Selling on Facebook

Note: This feature is not available on every Ecommerce tier plan. If the feature is not available for your plan, you will see the corresponding notification.

With billions of users, Facebook is one of the most popular social media in the world. You can connect your store to Facebook in a few clicks and start selling directly on Facebook.

Automatically syncs all your products with your Facebook Shop without any additional effort. Customers can browse your catalogue directly through the Shop section of your Facebook page from their PC, tablets, or Facebook's mobile app. 

Once you connect your Facebook page, you can also tag products on Instagram, create marketing campaigns and measure the results of your ads with Facebook pixel.

Facebook Shop requirements

To start selling on Facebook, you need to meet a few requirements:

• Your business has a published Facebook Shop, and your Facebook account carries an admin role on it.
• Your products comply with Facebook Commerce policies and Guidelines for listing products.
• Products require shipping (so it can't be digital products or services) and can't be free.
• Your store’s currency is supported by Facebook. You can always change your store's currency: from your Store management, go to Settings → General → Regional Settings → Currency.
• Your domain should be verified so that Facebook knows that you are the owner.

Connecting Your Store to Facebook

Following the simple wizard, you can connect your Facebook Page, catalogue, Facebook Pixel, and your Instagram account to your store at once.

You can only connect your store to one Facebook Business Page. Multiple store accounts require independent Facebook pages and vice versa — you need a separate store account for each Facebook page.

Note: If you already have an active Shop section on your Facebook page, the existing products will be overridden when you connect your store to your Facebook shop.

To connect your store to Facebook:

1. From your store admin, go to Facebook and click + Connect Facebook page.
2. In the popup, log into your account or continue with your account if you are already logged in.
3. Make sure you tick all three checkboxes:
   • tick the Facebook Ads to run ads on Facebook and Instagram;
   • tick the Facebook Shop so your products are shown on your Facebook Shop page;
   • tick the Instagram Shopping to be able to tag your products on Instagram.
4. Click Get Started.
5. Select your Business Manager account and click Continue. If you don’t have one, click Create new and follow the wizard.
6. Choose the Facebook page to connect, then click Continue. Or click Create new and follow the wizard to create a new Facebook page.
7. Select your Instagram Business profile and click Continue. If you don’t have one, click Add profile and follow the wizard.
8. Choose the catalogue you want to show on your Facebook Shop page and click Continue. If you don’t have one, click Create new and follow the wizard.
9. Select your Ad account and click Continue, or create a new one by clicking Create new.
10. Select the Facebook pixel, then click Continue, or create a new one by clicking Create new.
11. Enter a name for your Commerce Account. 
12. Click Continue.
13. Once the Commerce Account is created and confirmed, click Continue to check the details, then confirm by clicking Continue.
14. Manage permissions. We recommend using the default settings for the proper work of your store. Click Next.
15. Once your store is linked to Facebook, click Done.

Now Facebook will have to approve your store. Approval can take up to 48 hours. Once your store is approved by Facebook, your products will appear on the Facebook Shop section and customers will see them.

If your store is rejected:

• ensure your products comply;
• appeal this decision.

You can also assign the marketplace category to your store if you haven’t done that before. This will make your products more discoverable for customers.

To set up marketplace category:

1. From your store admin, go to Facebook, scroll down to Marketplace Category and click Change Category.
2. From the Marketplace Category dropdown, choose your category.
3. From the Product condition dropdown, choose what products do you sell — new, refurbished, or used.
4. Click Save.

Note: If you sell products from different categories, for example, coffee beans and coffee mugs, you can assign a different category to each product in your store. Providing categories for products improves your ads conversion and helps customers to find the right items while searching.

Verifying Your Domain

To ensure that only verified owners can edit the way their content appears on Facebook, Facebook may require to verify the domain in which you intend to sell from. 

You can verify your website domain either by adding a record to your domain settings, or by adding a tag code to the source code of your website.

To verify your website ownership with Facebook:

1. In Facebook Business Manager, go to Business Settings → Brand safety → Domain.
2. Click Add, then + Create a new domain.
3. Select one of the verification options:
   • DNS Verification — you can use this verification option if you use a custom domain with your website and can edit its DNS records.
   • Meta Tags — choose this verification option if you have access to the source code of your website. Also, you can use the HTML injection feature.

