Ashad RehmanThe Facebook marketplace concept was first introduced back in the year 2016. Since the platform is a safe haven for socially interactive individuals, it has unfolded many other increasing benefits. One of these is buying and selling of various products through the platform. On average, more than 450 million individuals visit different buying and selling groups on Facebook’s.
Here is a complete account of the launch of Facebook’s marketplace.
In order to connect these individuals with each other more effectively, Facebook introduced the Facebook marketplace. It became a place where people come to buy and sell to local communities.
Ever used Craigslist before? Facebook Marketplace works along the same lines; only this time, you can interact with people with the help of Messenger. In June of 2018, things started to change as Facebook gave businesses a chance to place ads in the Marketplace. It’s planning to move from being just a Craigslist doppelganger to a more hyper-targeted platform, such as Amazon.
To read the complete announcement in detail, click here.
Does it peak your curiosity to learn a little bit more about how the Facebook Marketplace platform actually works? Does it make you wonder what businesses can do better to prepare for the future? Are you eager to learn about the features which are currently available? Let’s talk.
What is Facebook Marketplace?
Facebook Marketplace can be best described as an online shopping channel. It’s a place where people come together within a local community to buy and sell products and services from each other.
May 2018 marks the month when Facebook Marketplace reached more than 70 different nations across the world. With more than 800 million people selling and purchasing products, it has gained traction with individuals willing to sell their products/services in a local market.
To visit the Facebook Marketplace, simply tap on the shop icon at the bottom of the Facebook app.
Discover New Items to Purchase Around the Country
So the moment you click on the shop icon, Marketplace opens a list of photo items that people are selling near you. If you are looking for something in particular, you can make use of the search bar at the top and filter down your results accordingly. You can find just about anything that you desire, the only condition applied is that someone should be selling it in your hometown. The filter options are interesting as they allow you to select your product category and even the budget.
Also, Facebook Marketplace offers a built-in location tool which allows you to set the region you’re searching a particular product in. You can even switch to different cities and see if the product is available elsewhere. Once you have found it, you can transfer the payment and get it delivered.
Each product will have a price, the name of the product, the description of the product, and an image. If you are interested to carry out a conversation with a seller, you can simply tap on the Message Seller option. Usually, users make use of that option when they wish to strike a bargain with the seller. Once you are satisfied with the price, simply tap on the “Make Offer” button.
How Should One Post an Item in Facebook Marketplace?
Trust me, there is no exact science here. To sell a product in the Facebook Marketplace is just as easy as browsing for the product. Here’s a step by step process to simply sell the product:
- Capture a high-definition photo of the item that you wish to sell and post it on the platform from your camera phone.
- Enter the accurate product name, a detailed description, and the price of the product.
- Now confirm the location where you wish to sell and choose a category for your product.
- Once you are done setting the prerequisites, post the ad in the marketplace.
Facebook Listing is pretty well organized, categorically. You can choose from a range of categories such as Entertainment, Vehicles, Housing, Hobbies, etc. It helps the shopper filter searches based on pricing and locations. You can also save these listings for future references in the marketplace.
Every listing can contain up to 10 photos.
Some Real Life Success Stories Making a Fortune Out of Facebook Marketplace
TurnKey Marketing
If there is one place that scored a good amount of success with the Facebook Marketplace, it is none other than the ‘Turnkey marketing solution’. This digital agency increased the sales of one of its clients (a car dealership business) by 20% after choosing Facebook Marketplace.
It further decreased the cost per action by 50% and increased the average landing page views by 20%.
Turnkey marketing constantly created multiple advertising campaigns for its car dealer clients in order to reach potential car purchasers across different steps of the buyer’s journey. They targeted different custom audiences including all those who were newcomers and people who have interacted with the ads before. It included all the potential leads which were taken from the customer’s CRM system as well as incoming website visitors that were tracked down by the Facebook pixel. Pixels are tools that record the action of site visitors. They ran their campaigns for around 90 days.
They created ads using a single image and in carousel forms, used discount offers to attract customers, offered low-budget leasing prices and used conversion tracking software to measure results.
Sweetums Signature
This family based business started generating around 33% more sales annually than usual after listing their decorative decals on the Facebook Marketplace. Danette, the owner at Sweetums Signature, started her business back in 2007. Her objective was to create affordable quality vinyl stickers and decals to personalize home interiors and water bottles to just about everything.
To sell her decals, Danette was looking for a low-cost solution which can easily attract online visitors. Apparently, her team at BigCommerce suggested her to go for Facebook Marketplace where she could post ads for her decals absolutely FREE. She shared her entire inventory at Facebook Marketplace. Her ads started showing to customers in the vicinity and the query response time from her social media support team got 3x faster than the queries generated on the website.
Moreover, to purchase the decal, customers used the Facebook checkout process, and Danette saw the sales margin go up by 33%, as compared to what her decal business made the previous year.
Tropical Breeze Decor
Tropical Breeze Decor, a beach-themed online decor retailer, was hungry to see some potential increase in their annual sales. At the time, the business was selling several apparel and accessories, including home and garden decors, to local customers. The owner, Austin Silla , who opened the shop back in 2005, was in search of unique ways to increase merchandise sales.
