What you need to know about Facebook Shops: helping small businesses sell online

Lots of businesses are launching and strengthening their digital presence since the pandemic hit. So it’s great to see Facebook helping in this process to get people online with their new tool – Facebook Shops. It should make shopping online seamless and hopefully help keep businesses afloat and kick start the economy again.

Facebook Shops is a "mobile-first shopping experience where businesses can easily create an online store on Facebook and Instagram" (this summer, starting in the US, Facebook are introducing Instagram Shop and it will be more widely available in the coming months) for free.

Facebook Shops let businesses choose which products they want to feature, helps business owners merchandise with product collections and tell brand stories with customizable fonts and colours.

Shops will also help brands connect with customers through WhatsApp, Messenger or Instagram Direct to answer questions, offer support and more.

Facebook is also testing loyalty programmes, as a way for customers to earn rewards eg. a points program at your local cafe.

They have also said they’ll be working with partners like Shopify, and BigCommerce to give small businesses extra support and information on other commerce tools.

People can find Facebook Shops on a business’ Facebook Page. And more on Facebook Shops and how it works here.