Creating Specific Product Name and Description for Facebook Shop

You can create a unique name and description for each product that will be displayed on Facebook only. You can do it with special product attributes. That way, the name and/or description of the product on Facebook will be different from the name and/or description of the same product in your online store. For example, you have an item in your store that is called Chemex. You can change its name for your Facebook shop to Chemex - Classic Series - 8-Cup so it helps customers discover your items and make well-informed purchase decisions.

To create a different name and description for a product on Facebook:

1. From your store admin, go to Catalog → Products.
2. Select the product you want to change and click Edit Product.
3. Click the Attributes tab, then click Manage attributes:

4. Click +Add New to create a new empty field for the attribute. In the empty attribute field, enter FB Shop Product Name to create a specific name. Create a new empty field and enter FB Shop Description to create a unique description.
5. Click Save.
6. Go back to Catalog → Products and select the product you created new attributes for.
7. Click the Attributes tab.
8. Fill in the Value field with the name and description you want to appear on Facebook for this product:

9. Click Save.

Now the product will have the name and description you specified in the attributes. The changes may not appear immediately on your Facebook page. In that case, go to Facebook and click Force catalog sync. The product parameters will be updated.

Appealing for Rejected Products

Once your catalogue is uploaded to your Facebook Shop, the system will automatically sync your catalogue to ensure that your pricing and inventory are always up-to-date. If you make any changes to product details in your store admin (e.g., edit product’s image, title, or price), these products are immediately updated on your Facebook page.

Note: You can manually re-sync products anytime. Go to the Facebook page in your store admin and click Force Catalog Sync.

Sometimes Facebook can reject your product in case it doesn’t comply with Facebook Advertising Policies or Commerce Policies. You can request a second review if you believe an item was incorrectly rejected.

To appeal for rejected products:

1. From your store admin, go to Facebook.
2. Click Manage Facebook Products.
3. Click Get an appeal for rejected products:

4. You will be redirected to the Facebook page. Enter feedback if you want to and select Submit.

You can also go directly on Facebook and appeal the decision.

Your item now displays as in review. Reviews typically take up to a few days, but sometimes they take longer. You can check back in the product details page on Facebook Commerce Manager or from the Facebook page in your store admin. You will see the status of your products:

Listing Products and Collections on Facebook

Product listings on Facebook have certain peculiarities. Here is how it works with your store:

PRODUCTS

• Products marked as Enabled in your store will automatically show up in your Facebook Shop page.
• Products marked as Enabled that are assigned to a disabled category will not be sent to your Facebook Shop.
• Products marked as Disabled will not be sent to Facebook.
• Products marked as Enabled that are featured on the Store Front page will be uploaded to the Featured Products section on Facebook.
• Out of stock products that you set to be hidden from storefront will not be sent to Facebook.

Note: Facebook allows up to 20 images per product, so the first 20 images from the item’s gallery will be uploaded.

COLLECTIONS

• Products on Facebook Shop are organised into collections, which are similar to your store categories. Collections are top-level only. Products from your subcategories will be grouped under the top-level collection in your Facebook Shop.

• A collection is automatically created for each of your top-level categories when you connect your store.
• New custom collections cannot be created, and existing collections cannot be edited on Facebook.
• To hide/show a collection or sort the products within it, enable/disable the store category or sort the products within the category.

Note: You can use the catalog from your Facebook Shop to set up targeted ads within Facebook. 

Hiding Products in a Facebook Catalogue

If you do not want to sell some products from your online store on Facebook, you can manually hide them in Facebook catalogue settings.

To deactivate a product in a Facebook catalogue:

1. Go to your Facebook Business Suite.
2. In the left menu, click Commerce.
3. Select Catalog → Items.
4. Tick products you want to hide from your catalogue on Facebook and click Edit item in the right hand side of the screen, then Archive:

Products that you archived will be hidden from your Facebook catalogue. They will still remain available in your online store.

