram shopping will depend on the popularity of the account you use to sell products. To increase your following and engagement, make sure to create a trustworthy bio, post regularly, and use all the tools Instagram gives you (posts, stories, reels, lives, etc.) to grow your account. The more niche (or specific) your account is, the easier it will be for you to attract an audience. You can link to your entire store in the Instagram bio as well.
Finally, don't try to sell to your audience with every single post. Make sure to be entertaining or educate your audience so that you give as much as you intend to receive. Creating a community will help you earn trust and lead to more sales. Create 2-3 helpful or entertaining posts for every sales post you make.
Here is a secret your competition doesn't want you to know! Not all brands are using stories effectively or consistently. This leaves the door wide open for you to dominate in this area. Stories not only show up at the top of the Instagram app, but they are also way more interactive.
The trick to getting more story views on Instagram (or Facebook, for that matter) is to leverage engagement. More engagement is directly correlated to more views. Use interactive stickers on your stories to promote engagement.
In fact, try to use a "poll sticker" on your very first story of the day. This will instantly boost all future posts by starting the day out with a high-engagement story.
You can also use the "question" sticker to ask more open-ended questions and post the results for your audience to enjoy. The "quiz" sticker can help you post fun games or poll your audience on how much they like new products. The "countdown" sticker can alert your customers to new product launches or special sales they should be aware of.
Try your hand at posting daily stories and using engagement stickers to get better results. Make sure to use full-screen photos that are eye-catching. Spread your story posts out over the course of a day so that your stories pop to the front of the line every few hours. You can track your success using the Instagram Insights tab.
While Instagram and Facebook are both owned by the same parent company, Meta, and share some management tools, they are entirely separate social media platforms. There is overlap, such as business manager, ad accounts, and the ability to synchronize posts, stores, and reels. However, each platform has its own unique demographic and style.
On Facebook, your business page will be the host of your store. You'll want to make sure people like and follow your business page so that you get plenty of organic traffic to your store. In addition to shopping from your store catalog, your customers can also shop from product-tagged posts that show up in their feeds.
One tip is to organize your products into categories or collections to give shoppers a more streamlined experience. Make sure to put your best sellers or most attractive products upfront. Another tip is to grab customer attention with special sales and promotions, which you can manage through your Facebook shop. Finally, make sure to add product tags to all your Facebook posts, videos, and stories. You want to take advantage of every opportunity for a sale.
There are no fees for opening a shop on Instagram or Facebook; you'll also pay nothing to list your items for sale. Once you make a sale, Meta will charge you a 5% fee per shipment with a minimum fee of $0.40 per transaction. This includes the cost of payment processing, helping fund shop support, and future features.
When you set up your Meta commerce manager for the first time, you will be prompted to complete a section where you will provide bank details to receive your payouts. You will mark an item that has sold as shipped and provide tracking information. Your payout will be sent a few days after verification that the item has shipped.
Selling products on Instagram and Facebook is perfectly legal, and the great news is that you do not need a business license.
You can choose to use Facebook's rates for shipping and purchase Facebook labels, or you can choose any carrier you want as long as there is a tracking number. The tracking number will be vitally important since you cannot be paid until tracking proves you have shipped the item.
You'll find all the orders waiting to be shipped in the Facebook commerce manager. The order summary will show the customer's name, and items purchased, quantity, shipping type, and shipping address. You will mark items as shipped and provide the tracking number.
Customers can request a return on the Instagram or Facebook mobile apps. You can set your own return policy as a seller with a custom return window and other settings. The default return window is 30 days. Customers will request a return from the seller first. If customers are dissatisfied with the return policy, they can escalate the issue to a Meta representative.
You can process returns one of two ways. First, you can opt-in to "easy returns." Easy returns will automatically create a shipping label or QR code that a buyer can use to return their product. You can turn easy returns on in the Facebook commerce manager under settings.
You can also choose to process all return requests manually. You have two days to respond to return requests.
No, you don't have to use Shopify. You need to have your own website, and that website needs an e-commerce solution. Shopify is just one of a few different options to accomplish this, but they are a Vendoo partner, making them a perfect fit for Vendoo users.
No, adding Instagram and Facebook sales channels from your Shopify account does not generate any extra fees. Your basic Shopify account fee already includes these features. You will pay a fee to Meta for sales made on their platform. There are no fees for simply listing items for sale on Instagram or Facebook.
Per Meta's commerce policies, a few things aren't permitted to be sold in IG and FB shops. These items include:
There may be additional excluded or restricted items; please see the complete commerce guide here.
Vendoo users can easily crosspost their inventory to a linked Facebook Marketplace account. Facebook marketplace sales are connected to your personal Facebook account and are not the same as selling on a Facebook shop within a business page. You can still use Vendoo via Shopify to crosspost to a Facebook business page.
When an item sells on your Instagram or Facebook business shop, you can still track that sale in Vendoo. First, go to your Vendoo inventory and search for the sold item. On the Vendoo form, hover over the three dots you see on the left-hand side of your screen. Tap the three dots and select "mark as sold." You can select another marketplace from a drop-down list on the sales form. These "other" platforms will even show up on your Vendoo analytics.