Latest update: September 2023 | by Lili

 

What is Facebook Shops?

 

Table of contents

• Facebook Shops in numbers
• How does Facebook Shops work
• Verifying your Facebook Shop
• Your brand’s IP rights on Facebook Shops
• Conclusion

 

Facebook provides ample opportunities for promoting and selling your products. The social network itself is great for widening your audience and deepening your connections with your clients.

 

But over the years, the company has introduced several features and platforms to enable actual shopping - no wonder that Facebook is regarded as one of the pioneers of social commerce.

 
Facebook Shops in numbers

Facebook Shops is a mobile-first e-Commerce platform within Facebook that allows businesses to create virtual storefronts and interact with consumers. This includes posting ads and product listings, chatting with customers, selling products, receiving sales analytics and much more.

 

Currently, there are over 250 million digital storefronts open on Facebook Shops. More than 1 billion shoppers flock to Facebook Shops per month, and 37% of all Facebook users plan to make purchases on the platform.

 

It’s important not to mix up Facebook Shops with Marketplace. The latter, in business since 2016, is mainly a C2C platform for consumers to exchange used items with each other.

 

 

Screenshot of Facebook Marketplace’s homepage

 

 

 

Screenshot of the homepage of a random shop on Facebook Shops
 

 

Although Marketplace also allows businesses to post listings, there are several key differences between it and Facebook Shops. The most important among these differences is that it’s not possible to directly make a purchase from Marketplace, users have to interact with the seller and discuss a way to make the exchange.

 
How does Facebook Shops work

Meta provides plenty of aid for brands and sellers who want to get started on Facebook Shops. It’s currently free to set up an account on the platform, and Facebook even allows sellers to link to their other online shops elsewhere on the internet.

 

Once you’ve logged in to your Facebook account, you have to choose your checkout method. You can either opt for an external provider to run your checkouts, go with Facebook, or arrange payment via messaging.

 

The first method will lead customers away to your external website, while the second one allows them to continue their purchasing journey within Facebook Shops. The third option is the most tiresome for consumers, because this means they can’t instantly purchase the chosen product.

 

After that, it’s time to choose your sales channel. This can be your existing Facebook page, or you can create an entirely new page for this purpose. After this step, you can connect your business account (if you haven’t already done so, or you logged in via your personal account), choose your shopping destinations, upload your catalogue and your work is done.

 

Facebook provides you with customisable design options to make your store reflect your brand’s image, as well as tons of marketing and analytics features like ads, reports, etc.

 

Once your store is complete, Facebook will have to approve it to ensure that it doesn’t violate Meta’s Commerce Policies. It usually takes about 48 hours, after which period your shop will be online and discoverable by customers.

 
Verifying your Facebook Shop

Besides the obligatory approval process, you can further enhance trust within your customers - and increase your access to certain Meta commerce tools - by verifying your shop. This means that Facebook checks the data you’ve given them and if they find that everything is in order, you’ll get a blue tick displayed next to your name.

 

 

Screenshot of a random verified store on Facebook Shop with a blue tick

 
Your brand’s IP rights on Facebook Shops

Luckily, Meta takes the protection of IP rights seriously. There are three tools the company provides for IP right holders: Rights Manager, Brand Rights Protection, and the IP Reporting API.

 

Rights Manager is a copyright manager tool that helps brands keep track of their copyrighted material across various Meta platforms, including Facebook Shops. Brand Rights Protection is a tool for protecting trademarks from counterfeiters and other infringing fraudsters, while the IP Reporting API is an automated, programmed reporting tool for violations.

 

Does that sound a bit complicated? Don’t worry, you don’t have to memorise it. In fact, if you have a comprehensive online brand protection program in place, you don’t even have to use these tools. globaleyez will take care of it all for you.

 

Our marketplace and social media monitoring services are perfectly geared towards detecting infringing content on online marketplaces and social media platforms, including social commerce tools like Facebook Shops. We find unauthorised ads, posts, product listings and much more.

 

Thanks to our excellent cooperation with Meta, we can enforce your rights and ensure the takedown of any infringing content from Facebook Shops and any other platform as soon as possible.

 
Conclusion

Facebook Shops may provide an excellent opportunity for your brand to connect with your audience and widen your reach. Don’t let fraudsters ruin this opportunity for you - contact us and let’s devise a brand protection strategy for your IP rights, perfectly tailored to your needs.