In time, the online retail market became incredibly competitive and Austin realized that he needed to find some better ways of growing his business. He was searching for a low-cost customer acquisition method and it just happened to be that the BigCommerce team, the e-commerce platform on which Austin was running his store, presented him the option of publishing ads in the Facebook Marketplace.
Austin saw a 3.5x increase in his sales, with Marketplace accounting for 87% of his total purchases.
Daily Steals
Daily Steals is an e-commerce platform that offers discounts and promotions for a wide range of products and services on a daily basis. They are known for customer experience and reliable discount offerings across a number of categories. Some of them are fashion and home-goods.
Daily Steals was seeking new ways of expanding its market and targeting new audiences. To increase sales, the platform opted-in for the deals option on the Facebook Marketplace. This option is accessed by 1 among every third visitor coming to the Facebook Marketplace. Facebook created some remarkable Daily Steals promotions and sent them out in its deal feeds. The team also uploaded its complete product catalog and set up a complete Facebook Shop with checkout for prospects.
Daily Steals started selling PS4 controllers 5x times faster than its previous deals in the market at the
same price.
Ubisoft
Ubisoft is one of the largest game development platforms, that has created entire video game franchises. Some of its masterpieces are Assassin’s Creed Series, Far Cry Series, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, & The Division. Being the fourth largest computer gaming industry in the U.S. and Europe, Ubisoft wanted to find new ways of reaching active gamers and prompt them to place pre-orders for the upcoming game releases. And nothing served the purpose better than the Facebook Marketplace.
The gaming company secured some great response while running direct Facebook marketing campaigns. But now, it was eager to run ads on the Facebook Marketplace as well. Ubisoft wanted to find out whether the Marketplace ad placement could lead to a greater intent to purchase. Hence, Ubisoft started running direct Facebook marketing campaigns which showed their relative ads on people’s News Feed, in addition, to a separate Marketplace ad which only showed up in the Marketplace feeds of their audience.
Ubisoft observed an estimated 67% increase in its purchases with a 5.4 point lift in purchase intent. It reached out to more than 3.4 million people throughout the sales process.
OpenSky
OpenSky is an e-commerce platform which assembles more than 70,000 independent vendors under a single platform, offering online shoppers a wide range of categories to shop from. MoreCommerce, a China-based e-commerce company working with Alibaba Group, powers the platform. With MoreCommerce, OpenSky would sell products far and wide across the world under different branded storefronts with names like OpenSky, Dot & Bo and Storenvy.
When OpenSky learned about the Facebook Marketplace, it was already running its Facebook campaigns through the Facebook ad manager. Upon learning, OpenSky showed a keen interest in expanding its reach through the Facebook shopping community. By becoming a Marketplace seller, OpenSky provided an open selling channel to its merchants which had the potential to reach 800 million people every month. Offering limited-time discounts helped them create a sense of urgency in shoppers.
As a result, OpenSky promoted its merchant inventory as product listings on the Facebook Marketplace and increased sales up by 10x as compared to the same month in the previous year.
How to Become a Deals Partner on the Facebook Marketplace?
While most online sellers would prefer to just post their ads on the Facebook Marketplace, the deals program can offer them a better chance to get their product sold. After all, nobody prefers to leave an option where they are getting a bit of a discount. Your product will only get considered for the deal program if ensure that the pricing you set is 15 percent below the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP).
Also, here are the categories:
- Consumer Electronics
- Gift Cards
- Gaming
- Intimates & Hosiery
- Footwear
- Sports and Outdoors
- Beauty Products
- Jewelries and Watches
- Apparel & Accessories
Facebook has also opened partnership programs for two of the fastest growing industries; automotive and rentals. If your organization is eligible, you can apply here.
How to Open a Facebook Page Shop?
When you are running a Facebook Marketplace listing, it becomes necessary that you also have a Facebook Page Shop on their Facebook business page. In case your business doesn’t have a Facebook Page Shop, it can become a little difficult for your customer to reach out to you on Facebook. They would either have to contact you directly or on your personal social accounts.
Why is it necessary to have a shop on your Facebook page? It’s because a Facebook page is your storefront. While all business pages can have a shop option on their Facebook Business Marketplace, any business can have a shop but the availability of different features simply depends on the location from where you operate. You can also set the payments on your Facebook Shop so people can check out on your website, through Paypal or with Facebook Checkout.
If you want to set up shop, you’ll need to add at least one product, reviewed and approved.
In the End…
Facebook Marketplace is not just about posting ads to sell your desired products online. You can even get registrations on your desired product with the help of Facebook Marketplace. Now, just create an ad that inquires people to come over and register themselves on your digital product. Of course, you will have to present something valuable enough to them so the offer looks good for customers.
Looking to get some interesting leads for your business on other platforms? Here is an interesting article which we covered earlier to get potential leads on LinkedIn. Do give it a read 🙂
With Facebook Marketplace, you can do that and a whole lot more. It depends on how creative you are. So the next time you plan your social media marketing strategy, ensure that Facebook Marketplace is there on your list. Do you want a robust marketing strategy for your business? Let Branex, a social media marketing agency, help you design the perfect business strategy for you.
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