How to sell on Facebook
Have you just started a business and are you looking for a platform to sell your products online too? Have you emptied your garage and would like to get rid of the items you no longer use? Are the sales on your website not going as you hoped and would you like to give your store more visibility? Whatever your need, on Facebook you can find people interested in your products. In fact, in recent years the famous social network founded by Mark Zuckerberg has implemented functions that allow you to publish sales advertisements, offering both second-hand and brand new items.
If I have intrigued you and now you would like to know how to sell on Facebook, all you have to do is dedicate a few minutes of your time and choose one of the sales solutions available. If you want to get rid of used items and find users interested in buying, you can publish listings on the Marketplace or in groups dedicated to sales (as long as you are at least 18 years of age) and start your own real sales. If, on the other hand, you would like to sell the products or services of your business or market the gadgets you have created, you can use your Facebook page and create a virtual showcase through the latter.
How do you say? Are you looking forward to learning more about the topic and trying to sell your items? So don’t waste any more time and take action immediately: make yourself comfortable, take five minutes of free time and read the next paragraphs carefully. Choose the sales solution on Facebook that best suits your needs and I assure you that, by putting into practice the indications I am about to give you, you will be able to publish advertisements and give visibility to your products in a very simple way. All that remains for me is to wish you a good reading and, above all, a good sale!
Preliminary operations
Before explaining in detail how to sell on Facebook, it will be useful to know that all the sales methods that I will show you in this tutorial are native functions of the social network. This means that you will not need other tools, other than the Facebook application, available for Android, iOS and Windows 10 Mobile devices, to complete your sales.
Furthermore, as can be easily understood, to publish sales announcements on Facebook you need an account on the famous social network. If you don’t have one yet, you can read my guide on how to create a Facebook account.
How to sell on Facebook Marketplace
The first solution to consider when selling on Facebook is Facebook Marketplace, the section of the famous social network dedicated to buying and selling between users. It is a real online market, where it is possible to sell items of all kinds for free.
To sell on Facebook Marketplace from smartphone or tablet, start the Facebook app and, if you haven’t already done so, log in to your account. Then press the Store icon in the top menu (at the bottom if you have an iPhone / iPad), in order to access the main Facebook Marketplace screen, and tap the Sell button at the top left to create a new listing.
Therefore, indicate what you intend to sell by selecting one of the options available between Items, Vehicles, Rent / Sale Accommodation and Job Offers and, in the new screen displayed, press the Add photo button for one or more photos of the item you are putting up for sale.
After adding the photos of your interest, enter the title of the sale advertisement in the Title field and specify the price by entering it in the Price field. In this section, you can also choose whether to offer shipping costs by moving the toggle next to Offer shipping from OFF to ON.
Now, tap on the Category item and choose one of the categories available between Home and Garden (Tools, Furniture, Garden, Appliances etc.) Entertainment (Books, Movies and Music and Video Games), Clothing and Accessories (Jewelry and Accessories, Bags and Suitcases, Men’s Clothing and Shoes, etc.) Family (Health and Beauty, Pet Articles, Toys and Video Games, etc.), Electronics (Electronics and Computers and Cell Phones), Hobbies (Bicycles, Auto Parts, Musical Instruments, etc.) and Classifieds (Services, Miscellaneous, Secondhand Market ).
To continue with the creation of your ad, check that the city and postcode listed in the Place field are correct and, if you wish, enter a description of the item you are selling in the Description field; then presses the Next button and choose whether to publish the ad only on Facebook Marketplace or also on your personal profile and on the Facebook sales groups to which you are subscribed. Finally, press the Publish button and that’s it.
To manage your ads, tap on the item You present in the main Marketplace screen and press the For sale option, then tap on the three dots icon next to your listings to make changes, to mark the item as sold or to delete the advertisement. To learn more, you can read my guide on how to get Facebook Marketplace.
If you prefer to sell your items on Facebook Marketplace from your computer, connected to the main page of the social network and click on the Marketplace item visible in the sidebar on the left (if not there, click directly here to access the Facebook Marketplace).
On the new open page, press the button Sell something, enter the title of your advertisement in the field What do you sell? and specify the price in the appropriate field. Then make sure that the city displayed in the Add place field is correct, otherwise, click on the X icon and enter the city in which the item you are selling is located and specify the category of your item by clicking on the item Select a category and choose one of the available options among Clothing and Shoes, Furniture, Tools, Bicycles, Cell Phones, Appliances, Garden, Auto Parts etc.
