Those who manage an online business focus on creating an e-commerce site, which is still essential for selling online. So yes, to the launch of an online store, but it’s not the only opportunity to broaden your brand’s horizons. In this article, we will talk about how to sell on Facebook and Instagram, two channels that can help those involved in e-commerce reach many potential customers who can evaluate the products directly on the social network, even before on the website.
The Best Time To Sell Online
The current era is marked by great changes, with the Covid-19 pandemic acting as a watershed between a before and an after. If the digital transformation process had already affected thousands of companies, everything has accelerated sharply with the pandemic (and the various lockdowns). The value of e-commerce turnover during 2021 is estimated at around 64 billion euros, with a strong increase in e-commerce, especially in the first quarter with a +78%.
Estimating greater growth is the Tourism sector (+60%) which hopes for post-health emergency recovery, followed by Health and Beauty (+49%), then Food (+37%), Fashion (+36%), Home-Office and Furniture (+31%), Consumer Electronics (+28%), Online Shopping Centers (+10%) and finally, with a more contained growth, Leisure (+7%) and Publishing (+2% )”.
How To Sell On Facebook: The Creation Of The Shop
Let’s make things clear right away: no social network reaches the numbers of Facebook, which currently has almost 2 billion daily active users, with 60% of internet users using the social network (practically 2 out of 3). Those with an e-commerce site can share posts on their company page to “push” users to the site.
But this is not the only possibility provided by Mark Zuckerberg’s social network, which, in recent years, has gone a long way in a commercial direction. Now on the company pages, it is possible to create the Shop section, a real digital showcase where you can upload photos of the products to sell them directly from the social network with a direct link to the site pages. An opportunity that a trader cannot pass up.
Create Your Product Showcase
After creating the e-commerce site and the company page on Facebook, a commercial activity, therefore, can create its Shop to tag the products in the posts and allow followers to purchase the products from the social network.
Also Read: 8 Digital Marketing Strategies For E-commerce
How To Sell On Instagram: Open The Shopping Section
Born as a small application to share photos with friends, Instagram has grown exponentially over the last few years, especially after becoming part of the Facebook universe. Instagram currently has about 2 billion monthly active users, with an engagement rate per post that reaches 1.16%, well higher than that of Facebook, which stops at 0.27%. Instagram, like Facebook, is a platform that can give enormous advantages to e-commerce looking for visibility. However, let’s clarify: only companies selling material products can use the Instagram Shopping feature, excluding those selling services.
Create Your Online Store On Instagram
If you own a business selling physical products, you can’t pass up an opportunity like this. So let’s see how to set up Instagram Shopping. First, you must transform your personal Instagram profile (which the company must have) into a business profile. That’s how:
- Sign in to the Instagram app
- On your page, click on the three dashes at the top right ☰
- Click on Settings
- Then go to Accounts
- Finally, click on the item Switch to a professional account
Once this “step” is done, you can set up Instagram Shopping. The procedure is very simple:
- Log into your professional Instagram account
- Click on Settings
- Then go to the Business section
- Then click on Shopping, here confirm your Facebook account, which obviously must be connected to that of Instagram
- Connect the catalog created on the Facebook page with the Instagram account
At this point, the catalog on Instagram Shopping is available, a feature that (we repeat it) is not available to everyone, given that the company must be suitable. If so, you can post product photos on your profile and tag the product sheet so that users can click the button to land on the product page in the online store.
Online Store Plus Social Showcases, The Recipe For Success
As we saw at the beginning, the numbers show that electronic commerce is in excellent health and that the volume of business is constantly growing. In short, this is the right time to invest in e-commerce. However, it would be a mistake to rely only on Social Media which, although formidable showcases are always platforms of “outsiders” who make their tools available. Since we are talking about commercial activities, it is better to guarantee a stable future by creating a proprietary online store.
Also Read: Step By Step To Sell Via WhatsApp