Imagine you are in a mood to explore new things, learn about what is going on various parts of the world, wish to entertain yourself watching a myriad of things. Settling into your couch, ready to take a dive into the ocean of information, as you switch on the television, you find just one channel is showing up!

How boring and disappointing! You will definitely be annoyed, won’t you?

That’s absolutely natural to feel in such a situation.

People love options and they love to make choices!

The same follows for a perfect sales channel strategy for businesses, it’s crucial to offer your shoppers a scope for making choices.

People love to shop online, and the reason is obvious they don’t need to worry about waiting in the long queues, or face the crowd, as they can get everything right at their doorstep.

Do you know, only 31% of consumers prefer brick-and-mortar stores, while 57% of consumers go shopping online? According to the BigCommerce 2018 Omnichannel Report, very less amount of shoppers are investing money in a physical store, instead preferring online purchases.

Why Facebook Marketplace for Businesses?

Business Owners create their own eCommerce websites or list their products on many shopping sites likes Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal and more, to reach more customers and increase their sales.

What if your product starts reaching 1.4 billion people every day?

That will be fantastic, right!

We all know about Facebook, it’s a technology powerhouse and the biggest social media platform especially for businesses that are interested in escalating their exposure and selling their products or services to the targeted audience.

In today’s scenario, Facebook is not only limited to peer-to-peer shopping marketplace, it has also expanded to merchant selling, means Facebook Marketplace. Facebook Marketplace allows businesses to expand their reach, engagements, and profits.

Approximately, more than 800 million people use Facebook Marketplace every month to discover, buy, or sell items.

Ever since Facebook Marketplace came into being in 2016, it has revolutionized the way social selling works. While Facebook Marketplace offers a great variety of features and enables retailers to sell seamlessly on Facebook, there are certain best practices that you should follow. It’s important to refer to a guide to Facebook Marketplace that helps you understand the nuances of Facebook Marketplace and make the best use of the platform to achieve your business goals.

What is Facebook Marketplace?

Facebook Marketplace is a digital marketplace. It’s a convenient way for businesses to discover, buy, sell and trade products locally. Facebook Marketplace offers an opportunity for buyers and sellers to interact with potential customers and create strong business relationships.

Either it’s an individual or a business, anyone can buy or sell products on Facebook Marketplace. Anyone can list their products or services for sale and reach the local audience. Facebook Marketplace enables you to upload a maximum of ten pictures per listing. Take advantage and use all ten!

Facebook Marketplace allows you to:

• Browse for items to buy
• Search for sale items by applying a filter on category or location
• Create customized product listings
• Access all transactions and messages
• Set custom bids for your products

If you are a beginner, Facebook Marketplace may not be as easy to use on desktop. But, on a mobile device, it’s very easy. You can enter in the entire marketplace from a new button located at the center bottom of the Facebook window.

You don’t need to agonize over multiple listed items on the Marketplace, you can simply post any product that you want to sell in four easy steps. Just take a snapshot of the product, enter the price, product description, confirm the category or location, and post. Your post will automatically be highlighted in the local area and consequently, will increase your sales.

Benefits of Facebook Marketplace for Businesses

Millions of Users

Facebook is the biggest social media marketing platform having approximately about 1.74 billion active users every month. Selling your products and services on the Facebook store, itself is a big advantage, as it enables you to target a massive audience.

Moreover, the best advantage of using the Facebook marketplace lies behind its feature that interconnects all the active users on Facebook! Doesn’t this sound like a perfect place to set up a business or promote your products or services?

Just imagine, the state of your business in the midst of a crowded street, promising to show something exceptional. Undoubtedly, people will stop to see what special have you come up with. Similarly, when you start utilizing Facebook Marketplace, you will bring attention to your services or products and users will be urged to see what you have to offer.

Tailor-made Page Design

While selling your products or services, it’s imperative to have a page that attracts the audience to come and see your offerings!

Facebook Marketplace allows you to customize your page the way you want!

If you have a customized page that is tempting and appealing enough for the visitors to stop by at your Facebook store and check out your offerings; most importantly, your prime focus will be attracting users to your store.

Broad Exposure

Sellers keep posting images and status updates of their products, they want to sell. Active Facebook users may like their images, may comment and also may share them with their network, which increases their brand’s popularity. Utilizing the Facebook marketplace, increases the reach and exposure of your products and services among users.

Connect Directly with Your Customers

Facebook marketplace is a platform that welcomes both sellers and buyers to come together under the same roof, set up a strong connection, and strike a deal based on mutual interests.

Any buyer can contact the seller directly with the help of voice calls, video chat, messages or by commenting on their posts and status updates. It’s a great platform for building a strong relationship with your customers and thus, increases your brand engagement.

Better Analysis

By utilizing Facebook Marketplace for your business, you can get a deeper understanding of where and how people engage or interact with your products or services.

Facebook Marketplace is a great platform for businesses, where many business owners achieve growth in sales, by making their products available. One of them, Hats Unlimited, is a Southern California retailer having seven stores, that saw sales growth of 20% to 30% directly from Facebook Marketplace.

If you run a business and want your product to reach more potential customers, then you should keep your eyes set on Facebook Marketplace, as this may the best place to broaden your reach, get more purchases, and build your brand!

Author Bio:

Sachin Agrawal is an Enterprise Architect and heads up Business &Technology at Tarika Technologies. He carries expertise and a flair for writing on Management Consulting, Software & Analytics and Digital Media. Apart from distilling his technical ideas into creating innovative solutions, he is a practitioner of Haidong Gumdo and at his leisure, taps the Cajon and strums his Guitar! You can connect with him on LinkedIn.