Facebook Marketplace, How To Use It For Your Business

Facebook Marketplace : More and more companies and individuals are using the free Facebook Marketplace showcase to close great deals. With online sales in a continuous growth trend, with an estimated 2.20 billion buyers expected in 2021, more and more companies have decided to use e-commerce platforms and marketplaces to increase their online presence and increase or differentiate their channels of sale. Due to the restrictions imposed to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, many retail stores have entered the world of online sales for the first time, finding an easy and immediate use solution in Facebook Marketplace.

What Is Facebook Marketplace?

Facebook Marketplace is a tool available for desktop and mobile, allowing individuals and companies to act as sellers and buyers and to interact to exchange information, negotiate and complete the sale with total autonomy. The Menlo Park social network first attempted to launch its Marketplace in 2007, then closed it in 2014. In 2017 Facebook Marketplace was definitively restored, becoming increasingly important, and currently, it is estimated that over two billion people use it every month. For individuals, it is an alternative to classic classifieds sites and marketplaces such as eBay and Subito, where you can sell unused or used items.

On the other hand, companies can use it not only for simple retail but also as a valuable tool to boost the awareness of our brand and improve the digital marketing strategy.

What Are The Benefits Of Using Facebook Marketplace?

If exploited to its full potential, the Facebook Marketplace platform will allow you to reap many benefits, including:

1. Greater visibility for your products/services
2. With over 2 billion daily users, Facebook is now an indispensable resource for digital marketing. In particular, for those who manage e-commerce, it is advisable to use Facebook Marketplace, Facebook Ads, and the Shop function for Pages in synergy.
3. Quick and direct assistance
4. Thanks to Messenger and WhatsApp, it is possible to respond promptly to requests from new users and keep in touch with existing customers.
5. Promotion of your brand
6. By using the spaces made available by Facebook accurately, it is also possible to promote the brand’s overall image. The trick is in the wise choice of contents. You have to publish high-quality images, carefully select your photos and pay attention to the descriptions and titles. How products, offers, and promotions are presented significantly influences customers’ general idea of our online store.
7. Monitoring of the market and competitors
8. Like any other marketplace, Facebook is a very effective tool to keep the market and the competition under control. In addition to having direct feedback on the trends of your market niche, in fact, by monitoring the work of your competitors, you will be able to understand which products are the most successful and which strategies they are using to reach their target and increase their audience.

Are There Any Products That Cannot Be Sold On Facebook?

Facebook Marketplace does not allow the sale of non-compliant products, such as weapons, drugs, and others that are not legally marketable. Furthermore, all items that cannot be cataloged as physical products, which therefore do not have an actual physical presence, such as consulting services, online courses, etc., are also prohibited. Healthcare products cannot be marketed (medicines and drugs in general or first aid kits), and all products that do not correspond to what is shown in the photo or do not comply with the published description will be promptly eliminated. Finally, the sale of animals of any kind is prohibited, as well as the publication of advertisements for the adoption or sale of puppies and animals in general.

A separate discussion concerns the sale of tickets for events or services, for which it is necessary to request and obtain prior authorization from Facebook.

How Does Facebook Marketplace Work?

Its operation is similar to that of any other marketplace platform. Still, it offers much greater potential than the numbers we have discussed regarding the number of active users and daily audience. To publish an ad on the Marketplace, you must comply with the Sales Regulations (which indicate what you can and cannot sell on Facebook) and the Facebook Community Standards (which govern, for example, images and descriptions for product sheets). The entire sales procedure is straightforward and aims to facilitate the meeting and direct exchange between the seller and potential customer. Here are the key steps :

1. After logging in to Facebook, click on the Marketplace tab;
2. Click on the option ” Create a new ad “;
3. Choose the category of the product you intend to sell (the product must necessarily fall into one of the categories “Item for Sale” (and subcategories), “Vehicle for Sale,” “Houses for Sale or Rent,” and “Open Job Position Obviously, in this article we turn to the first category;
4. Fill in the product sheet with the item name, selling price, reference place (the products are visible within 150 km of your location), detailed description, and a good-quality photo;
5. Complete the ad’s publication by clicking on ” Next ” and share it in your feed and the groups you subscribe to (as a profile and as a page).
6. It will be approved and published if everything has been done correctly and your product does not incur restrictions.

What Types Of Payments Does Facebook Marketplace Support?

Nobody. Facebook Marketplace does not currently support any financial transaction.

It may seem contradictory, given that we are talking about buying and selling, but remember that the purpose of this platform is to facilitate the meeting between those who sell and those who believe. Between private individuals, the parties agree in person for the exchange by finding the most convenient way to make the payment and exchange the product (for example, by meeting physically or by organizing a shipment after choosing whether to carry out the transaction in cash, with money transfer through PayPal, by bank transfer or by prepaid card top-up …). 

Businesses and stores must be organized to receive payments online and ship reliably and on time. It is, therefore, practically essential that they are equipped with an e-commerce site to which customers can refer (via Messenger, Whatsapp, or email …) so that they can complete the purchase procedure, choosing between the different payment and shipping methods offered.

Smaller companies not yet equipped with their online tools will be able to use the same methods as private individuals, perhaps relying on other marketplaces that allow the safe use of credit cards or other payments and in which the shipping methods are listed, such as Etsy or eBay.

Four Tips To Make The Most Of Facebook Marketplace

Here are four tips to get the best out of Facebook Marketplace, not just for direct selling but also to grow your brand’s reputation and trustworthiness:

Quality Advertisements

Each item inserted must be presented in the best possible way, with a detailed and captivating description, quality photos, and maximum clarity on product conditions, payment, and shipping methods, as well as on the contact methods for requesting information from potential buyers.

Attention To The Customer

Customers or potential customers who visit your Marketplace on Facebook must be sure that they can always count on a professional and reliable seller. In addition to responding promptly to contact messages, you must keep an eye on feedback, for example, by commenting or responding to positive or negative reviews and solving any problems (e.g., shipping, delivery, returns, etc.) with professionalism and education. ).

Create Your Community

Facebook Marketplace primarily showcases your products and shows them to a broader and possibly interested audience. It is, therefore, essential to “cultivate” your audience using all the possibilities offered by Facebook. A company page and a company profile on Instagram with constantly updated and exciting content, the creation of thematic groups, and the registration of your page to target groups can help you achieve these goals in the best possible way.

Invest In Facebook Ads

Publishing ads on the platform is free, but it is possible to create sponsored advertisements to highlight the articles inserted and reach a targeted audience against a predetermined budget. To do this, you need to have an advertising account on Business Manager, select the campaign objective, define the target audience, choose the ad format, and set the ad budget and timing.

This will allow you to create targeted promotions and special offers, highlight the most appealing products for your audience and representative of your brand, and collect critical statistical data to optimize your marketing strategies.