How to Sell Your Products on Facebook and Instagram in 2022

Have you set up an online store with the help of the Vibeit platform and started selling unique products of your own brand? Let's see how you can go one step further when it comes to selling. Consumers are spending more and more time on social media. One way to gain a competitive edge in the market and increase sales is to make it easier for customers to buy products by bringing your online store to where they spend the most time — on Instagram and Facebook. Check below how you can open your own online store on social media, gain a competitive advantage in the market and increase sales.

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Valicon's 2019 survey shows that 1.25 million of all inhabitants of Slovenia have an open profile on at least one social network, where they spend an average of at least one hour a day. The most popular are Facebook and Instagram. Almost 800,000 people use Facebook on a daily basis, while Instagram is used by almost 300,000 people in Slovenia. With this kind of data, you can hardly afford the absence of your brand on social media. Social media is also a great opportunity to sell products from your own online store. Let's see how.

Choosing the Right Media

In the flood of social media available to us, it is sometimes difficult to decide which one to choose. If you have an open business account with an associated page only on Facebook, start there. If you also have a business profile open on Instagram and elsewhere, you also connect the Facebook store to the store on Instagram. Let's start with Facebook first.

Facebook

The best thing about Facebook is that it is used by a wide variety of audiences, with different interests and demographic characteristics. Needless to say, it is good for all brands to open a business account on Facebook, which helps strengthen the brand and increase product sales. No matter what your market niche is, there is a good chance that you will find your target audience on Facebook. However, in recent years, the target audience on Facebook is still a little older, as most young people have switched to Instagram and TikTok.

For the sale of products, Facebook offers so-called. “Product Catalogue” or product catalogue. This feature allows you to also display your products from the online store on Facebook and redirect potential customers to your online store, where they can make a purchase. In addition, you can also link your product catalog to Facebook ads and show them to an extremely focused target audience that is more willing to make the purchase of your product.

Before you start:

1. If you have not already done so, first open a business Facebook account and the associated Facebook page for your business.
2. EstablishFacebook Business Manager. It is a tool with which you can manage your business on Facebook (you can open pages for different brands, establish ads...).
3. If you already have a Facebook page and a catalog that you are going to use for the Facebook store, you need to make sure that you have all the accesses. If you want to take care of the page and catalog within the Business Manager, the one who has all the accesses must share the accesses with you. How does he do it? Selects business manager - settings - more business settings - selects your first and last name - add assets - catalogues and selects your online store. In case you also care about ads, let them add ad accounts, pixels and Instagram account to you in the same place.
4. If you also want to set up an Instagram shop, you also need an “Instagram business account”. If you only want to sell via Instagram, you don't need a Facebook business page when setting up a store within the Commerce shop.

How do you set up a Facebook store?

1. In Commerce Manager, you click “Create Your Shop” and click “Next.”
2. Choose one of the “checkout” methods: complete the purchase through your online store, via Facebook or Instagram and via direct message.
3. Choose one of the Facebook business pages you want to sell through or create a new page if you don't already have one.
4. Select a Business Manager account or create a new one.
5. Then select the catalog you would like to use for your store and click Next.

• Note: in case you do not have the catalog yet, then you will not see this step. Facebook itself will create a catalog for you within the “Commerce Manager” titled “Products for (name and ID of your page)”.

6. Check if everything is ok, confirm the “Seller Agreement” and click “Finish Setup”.

How do you set up a Facebook product catalog?

1. On Facebook Pages” Products”create a catalog. This is a tool that contains information about the products you want to sell or advertise through Facebook and Instagram (more about Instagram below). To do this, first click on “Add catalog”. Then select the type of your inventory, namely “Products (e-commerce)” and click “Next”.
2. Link your product catalog to your Business Manager account, that is, “Catalog owner” is your Business Manager account. Enter the name of the catalog and click on “Create”.

1. Click on “View Catalog”. Then manually add the products to the catalog. To do this, click on “Add items”, then on “Add Manually” and then on “Next”.
2. Upload a photo of the product, enter the name, description and price of the product. Then select the category to which your product belongs.
3. In the category “Create variants” you can choose whether you want to create several versions of your product (different colors, sizes and their price).
4. When you have finished with the description, click on “Add item” and the product will be saved to your catalog.
5. Repeat the whole process for all products.
6. You can also add a larger amount of items using Excel, A CSV table that contains an inventory of all products from your own website. To do this, click on “Add items”, then on “Use bulk upload” and then on “Next”. Next, click on “File upload” and “Next”. For more information, read the instructions at Facebook.
7. Add a “Shop now” button on your brand's Facebook page to instantly take your customers to your online store. Under the title image, click on the “+Add” button, then select the Shop Now button and add a link to your online store.

Instagram

However, unlike Facebook, Instagram is a visual social media that is used by more and more people. In the past, users used the mobile app only to share their own photos, but today the platform has become a mobile marketplace where consumers make purchases or view products they plan to buy later.

Instagram introduced a new way to sell products for this purpose in 2018. The product catalog from Facebook simply connects to Instagram and allows customers to make a purchase with just a few clicks.

How to set up Instagram shopping?

1. Check if your Instagram profile is a business profile. Next, check if your Instagram profile is linked to your Facebook business profile. These are prerequisites for selling on Instagram.
2. Link your business Instagram profile to the Facebook catalog you set up before. If you have an Instagram account linked to a business Facebook page, you will be offered a link to open an Instagram store when you open the Facebook store.
3. Then send your account for review, which usually takes a few days. To do this, select Settings or “Settings” from your Instagram profile. Then click on “Register for shopping”.
4. Once your profile is approved, you can activate shopping. Again on the profile, click on “Settings”. Then click “Business,” then “Shopping.” Select the catalog you want to link, and then click “Done.”
5. At the end of the process, you can add shopping labels or “tags” to the products that appear in your photos and videos, allowing customers to make a quick purchase. Similarly, you can also add shopping labels to photos and videos on your Facebook page.

You are ready!

That's all! With a little effort, you can set up Facebook Business Manager and make the most of all the features it offers you.

When you successfully establish your store on Facebook and Instagram, however, the work is just beginning. The next step is to promote the store and products. We will talk more about advertising in the blogs that come.

Sources: Facebook Help Center, Instagram Business, Lyfe Marketing