The Facebook B2C Marketplace Is All Set For Business In The US.
Recently, Facebook took a big leap on its decision of channelizing Facebook Marketplace. Earlier, Facebook planned to target only C2C customers. However, now they are planning to enter the B2C with the United States.
The game plan of Facebook was to provide a C2C marketplace platform to its users. Since, in a short period, the popularity of Facebook marketplace grew, they decided to step up their plan and enter the B2C market as well.
They will provide options of integrated checkouts, payments and shipping. Now, retailers in the US will be able to sell their products on Facebook. Although, the US market will be the first step towards B2C. Soon, Facebook will go global with this idea, since all the arrangements have already been made.
According to Facebook research, every third person on Facebook is using some kind of B2C platform for their daily needs. Therefore, with high-end demand already in place, Facebook just needs to create a supply chain.
Image credit – Facebook.
If you are considering to sign up for the Facebook marketplace; here are good four reasons, why you should do it now!
1. Minimal fee structure
Facebook is set to rule the e-commerce market with minimum commission rates. The rates in the US are set for 5% ($0.40) minimum for a transaction of less than $8.00. This is the least charge across all e-markets. Also, the commission rates are the same for all product categories.
There is no restriction on the number of products in an inventory. Apart from that, there is no additive fee for subscriptions or a different selling plan for people.
However, with the increase in popularity, the commission rate can rise. For example, Amazon recently increased its commission rate on apparels from 15% to 17%. Although, Facebook has shown no such indication of increasing commission rates in future. But, people should stay prepared for the future.
Therefore, before the opportunity disappears, people should gain profit from it.
2. Ease of enrollment
Before enrolling to the Facebook marketplace, there are certain criteria that people need to fulfil. Since the Facebook marketplace is still in its beta testing mode, retailers can enlist themselves using listing partners. Some of these listing partners are Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, ChannelAdvisor, CedCommerce, Cafe24, Tienda Nube and Feedonomics.
These listing partners have already fulfilled all criteria of the on-boarding process. Being well connected with Facebook staff also gives them an upper hand in providing better services. The on-boarding process is simple. All you need to do is enter details step by step. Start with the details of your business. Then moving on to your tax and shipping details. Further, you have to add your payment accounts and source of your data feed.
Image Credit – Instagram
As soon as all these details are provided and verified your store can go live.
Image Credit – searchengineland.
However, If you are already using Facebook and Google for selling or promoting products, the transaction is even simpler. All you have to specify is the quantity of inventory of your marketplace.
To make sure you don’t oversell, It is important to maintain an inventory.
Facebook is giving much better and faster results as compared to other marketing platforms.
For example, Daily Steals, a company promoted their product(controller for Sony PS4) with the help of Facebook. With the help of Facebook’s Marketplace, they were able to reach almost 6.5 million people. They achieved this goal 5 times faster when compared to other platforms.
They compared the checkout results and found that people were more inclined to complete the checkout process on Facebook. The customers felt more secure in completing the transaction on Facebook, instead of getting redirected to the companies website.
While listing the inventory, make sure that the inventory contains both, parent-child SKU’s.
For running ads, you can use a parent level SKU. However, to sell a product a child level SKU will be required. The sold product will inherit a child-SKU. It will guarantee that the right product is shipped. If you are already selling products on other platforms you will be familiar with the parent-child SKU.
3. All-in-one package.
With the help of Facebook market place, you will be able to sell your product by utilizing the whole Facebook family. Therefore, your product will be marketed on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and even on FB Messenger real soon. The best part about this deal is that the commission rate remains the same(5%).
According to research by Pew Research Centre, these days Facebook active user consists more of an older or middle-aged active audience. On the other hand, Instagram consists of a younger audience.
Therefore, before creating a shop, you must understand your audience. Even, the promotion strategies are different on both the platforms. Instagram is more graphic oriented and provides a much dynamic interface. So if your graphic game is strong you can opt for an Instagram shop.
Image Credit – Instagram
Image Credit – Instagram
On the other hand, Facebook is for more layman usage. To get the best results you need to make sure you stay on the creative side on both the platforms.
4. Easy and personalized way of shopping.
With High end-tech, Facebook algorithm design will help you reach the maximum number of audience. Also, as the user will start interacting with products Facebook will make his experience more personalized based on their data usage. In other words, instead of customers finding the right product, your product will find the right customer.
The product on Facebook can be portrayed in different places. It will be displayed the Newsfeeds, Page shops and in the Marketplace, providing better visibility for the consumer.
A Newsfeed will appear usually between the posts. They will be portrayed as suggested products.
A Marketplace will portray products as per the user likings. With the advanced Facebook algorithm, the probability of two people having the same Marketplace feed is very rare.
A Page Shop will have all your products listed together. It will appear in the same way as displayed in a store. The products will be portrayed from a Page Shop whenever a person searched for the store on the Marketplace.
Image Credit- Facebook
According to a survey made by Succulents Box, a marketing company, a total of 66% increase in their total sales was observed with the usage of Facebook Marketplace. They noticed that with the help of Facebook’s targeting technology there was a tremendous increase in their audience. Also, they calculated an average increase of 19% in their monthly revenue with the help of Facebook’s marketplace.
How to access Facebook marketplace?
Just a few simple clicks! and you can start using Facebook Marketplace. You can easily navigate between your Facebook feeds and the marketplace. Log in to the Facebook, click the Shop tab and get started.
It will direct you to the marketplace. Here, you can link your accounts, set payments methods and set up the business policies of your store. Once done with these steps you will be ready to go!
Also, consumers can shop by clicking on the sponsored image of Instagram Shopping ads and Dynamic Product Ads, and opt for direct checkout. This is a feature provided by the Facebook creative hub and will help to target a greater number of audience. The visual feature will also provide a frictionless experience to the customers.
