At first, Facebook was just a website where you could talk to your friends. But then they noticed something important going on in the world. People are buying less and less from stores with walls and floors. Before the Internet, people didn’t have much to choose from.
Today, a new group of people is growing up. The name for these people is Gen Z or Generation Z. Most of the time, they are the children of millennials or people from Generation X. People born between 1995 and 2015 are in this group. Studies show that these people only buy things in person about 9% of the time. They buy the rest of their things online.
Because Facebook knows this, it made the Facebook Marketplace. It is an online part of the website where you can post items you want to sell for free and wait until someone asks how to pay you for the item. In this guide, I’ll show you how to sell things on the Facebook Marketplace.
Why should you use it, and why is it important?
Why should you use the Facebook Market?
The most important reason to sell here is because of all the people. Facebook is a social networking site used all over the world. People don’t seem normal if they don’t have a Facebook account today. It’s one of the first things people do when they go online, right after getting an email address.
And since billions of people use the platform, there is no problem with finding an audience. People don’t have to use another site like eBay or Amazon to buy things online. They only have to release the Facebook app, and it’s up to you to market or advertise your products on that platform.
CNET says that more than 800 million people now look at goods on Facebook Marketplace every month. Mark Zuckerberg says that 2.2 billion people use the service every day. This means that you can sell to 2.2 billion people every day.
What is the Facebook Market?
The Facebook Marketplace works like Amazon or eBay. The main difference is that it is linked to a person’s Facebook account. Whether the person is on a desktop or a mobile device, the icon for the marketplace is just there, waiting for him to click on it.
If a person clicks on that icon, Facebook will take him to the marketplace, where he can look at products. He can also search for a specific product, use the categories at the bottom left to search randomly, or search based on where the product is.
If he wants to know more about a product, all he has to do is move his mouse over the thumbnail or photo. From there, he can choose to share it, save it, or send a message to the seller. If he clicks on the Message icon, a pop-up will appear and let him choose from the default questions or type his own message.
What kinds of things can you buy on the Facebook Marketplace?
In the Facebook Marketplace, there are ten main types of items. We can expect that the company will grow it in the future.
These are the product groups for now:
- Vehicles
- Electronics
- Home and Garden
- Rentals
- Home Sales
- Hobbies
- Clothes and other things
- Classifieds
- Entertainment
- Family
A shopper can click on each one to see the items in that category. As shown below, there are also subcategories. But you can’t do much about merchants who put their items in the wrong category. In this screenshot, the Clothing and Accessories category was clicked on, but there is an ATV loading ramp in there.
What You Need to Know Before Selling on Facebook
You should know the rules of the market. It has something it calls “Commerce Policies.” This Facebook page tells you what you can do and what you can’t. This policy section has rules for Marketplace, Facebook Shops, Buy and Sell Groups, and Instagram Shopping.
For instance, you can only sell things that you can touch. If you offer a service, like house cleaning, you can only post about it if Facebook gave you written permission.
Here is a quick list of the rules for the Facebook Marketplace:
- The photo and description of a product must match.
- It is not allowed to sell animals, even through posts about adoption.
- Products for health care are not allowed.
- Items with before-and-after pictures, like the ones that are usually shown in ads for diet pills, are not allowed.
- Drugs that are against the law, drugs that are used for fun, tobacco products, and prescription drugs are not allowed.
- You can’t take food supplements.
- Adult services like pornography, child pornography, body parts and fluids, gambling, and very sexualized products are not allowed.
- Real, virtual, or fake money like bitcoin, as well as digital media, subscriptions, and digital goods, are not allowed.
When you sell something on the Facebook Marketplace, the most important thing to remember is that your product must:
- Physical
- Not illegal or does not promote vices like smoking, drinking, sex or gambling
- Not fake
- Nothing like a ticket or gift card
To find out more, go to the Facebook Commerce Policies and look carefully at whether or not your product is allowed.
Selling on Facebook: Pros and Cons
As we’ve already talked about, traffic is the main benefit of selling on Facebook Marketplace. You don’t even have to bring people to your product. Facebook does it for you. If a buyer clicks on a category, your product will show up in his feed if your locations are the same or if his search matches the category of your product.
Pros:
- No Listing Fees: If you want to sell something on Facebook, you don’t have to pay anything.
- Can Be Added To Other Platforms: This sales channel can be added to BigCommerce, Shopify, Zentail, and other e-commerce platforms.
- Personalized Experience: Facebook has a program that matches the buyer’s interests with your product. You can also use the messaging system to reach out to a potential buyer.
Cons:
- No Safety: because there is no way to pay online on Facebook. Buyer and seller must talk about how they want to do business.
- Fast Shipping: Facebook requires that you ship the item within three days of the sale, and the buyer must get the item within seven days. This is hard to do because you can’t do anything about shipping delays.
