In October 2016, the Facebook marketplace was created to enable buying and selling to take place. It’s an online marketplace where users can easily buy and sell used or new products on a daily, monthly, or yearly basis.
They used the Facebook marketplace in 50 countries around the world to buy and sell products. It has become an important platform for marketers to use to increase their sales and earn more income.
If you are a marketer considering making use of this marketplace to boost your business and increase your sales, then you have made a good decision.
This article comprises the steps necessary to create an account and be a user of the Facebook marketplace.
It also gives you in-depth knowledge about the Facebook marketplace for business and how to properly utilize it.
What is Facebook Marketplace?
When you want your products and services to reach lots of audiences, the Facebook Marketplace is where you can achieve this.
Facebook marketplace is a convenient place for you to buy, sell and discover items. You can find whatever you are looking for by filtering their results by category, price, and location.
Before the Facebook marketplace was launched, buying and selling took place in Facebook groups. These groups have limited categories and don’t really connect the buyer to the seller.
The Facebook marketplace has a complete shop-like feature that connects buyers and sellers with their products and services.
Although Facebook doesn’t promote sales transactions, it provides a space for sellers to showcase their products without getting involved in the price and shipping processes between the seller and the buyer. The Facebook marketplace enables businesses to:
- Showcase or display different retail items
- Show new or used items from the Facebook page shop for free.
- Be able to advertise store items on the marketplace to sell more products.
You Should Check Out: 15 Legit Ways To Make Money From Facebook In 2022 | Full Guide
What to Sell on Facebook Marketplace
There are some items that are not allowed to be sold on the Facebook marketplace. Before taking up a space to advertise and sell your products and services, you should be aware of whether they are listed among the unwanted items in Facebook Marketplace categories.
As listed on Facebook, the following items can’t be sold on the Facebook Marketplace:
- Alcohol
- Animals
- Gambling
- Hazardous goods and materials
- Adult products
- Body parts and fluids
- Jobs
- Digital media and electronic devices
- Documents, currencies and financial instruments
- Weapons, ammunitions and explosives
- Tobacco products and related substances
- Human exploitation and sexual services
- Ingestible supplements
- Stolen goods
- Services
- Medical and healthcare products
- Recalled products
- Prescription products, drugs and drugs paraphernalia
- Products with overtly sexualized positioning
With the above list, you now know what goods and services are not allowed on the Facebook marketplace.
Other businesses and products such as automobiles, houses, and eCommerce products can be sold on the marketplace.
We have been able to look at the few things Facebook marketplace prohibits you from selling, let’s get to know about who can sell on the Facebook marketplace.
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Who Can Sell on the Facebook Marketplace?
Anyone having goods to sell whether old or new can sell on the Facebook marketplace. The Facebook marketplace is also designed for entrepreneurs, handmade artists, sellers, real estate, fashion businesses, e-commerce businesses, etc.
Facebook marketplace is similar to Amazon and eBay but in this case, you don’t pay to list your products or services on the marketplace.
When your products are ordered by a client and you ship it, you will be charged to pay 5% of the product price.
Facebook Marketplace Categories
You can list your products or business using the following Facebook marketplace categories:
- Deals
- Entertainment
- Families
- Hobbies
- Electronics
- Classified
- Clothing and accessories
- Housing
- Home sales
- Vehicles
- Home and gardens
How Does Facebook Marketplace Work?
Let’s dive into more details on how to sell on the Facebook marketplace. The Facebook marketplace uses a simple concept.
Here, sellers are able to list their products for sale in their various locations and users can locate a seller’s product prior to those close to the user’s location.
The marketplace displays different items that are similar to what the buyer or user searched, for and are for sale in their locations. Then, the buyer can choose the item they want to buy and contact the seller through Facebook Messenger.
The buyer and the seller will agree on their mode of payment, how to make the payment, and deliver the item either at a specified location or through shipping.
The Facebook marketplace makes use of Facebook Messenger, which is a free platform that makes it easy for businesses and sellers to carry out transactions without having to exchange addresses or phone numbers.
