facebook shop, anyone ?

[baggins]

hello there. I am considering making a Facebook page with shop and payment facility so fans and friends can instantly buy my products, rather than having to go off to a website. Has anyone on here done this ? If so, how pleased are you with sales gained through this ? And what recommendations do you have for setting up a shopping cart / payment facility on a Facebook page ? Thanks.

 

[MancunianCreative]

People do not buy on Facebook. They're there for different reasons, usually.

If its that or nothing then go for it. Otherwise I really wouldn't bother.

 

[webstore]

hello there. I am considering making a Facebook page with shop and payment facility so fans and friends . . . .

facebook.com/bestbuy with their 5m+ followers used to have a FaceBook shop but they seem to have dropped it.

You would be far better served going for an OpenCart or Magento on-line shop and drive traffic to that from FaceBook, Twitter and Google+

 

[Farleys Furniture]

On a similar note I was thinking of setting up an ebay shop to clear dead stock from my 'bricks and mortar' store. Has anyone had any experience of this?

 

[webstore]

On a similar note I was thinking of setting up an ebay shop to clear dead stock from my 'bricks and mortar' store. Has anyone had any experience of this?

If you are just clearing dead stock best just list it on eBay and not bother with an eBay shop unless you plan ongoing sales via eBay.

Also you can list your dead stock on my OldStock.com and/or ClearanceProduct.com completely FREE websites, for as long as you want ! I also add entries to Google+ at plus.google.com/116348673216600314857

 

[baggins]

Thanks for the replies and info . I found them interesting as I thought maybe folk on Facebook would like to immediately purchase from there as opposed to ging off to another site. But maybe not. You've saved me another job !

 

[MatthewOgborne]

People do not buy on Facebook. They're there for different reasons, usually.

If its that or nothing then go for it. Otherwise I really wouldn't bother.

Good advice there, Facebook is not a transactional platform for physical products.

Webstore's advice is also sound.

Matt

 

[baggins]

I have been reading more about Facebook this afternoon and what do you think about one statement about Facebook shops which said users spend an average 27 minutes per visit on the site and prefer to shop on FB without leaving the site during that time ? Asos seems to be one of the big brands with a FB shop.

 

[OfficeHounds]

users spend an average 27 minutes per visit on the site and prefer to shop on FB without leaving the site during that time

Are these users in the US?

I created a Facebook shop for one of my customers. People still buy from the website. People do browse the Facebook shop, but that's it from my experience!

 

[MatthewOgborne]

I have been reading more about Facebook this afternoon and what do you think about one statement about Facebook shops which said users spend an average 27 minutes per visit on the site and prefer to shop on FB without leaving the site during that time ? Asos seems to be one of the big brands with a FB shop.

howdy baggins,

Can I make an obvious point, you're not ASOS, what works for them won't necessarily work for you

Matt

 

[KaytaHackman]

howdy baggins,

Can I make an obvious point, you're not ASOS, what works for them won't necessarily work for you

Matt

I second this.

Generally, people are quite wary of buying through Facebook, mainly due to the privacy concerns they've attracted over time. Unless you are a very reputable online brand (like ASOS), I wouldn't really consider Facebook to be the best place to trade.

Is there a particular reason as to why you don't want to set up a website to sell your products? There are a number of cost effective platforms out there (like Big Cartel), that provide you the checkout functionality as well as the peace of mind for the customers. There's no harm in linking out to your products from Facebook..

 

[gemd89]

You can always use payvment and sell your products free on facebook - I have added around 50 products to my facebook page - have nearly 900 followers (targetted) and nothing at all - People do come from facebook to my website to buy though. Strange!

Gemma

 

[profscooter]

What I did was set up a few links on a Facebook tab through to popular products on the web site, so people still click on them in FB but then buy on the regular shop pages. Saved a lot of hassle getting a FB shop created which as others have said, may not produce many sales. I even tried FB ads for a while which gained me a few more likes but hardly any new customers.

 

[j600com]

howdy baggins,

Can I make an obvious point, you're not ASOS, what works for them won't necessarily work for you

Matt

This is good advice. Even though we've done f-commerce we don't actively push it as its too early for most retailers. There are LOTS of other routes to look at before Facebook (such as website, eBay, amazon, play, m-commerce and so on)

 

[baggins]

Is there a particular reason as to why you don't want to set up a website to sell your products? There are a number of cost effective platforms out there (like Big Cartel), that provide you the checkout functionality as well as the peace of mind for the customers. There's no harm in linking out to your products from Facebook..
__________________Its not a matter of not wanting to set up a website - I was just interested in the concept of selling through Facebook. Thanks for all of your replies - interesting and helpful.

 

[liongroup]

I think the two ways to make money of the Internet are basically through retailing (ecommerce) and advertising (search/display).

With this mind, I think FB clearly falls into the second category, but there's no reason to suggest they can't help merchants and make money themselves through ecommerce.

From a merchant perspective, I'd consider FB a marketing (advertising) service first and foremost i.e I'd always build out my own retail website.