How to Sell Things on Facebook’s Market
You can sell on Facebook Marketplace in two ways. The first is to use your personal Facebook account. The second is to connect your already-existing online store, as long as it has Facebook as one of its sales channels.
As a person, all you have to do is click on the icon for the market. When you get there, you’ll see a button on the left that says “Sell Something.”
When you click that, a pop-up will appear, and you’ll have to decide whether you want to sell an item or a home. In this case, we’re choosing a place to live. After you click that, you can now upload the product information, photos, choose the category, and put the price.
After you post the item, just click Next and then Submit, and Facebook will look it over to see if it’s okay.
If you want to connect your e-commerce site, you must go to the Sales Channel section of your admin panel. Once you get there, if Facebook is allowed, all you have to do is click the button that lets you connect. The platform will open a pop-up window where you can enter your Facebook password. After that, you can choose which Facebook page will be linked to your store.
Once you have done this, any changes you make to your e-commerce site will also be made to your Facebook sales channel. But it can take more than 24 hours for the Facebook sales channel to be updated, so you’ll just have to wait. If it hasn’t changed in 48 hours, you need to contact Facebook.
Does The Facebook Marketplace have businesses that do well?
Yes, many businesses have successfully used Facebook Marketplace to sell their goods. You can do the same thing if you take the time to put your products on there and make it easy for your customers to buy from you. Since Facebook Marketplace ads came out, more and more companies are using it.
At first, a lot of people will want to buy your products. Don’t forget to answer them, because you never know who might buy. You must also give your customers a number of ways to pay, such as PayPal, credit cards, and money transfer services. Don’t forget to offer buyer protection, since Facebook Marketplace doesn’t have it yet.
Here are some examples of Facebook Marketplace companies that did well:
Succulents Box
This business sells small plants that come in small pots. When it started using Facebook Marketplace, it made 66% more money than it did the year before. Overall, 18% of the company’s sales came from Facebook, and it was able to get twice as many orders there as through their first sales channel.
Opel Netherlands
This car company’s sales went up when they started using Facebook Marketplace. After using the platform, its conversions from the ads it put on the platform went up by 27%, and it now has 15% more reach, which means it can show off its car products to 15% more people than it could before.
List of apartments
Apartments List is an American company that helps people find places to live. When it started using the platform, it was able to reach 17.5% more people. This means that more travelers can now see the apartments for rent. So, the cost of signing up is 16% less than if you just posted ads on Facebook’s newsfeed.
OpenSky
OpenSky is a large market all by itself. Customers can find almost any kind of product on its website, including electronics, clothing, kitchenware, beauty products, and much more. It mostly has a lot of time-limited deals called “flash deals” that people have to buy right away.
When it started using Facebook Marketplace, its sales went up by ten times what they had been in the years before. Also, the company saw that after a year, it had 19 times as many sales as in the years before, and it was able to sell nine times as many products as it did before it started using Facebook.
On the Facebook Marketplace platform, many more businesses have been successful. Since it’s still free to list items, anyone in business can take advantage of this huge marketplace. It’s easy to use, and all you need to invest is time and effort.
Facebook Marketplace Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to sell on the Facebook Marketplace?
On the platform, it’s free to list and sell items. Also, there are no fees if you sell something. As of now, the Facebook Marketplace is still in its early stages. If it starts adding features like those on eBay or Amazon, like buyer protection and payment gateways, it could start charging fees in the future.
Does this require an app?
No, it doesn’t require an app. In the Facebook app, the market is already there. All you have to do is tap the icon, and you will be taken to that page. You can then add your products and start selling them to customers.
How can I make sure I sell?
The first thing you have to do is come up with a good name for your product. Do not just call it “helmet” if you are selling a motorcycle helmet. You have to give it a name that includes the brand and the kind, like Zeus Full Face Motorcycle Helmet. If a buyer types any of those words into the search box, your product will show up in the feed.
Second, make sure you write good descriptions of your products and post good photos. And finally, you have to respond to customer questions in less than 24 hours and try to give them more information than they asked for.
What things can’t be brought in?
There are a lot of things that you can’t bring, and we can’t list them all here. The most important thing to remember is not to sell anything that is against the law or that promotes sex, violence, harassment, or content that is hateful. Also, you can’t sell online courses, e-books, or subscriptions that are digital.
Will Facebook take me off the list?
Yes, if you break Facebook’s rules, your listing will be taken down. There is also a chance that your work won’t be published at all. Sometimes, the computer system won’t notice that you’re selling something that isn’t allowed, and it will show up on the marketplace. But this will be found out at some point, and you will be warned.
Last Thoughts on the Market
The Facebook Marketplace is a new way to sell things online, and anyone who does business online needs to use it. It’s new, and it doesn’t have all the features of other sites yet, but Facebook is a huge company, so I’m sure they’re working on it. Facebook is really a worldwide app, so one day it might even be bigger than Amazon or eBay.