Facebook Marketplace Algorithm
The Facebook marketplace works using its algorithm. According to the Facebook marketplace developer, here is how the marketplace works.
“For buyers, we use computer vision and similarity searches to recommend virtually similar products (like suggesting chairs that look similar to the one the buyer is viewing) and the option to have listings translated into their preferred language using machine translation.
For sellers, we have tools that simplify the process of creating product listings by auto-suggesting the relevant category or pricing, as well as a tool that automatically enhances the lighting in images as they’re being uploaded.”
This implies that the Facebook marketplace algorithm works by showing buyers the products that resemble what they have previously searched for or viewed on the platform.
The marketplace can be used to your advantage by simply optimizing your products so they can appear more in the search engine of the marketplace.
For this to be done, you will need to add tags and descriptions that will lure people to your products when they are searching for such products or similar products on the Facebook marketplace.
How to Use the Facebook Marketplace
The Facebook marketplace is, without doubt, a great platform for sellers to find and get new customers, and build lasting relationships.
The marketplace can be further used in the following ways:
To Know the Popular Products that Sells
Not all products sell very well on different platforms. For instance, a product that sells very well on Amazon might not sell very well on eBay or Facebook marketplace.
To start advertising and selling on the Facebook marketplace you should research the products that sell very well on Facebook. You do this by checking out other sellers’ products in your niche and their product categories. Top selling products are found at the top and named “top picks”.
When you discover a product in your niche that sells very well on Facebook, you can create ads based on such products to expand your reach on the platform and make the product sell faster.
To discover popular products, you can also go to similar business pages and check out the top-performing items that are listed at the top of the page.
To Test New products
If you plan on launching a new product for your business, you can use the Facebook marketplace to test out your new products.
It helps you target the best audience and helps you know what products your audience prefers to buy.
Apart from this, you can use the Facebook marketplace to carry out experiments to know what price is most suitable to sell your products at by increasing the prices and using discounts.
To Boost Discoverability and Awareness
When users discover your products on the Facebook marketplace, they become aware of it and it’s likely that they will consider it when making buying decisions.
These users are not cold audiences or audiences you need to impress, they are users already interested in your products.
In order to increase your visibility in the marketplace, use the right categories to create awareness about your products.
The Facebook marketplace has about 11 categories with each of them having subcategories. When you place your products in the right categories, you will be able to capture the right audience and buyers interested in your products.
To boost your product discovery, you can create compelling and excellent descriptions for your products.
To Build Trust with your Audience
Once your products can be discovered by your audience, you should start building trust with those audiences.
The Facebook marketplace has tools that promote trust-building between a buyer and a seller. The first tool is the Messenger app.
It was originally designed as a messaging app but now has many uses, which include sharing photos and videos, locations, stories, and connecting with various businesses.
Also, the store page on the marketplace allows you to be able to answer questions and provide useful details and information about your products.
How to List Products on Facebook Marketplace
Before you can start selling on the Facebook marketplace as a business owner, you need to have a business or personal account.
If you don’t have an account, you won’t be able to sell on the marketplace, so create an account, to begin with. If you have an existing Facebook account, you can also use it to sell on the Facebook marketplace.
Also, for your products or goods to be visible, you have to list them on the Facebook marketplace, your timeline, a news feed, and other important pages or groups on Facebook.
The Facebook marketplace has rules and regulations that you must follow in order to carry out your business there. You can read the community standards governing the marketplace for further assistance.
For you to be able to list your products on Facebook, follow the step by step processes listed below:
- On the news feed, click on the marketplace icon
- Click on sell something or you can create a new listing from the left hand side located under the marketplace.
- You will be provided with various options such as items for sale, home for rent and vehicle for sale, select the product to be listed from the options. Since you are selling, you will choose the “item for sale” option.
- On the next page, select your product’s category, fill in the product you want to sell, set your price, location, product description and product images of up to ten. When you are done, click next to proceed.
