It is now evident that social media marketing is a worthwhile investment for any business owner. Today, thousands of companies advertise or maintain accounts on social media networks.
Without a doubt, social media has proven to be a good platform for building business. Facebook has proven to be such a platform.
But did you know that you can also do live sales and market your business on Facebook?
Facebook now gives businesses and individuals an interactive way of selling their items live, connecting with viewers, and attracting potential customers in real-time.
For example, you do make live boutique sales through streaming by featuring and demonstrating the products you want to sell.
Furthermore, you can put product details and purchase options front and center of your streaming event and talk to your clients through a live broadcast. But how do you do it, or how should you get started.
How to do live sales on Facebook
Before you can start selling live on Facebook, you first need to understand the live selling rules on Facebook. Some of the rules you have to follow are:
- Sell physical products instead of services.
- Ship any orders within three days.
- The buyer must receive their orders in seven days.
- Process all payments through Facebook Messenger.
- Avoid misleading users to think that specific footage is occurring in real-time when it is not.
- Avoid copyrighted material.
- Avoid selling prohibited items, including animals, drugs, weapons, and any item infringing on intellectual property.
When using Facebook to do live sales, you are responsible for ensuring that your content complies with all applicable laws, regulations, and statutes.
Once you understand the terms of selling products on Facebook Live, the next step is to sell.
1. Set up your shop on Facebook
Before selling clothes on Facebook Live, you first have to set up your shop. Facebook has a feature called Facebook Shops, where you can display and sell products on the platform.
Potential customers can visit the shop, browse your products, make purchases, and interact with your brand.
Here is how to do it:
- Open the Create your shop page in the Commerce Manager.
- Click Next.
- Select your preferred checkout method among the three provided and click Next.
- Create a new Facebook Business Page or select the one you have already created.
- Click Next, create a new Business Manager, or select the one you already created.
- Choose the catalog you want for your shop and click Next.
- Review the steps and click on Finish setup.
At this point, your shop is now ready. The next steps involve managing your catalog to add products for sale, customizing, and publishing the shop.
Understand that Commerce Manager also gives you Facebook live ordering system. You can get it by first setting up a shop with checkout so that customers can buy items directly from the shop.
When you use checkout, you will also get extra Commerce Manager tools.
2. Set up live shopping on the Commerce page
Before selling products using Live shopping, you must create a product playlist in Commerce Manager. The playlist contains products you will feature in your live shopping video.
Here is how to create a product playlist:
- Go to Commerce Manager.
- Select your shop.
- Click on Live Shopping under Promotions.
- Click on Create Playlist.
- Click on Feature existing products.
- Click on Next.
- Select all the products you want to feature in the playlist,
- Click on Next after making your selections.
- Give your playlist a name and click on Next.
You can review all the details and tips Facebook provides and then click on Create Playlist.
3. How to go live on Facebook to sell products
After creating a shop and setting up live shopping, the next step is to go live on Facebook. You can go live via desktop or mobile. If you want to go live on desktop, do the following:
- Go to your Facebook Page.
- Click on Live in the Create section to access the Live Producer tool.
- Open the Live shopping tab.
- Toggle on Enable Live Shopping.
- Click on Choose My Playlist under Select a Playlist.
- Click on Save to view your items under Feature items.
- Create a title for your video and click on Go Live.
Once you click on Go Live, you will have to feature your products. Here is how:
- Click on Feature under the product you want to sell.
- If you have a different product to feature, click on Stop featuring.
- Next, click on Feature under the new product.
Once you finish the live video, click on End Live Video and post the video on your Page’s timeline.
4. Check order status
When selling live on Facebook, you expect some viewers to make orders. Therefore, you can check your order status by doing the following:
- Go to Commerce Manager.
- Click on Orders.
- Click on Orders again in the drop-down menu.
- Choose the order you want to check the status.
- Click on status (canceled or pending) to know why the customer canceled the order or why it is still pending.
Cancellation may happen because the customer changed their mind or their payment method failed.
Tips for selling live on Facebook
Here are the best Facebook live sale tips for beginners:
- Be consistent when going live and ensure you go at the same time.
- Consider promoting your live shopping streams to build anticipation for your products.
- It is best practice to engage your viewers directly and actively.
- Express yourself when streaming live on Facebook.
- Demonstrate the best way of using your products to make customers understand what you are selling.
- Consider repeating important information when streaming live to help viewers who have joined in halfway.
- Follow up with viewers who have commented or messaged you during the live stream.
Also, consider posting your live videos on your timeline instead of deleting them. It will allow you to gain more views and expose your products to new visitors.
Wrapping up
You can use Facebook to sell your products in real time. First, you require setting up a Facebook page and then using it to create a shop. Then, use Commerce Manager provided by Facebook to set up live shopping.
After setting up Live Shopping, the final step is to go live. Ensure to follow Facebook live policies when selling online.
If you’ve tried out Live Shopping and it doesn’t work out for you, consider Facebook Marketplace as long as it is available in your area.
