Social commerce is poised to take off in 2025, reaching 60% or more of Gen Z and Millennial customers worldwide, depending on the source.
TikTok is a trending social platform with around 36 million shoppers, while Facebook is massive and established with 68 million. Both are compelling options.
In this article, I will focus on the Facebook Shop and its two key promotional opportunities.
Create a Facebook page
Create a Facebook page by filling in a few fields and uploading images.
A Facebook store requires a Facebook page.
- Log in to your personal Facebook account.
- Go to the Pages section and create a new page.
- Select the “Public Page” option.
Walk through the six settings screens using the Facebook interface as a guide. At the end, you will have a minimal Facebook page ready for business.
Create a Business Suite account
Meta Business Suite is a single place to manage your sites, including the one you just created for your store. The setup process is straightforward.
- Go to Business Suite.
- Click “Create Account” and follow the instructions.
- Add your Facebook page to Business Suite under “Business Settings” > “Accounts” > “Pages”.
Business Suite is a hub for Meta assets — Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp.
Meta’s Business Suite is a dashboard for managing Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp businesses.
Create a trading account
Next, prepare your Facebook Shop.
- Go to the Facebook Commerce “Getting Started” page.
- Select “Add Products”.
- Toggle the “Connect to partner platform” switch.
- Fill out the form.
Facebook Shop integrates directly with Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce and other stores. I will use Shopify for this example.
To get started, enter your store’s subdomain, Myshopify.com, located under the “Domains” tab in your Shopify account settings. Facebook will redirect you to Shopify and add the Facebook app and Instagram.
Facebook integrates with many e-commerce platforms, including Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce.
Connect your store
Facebook profiles linked to multiple pages may need to specify which one to integrate with Shopify. Then set the desired level of data sharing between Facebook and Shopify. Meta will use the data to improve advertising results, but may require updates to your privacy policy and Shopify settings.
You’ll likely see approved products on your Facebook page within minutes, although it can sometimes take up to two days.
Customize your Facebook store
Once your Shopify and Facebook Shop are synced, customize your store through Facebook Commerce Manager by adding payment types, layouts, and authentication. Facebook allows some store customization, but will also pull from Shopify.
Facebook usually provides a checklist with several tasks to complete before your store is up and running.
Facebook allows for some store customization, but takes a lot out of Shopify.
Promote your business on Facebook
Most sellers promote their stores on Facebook in two ways: Meta advertising and organic social media content.
Meta ad. By accessing Shopify’s shared data, Meta can confirm purchases, track site activity through its pixel, and view online chats.
All of this information will guide Meta in identifying and targeting likely customers in a privacy-compliant manner. An optimized ad should perform well. Several published reports, including one from Omnichat, describe a tenfold improvement in return on ad spend for online merchants using Shopify and Facebook Shops.
Organic social media content. A second promotional opportunity comes from content marketing and email address capture.
Think of Facebook as a content distribution channel for your store. Share blog posts, product videos and like them on this platform. Its algorithms (and your followers) will help uncover the trade.
Always include email capture on your Facebook page and store. Add a custom “newsletter” or “subscribe” action button to your page linked to your email subscription form. Then include these subscribers in your store’s regular promotional emails.