- Now, you can click on “post” to publish your listed products in the marketplace.
If you have carefully followed these processes, then your products would be on the Facebook marketplace and can be accessed by buyers. You can access your store by locating the “shop tab” on your Facebook business page.
You can decide to speed up your sales by making it more visible to other people who might find it interesting by using Facebook Ads.
How to Attract More Customers on Facebook Marketplace
1. Know the Products Allowed To Be Sold On Facebook Marketplace
To start selling on the Facebook marketplace, you have to first figure out what products can be sold there.
As you have read above, not all items or businesses are allowed on the Facebook marketplace, and going against that can lead to your account being blocked.
Items such as refurbished or newly painted furniture, maternity clothes, shoes, bags, cabinets, or toys sell well in the marketplace.
2. Use Quality Photos to Display Your Products from Different Angles And Sides
Uploading a clear quality picture is very important. It can convince other clients to have a look at your product and consider buying it.
Customers like to see a clear picture of what exactly they will be paying for and not photos of another product aimed at impressing them.
Using stock photos to display your product photo is fraudulent. All you need is a smartphone to capture your product and proper editing, then you’re good to go.
Pictures of your product should be taken on a white or black background to avoid distractions.
Use good lighting while taking the pictures and take at least three photos from different angles to show close and complete images of your products.
Also, show all the details of your products, such as their defects, descriptions, and warranty information.
3. Choose a Suitable Price for Your Products
To set the right price for your product, it is advisable that you carry out product research on other platforms such as eBay, Jumia, or Jiji to avoid under-pricing and overpricing of your products.
When these occur, it can drive your customers away when they figure the actual prices from other platforms.
You can also figure the actual price of a product from other groups or pages on Facebook that sell similar items as you do.
When setting your price, it is better you set it at a slightly high rate to provide room for haggling.
When customers bargain price with sellers and end up agreeing to the actual price, they are more satisfied and relaxed with the result than buying at the actual fixed price without bargaining.
Some customers might not bargain but buy exactly at the price you set. In such cases, you earn more than expected.
4. Complete the Deal through Facebook Messenger Chat Box
If a buyer shows interest in your product, learn more about them by checking their Facebook profile.
For instance, if you feel safe and comfortable selling to them, then proceed; if not, then decline it.
You can conclude and close your deal by discussing it in the Facebook Messenger chatbox.
Here, you can give the client more information about the product, discuss how the package will be delivered and the means of payment.
You should be alert when making such transactions, in order not to fall victim to fraud or scams.
5. Receive Cash or Properly Confirm the Transaction To Prevent Scam
Accepting cash as a means of payment is the best payment means on the Facebook marketplace. It is safer than other methods like PayPal, bank transfer, or check.
Cheques can bounce back, disclosed bank details can be used for fraudulent purposes and fake emails can be used for PayPal payments.
Bad clients can also use chargeback to claim that the transaction was not authorized by them and the transaction can therefore be reversed by the card issuer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Things like children’s clothes and toys, working electronics, fitness, small furniture or storage furniture, are popular on Facebook marketplace and they sell fast.
Yes, selling on Facebook marketplace can be very profitable.
Facebook marketplace is a great place to sell items of all kinds that are not prohibited by Facebook.
It costs no fee to sell on the marketplace as an individual but for merchants, there’s a 5% fee on all transactions, with the minimum charge of $0.4.
The maximum listing is 150 items on a daily basis.
To find most searched items, check Google trends. It will display the trends of your product ideas based on search volumes from 2004 and above.
Conclusion
More than 800 million people globally use the Facebook marketplace monthly to buy or sell items according to research in October 2018.
Competitions arise each day for almost every product and sellers are looking for new ways to expand their sales and reach more audiences.
The Facebook marketplace is a good platform for people to list their products, sell and buy without having to move about.
Reference
- leadsbridge.com – 5 Tips for Selling on Facebook Marketplace
- bigcommerce.com – Why Facebook Marketplace
- bobvila.com – How to Sell on Facebook Marketplace
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