The Facebook Shop Checkout Process

When a customer wants to purchase something in your Facebook shop, they are taken to the online store on your website for checkout. Facebook shops do not have a shopping cart, so customers can only buy one product at a time.

Customers automatically receive confirmation emails about their orders from your store. You will see the orders in your store admin, go to My sales → Orders.

Note: Get useful insights about your store’s performance with Google Analytics.

Processing Orders from Facebook

Orders generated from Facebook are available in your store admin, My sales → Orders.

When someone places a new order in your Facebook shop, you will get an email. 

Disconnecting or Hiding Facebook Shop

If you want to stop selling on Facebook, you can hide the shop from your Facebook business page or disconnect your store. If you hide your shop on Facebook, customers won't be able to see your shop, products or collections anywhere on Facebook or Instagram. You can make the shop visible again any time. If you disconnect the shop, your store will no longer be connected to Facebook.  

To hide the shop from your Facebook business page:

1. From your store admin, go to Facebook page.
2. Click the link near the Commerce Manager.
3. Click Shops.
4. Click Edit shop near the shop you want to hide.
5. In the top left corner, click Settings → Visibility.
6. Click Edit visibility and turn off the Visible toggle.
7. Click Save.
8. Click Save and Publish updates.

All your sales channels will be hidden.

To completely remove the Shop you need to disconnect it from your store:

1. From your store admin, go to Facebook.
2. Click Disconnect the page.

Disconnecting your Facebook account from your store will clear your Facebook shop settings and remove your catalogue. Any product you create in your store will no longer sync with your Facebook catalogue. If you disconnect Facebook from your store, you won't be able to tag products on Instagram. You can always reconnect your store to this sales channel in the future.

Note: If you track Facebook Pixel data or have Instagram product tagging associated with your catalogue, disconnecting/reconnecting the Facebook shop could cause the loss of that data.

Facebook Shop FAQ

Why do I see a lot of duplicate products in my Facebook Shop?

Most likely, your products have variations with unique SKUs that Facebook treats as individual items.

Only store admins can see these duplicated products. If you browse your Facebook Shop in an incognito mode, products will show up in a standard way – with options.

To solve this issue, try re-syncing your store catalogue with Facebook.

Why some of my product categories are missing in Facebook Shop?

Enabled products that are assigned to the subcategory of the second level (including its subcategories) will be grouped into a separate collection on Facebook.

For example, you have two subcategories of the second level (Kids T-shirts and Adult T-shirts) that belong to the root category called T-shirts. You will have two collections in your Facebook Shop – T-shirts / Kids T-shirts and T-shirts / Adult T-shirts.

In case the Kids T-shirts subcategory has child subcategories (e.g., different designs or styles), the products from the child subcategories will be grouped under the same collection of T-shirts / Kids T-shirts on Facebook.

Why some of my products in Facebook Shop do not have options?

Product variations (e.g., size and colour variants) will be uploaded to the Facebook Shop with corresponding selections. Products that have a variation that reads “any choice” will be uploaded without variations.

You can manage the product variations in your store admin, go to Catalog → Products. Open the product in editing mode and switch to the Options tab.

Can shoppers on Facebook checkout with multiple products?

No. Facebook shop does not have a shopping cart to hold multiple products. However, the quantity of a single product can be adjusted.

Do hidden categories/products in hidden categories export/sync?

No. Products that are in hidden categories, and the hidden categories themselves will not export/sync.

Can I tag my Facebook Shop products in my Instagram photos?

Yes. See Sell on Instagram for more information.

How do I move the Shop tab on my Facebook page?

To rearrange the Shop tab in the Facebook menu:

1. On your Facebook business page, go to Settings → Edit page located at the top right corner.
2. Drag-and-drop the Shop tab where you prefer on the list of other tabs.

How can I display the Shop on the Home tab of my Facebook page?

Displaying the Shop section on the Home tab page is controlled algorithmically by Facebook. Users can not control this. You as an admin may see the Shop section shown on the Home tab, however, your page visitors cannot see it there.

The Shop section may be displayed on the Home tab of the pages that do not have any other activity in terms of media or posts.

Note: You can share products on your Facebook Timeline to reach out to people who are already following you and encourage them to visit your Shop and browse your products.