How to make an eCommerce website for FREE?
As the impact of COVID-19 has certainly presented a lot of barriers for businesses to continue delivering their products and services. Selling goods online has become more popular than ever, with many local retailers turning to the world of eCommerce to keep their business moving.
As digital and eCommerce experts, we understand how eCommerce can be used to sell products online and make a high return. After all, a website is available 24/7 at your customers’ fingertips, and it doesn’t involve having to pay staff to stand in a shop all day. However, a successful eCommerce website requires a lot of thought and planning, and usually some sort of investment. Once and eCommerce website is built, directing valuable traffic to the website is essential for success. This isn’t always accessible for small businesses, especially if they want to get something up and running quickly.
So how can small businesses sell their products online, without a start-up cost to do so?
Thanks to Facebook, this is now easier than ever! They’ve launched a new feature called ‘Facebook Shop‘
Okay, so it’s not quite an eCommerce website.
But this is a major step for Facebook as it attempts to shift towards the eCommerce space. The new shop feature means you can upload your products to Facebook, list them on your page, customise your page layout (fonts and colours) and direct message customers through Messenger, Instagram or WhatsApp.
And the best part of all? The free traffic!
If you have been building your Facebook page for a while, you will have started to gain an audience of people who see your posts. If your posts are being shared, people will be clicking on your page and will be able to see your products / make a purchase instantly.
Facebook is a place where strangers are constantly browsing, looking and clicking, which means if you’ve got your organic Facebook marketing right, you will get page visitors that don’t need converting into website visitors.
And, it’s not all doom and gloom if you have just started a business and don’t currently have an audience on Facebook. You can still take advantage of Facebook’s free shop feature, and run Facebook ads to your page.
This means that you can start an online store with only a small advertising budget!
Facebook describes this new feature as:
“Facebook Shops is a mobile-first shopping experience where businesses can easily create an online store on Facebook and Instagram for free. Shops let you choose which of your items you want to feature, merchandise with product collections and tell your brand story with customisable fonts and colours. In Facebook Shops, you’ll be able to connect with customers through WhatsApp, Messenger or Instagram Direct to answer questions, offer support and more. “
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How to set up a Facebook Shop
(with pictures)
Go to your Facebook page, and on the top bar click ‘Settings’.
You can access all settings for your Facebook page here. To create a shop, just hit the ‘Templates and Tabs’ button on the left-hand side.
Scroll through the templates until you find ‘Shopping’, and then click on ‘View Details’ to activate it.
Be sure to look at Facebook’s terms and conditions for listing your products, and then confirm you agree.
Choose how you’d like customers to purchase your products. If you already have a website, you can link this here and customers will be taken to your website to purchase. For this example, we’re going to use the message option, as this post is for businesses who may not have an e-commerce website yet.
Then all you need to do is input information for each of your products.
Once you’ve followed these steps, your products will be published on your Facebook page. This is what users will see if you’ve used the messenger option.
?Congratulations – you’ve created your Facebook shop! Your audience will now be able to see your products and contact you to make a purchase.
Hopefully, this blog has helped you to take the first steps to sell your products online. For more social media help, read our blog on how to make sure your social media strategy is effective.
ABOUT BEANIE MEDIA
We are a digital agency based in Huddersfield. We work with businesses to build their brands online. Our services include web design, social media campaigns, video production and marketing.