If you wish, enter the description of your item in the Describe your item field and click on the Photo item to upload the photos to be included in the listing from your computer. Finally, click the Next and Post buttons to post your listing on Marketplace.
To manage your ads, log into Facebook Marketplace, click on the Sale item in the left sidebar and click the Mark as sold or Mark as suspended buttons to indicate that the item has been sold or is temporarily unavailable. Alternatively, click on Manage and choose one of the available options between Delete item and Edit post.
Selling on Facebook groups
Selling on Facebook groups is another valid solution for creating sales advertisements on the famous social network. In fact, there are thousands of groups dedicated to the buying and selling of products, many of which allow you to start trading between users in the same area.
First, take your smartphone or tablet and start the Facebook app, then tap the ≡ button and select the Groups option to view the sales groups you are subscribed to. If, on the other hand, you have not yet subscribed to any sales group, tap on the Search item at the top, enter the name of the group of your interest (eg Technological market to search for thematic markets or Pasadena market to search for local markets) and prizes on the Search button. In the new screen displayed, tap on the Groups option and, having identified the one you are interested in, press the Subscribe button.
Now, access the sales group and tap on the item What do you sell? to create your ad. Then enter the title of the advertisement in the What do you sell? Field, specify the price and description (optional) in the appropriate fields and make sure that the city displayed in the Location field is correct. To add photos to your ad, if you have an Android-equipped device, tap on the Photo item at the bottom left. If, on the other hand, you have an iPhone / iPad, tap the landscape icon to upload images already on your device, otherwise press the camera icon to take a photo in real-time.
Once the creation of your ad is complete, press the Next button, put the checkmark next to the Marketplace item if you want to automatically publish your ad on Facebook Marketplace and click on the Post button.
To manage your listings, log into the sales group you posted your ads to and click on the You have [number] items for sale. In the new open page, press the Mark as sold button if the item in question has been sold, otherwise, click on the Other item to edit (Edit post) or delete (Delete post) the listing.
If you have a Facebook page with a good following and the products you intend to sell are related to the topic covered by your page or, better still, the latter is your business page, you can use it to create a showcase of products and publish targeted advertisements. to the sale. In fact, the famous social network has integrated a function to create a shop inside the Facebook pages with the possibility of concluding the sale privately.
To create a showcase of products on your Facebook page, start the social network app, tap the ≡ button and press the name of your page visible at the top. Now, access the Edit page section, tap the Tab item and choose the Add tab option, then locate the Showcase item and tap the relevant + button. If you do not see the Showcase option in the Available Tabs section, it means that the latter is already active for your page.
Then go back to the main screen of your Facebook page, locate the Home item and scroll left until you find the Showcase option. Now, press the Add Product button to create the listing and, in the new screen displayed, enter the details in the Title, Price and Description fields. Then press the Add photos button to add photos of your item and press the Publish button to publish the ad in the showcase of your page.
From smartphones and tablets the functionality of Showcase is limited. For this reason, my advice is to create and manage your advertisements from a computer since you can choose, during the publication phase, whether to make the advertisement visible or not. In addition, you can manage inventory and enter additional options related to the product you are selling.
To create an ad in the Showcase of your Facebook page, first access the page of your interest, click on the Settings item and choose the Templates and tab option visible in the left sidebar. In the new open page, press the Add a tab button and click the Add tab button next to the Showcase option.
Now, go back to the main screen of your page, click on the Showcase item in the sidebar on the left and press the Add product button. Then create your listing by specifying the required data in the Name, Price and Description fields, then press the Add photo and Add video buttons to upload photos and videos of your product.
If you want to create a promotion, move the lever next to the option This product is on sale from OFF to ON and enter the discounted price in the Discounted price field, then choose whether to share the ad on the page as a common post by moving the lever next to it. under Share this product on your Page from OFF to ON. If the product is not currently available, move the lever next to the Inventory option from ON to OFF, while if you do not want to make the listing visible, click on the item Visible to all and choose the Not visible option.
Finally, presses the Change option button and click on the Add options item to specify any product characteristics, such as size, colour, model, material, fragrance, etc. Once you’ve created your listing, click the Save button and that’s it. To manage inventory, edit the listing or remove the product from your page, log back into the Showcase and click the Edit button for the product of your interest.
If the showcase function offered by Facebook is not active or does not prove to be suitable for your needs, you can create an external shop and connect it to Facebook thanks to Blomming, a paid service I told you about in my tutorial on how to start an online store.
