Facebook Shops is a mobile-first shopping experience where businesses can easily create an online store on Facebook and Instagram for free.
Shops let you choose which of your items you want to feature from your menu and tell your brand story with customisable fonts and colours.
Through Facebook Shops, you will be able to connect with customers through Facebook’s various platforms, including WhatsApp, Messenger or Instagram Direct.
It will also be available on Facebook and Instagram live, allowing users to buy special offers being featured on live video streams.
It’s one simple and consistent experience across the FB family of apps, which means it is easier for your customers.That means there’ll be higher conversions and more sales for your business.
The goal is to get people to actually buy things on the platform, rather than to just redirect them to other sites through Facebook ads.
The service will allow Restaurants to set a shop up for free, upload their menu items,and feature special offers.
Facebook will take a small commission on purchases made through Shops.
But the real lucrative area for the company is through driving more ads on the platform.
Zuckerberg said “Our business model here is ads, so rather than charge businesses for Shops, we know that if Shops are valuable for businesses they’re going to, in general, want to bid more for ads,”. “We’ll eventually make money that way.”
That means there will be no Organic Reach.
You will need to Pay to Play.
Here are a few reasons why the checkout can be valuable to your business:
Once a customer enters payment and shipping info for a purchase on Facebook or Instagram, it remembers their payment information so they don’t need to re-enter it each time they want to buy something.
FB stores payment information securely. With their protected payment info in one place, customers can complete purchases without needing to log in to a different website.
FB work with payment processors to handle all payments. Payouts are usually deposited to your bank account in 8 to 10 business days.
WARNING!- Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. You are renting your online shop on Facebook’s property so be sure you have other revenue streams just in case you have a problem with Facebook.
If you need any help to set up your Restaurant Shop on Facebook and Instagram – just send a message and we will set a time to give you a FREE strategy call.
Gerry Tacovsky
Restaurant Social Media