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Selling on Facebook

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

Ecwid automatically syncs all your products with your Facebook Shop without any additional effort. Customers can browse your catalog 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:

Connecting your Ecwid store to Facebook

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

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

If you already have an active Shop section on your Facebook page, Ecwid will override the existing products when you connect your Ecwid store to your Facebook shop.

To connect your store to Facebook:

Desktop
iOS
Android
    1. From your Ecwid 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 catalog 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 what Ecwid is allowed to do. We recommend using the default settings for the proper work of your Ecwid store. Click Next.
    15. Once your Ecwid store is linked to Facebook, click Done.

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:

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 Ecwid 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.
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, or by uploading a file to your web server.

Depending on what site builder you use for a website where your Ecwid store is added, select the more suitable verification option:

Instant Site
Another site platform

If you use Ecwid Instant Site on a free subdomain (.company.site or .ecwid.com), you can verify the ownership by adding a meta tag to your site:

  1. Get the meta tag from Facebook:
  2. Add the meta tag to your Instant Site:
    • From your Ecwid admin, go to Website → SEO.
    • In the Header meta tags and site verification block, click Add code.
    • Paste your meta tag code.
    • Save the changes.
  3. Return to Facebook Business Manager and click the Verify button in the Meta Tag Verification tab.
It may take up to 72 hours for Facebook to find the meta-tag code. If the domain status is still Not Verified, you'll need to click Verify again or confirm the meta-tag is listed in the scrape results in the Sharing Debugging Tool.

If you use Ecwid Instant Site with your own custom domain, you have two options to verify the ownership either by adding a meta tag (see above) or using the DNS Verification option:

  1. Get the TXT record from Facebook:
  2. Add the TXT record to your domain:
    • Log into the account with your domain provider to access your domain settings.
    • Add the TXT entry to your DNS records.
    • Add @ to the Host field, if it is required by your domain registrar.
    • Wait till these changes propagate (usually it takes a few minutes, but in some cases may last longer, up to 72 hours), then click the Verify button in the DNS Verification tab.

      The exact steps on adding a TXT record to a domain vary with different domain providers. If you are not sure how to add this record to your domain, please contact your domain provider to get the detailed instructions.

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 Ecwid 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 Ecwid 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:

    Creating_specific_product_name_and_description_for_Facebook_shop__2_.png

  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:

    Creating_specific_product_name_and_description_for_Facebook_shop__1_.png

  9. Click Save.

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

You can manually re-sync products anytime. Go to the Facebook page in your Ecwid 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 Ecwid admin, go to Facebook.
  2. Click Manage Facebook Products.
  3. Click Get an appeal for rejected products:

    Selling_on_Facebook__2_.png

  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 Ecwid admin. You will see the status of your products:

Selling_on_Facebook__4_.png

Listing products and collections on Facebook

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

PRODUCTS

  • Products marked as Enabled in your Ecwid 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.
Facebook allows up to 20 images per product, so Ecwid uploads the first 20 images from the item’s gallery.

COLLECTIONS

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

    Selling_on_Facebook__3_.png

  • A collection is automatically created for each of your top-level categories in Ecwid 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.
You can use the catalog from your Facebook Shop to set up targeted ads within Facebook. Refer to Facebook Ads for more information and setup instructions.

Hiding products in a Facebook catalog

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

To deactivate a product in a Facebook catalog:

  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 catalog on Facebook and click Edit item in the right hand side of the screen, then Archive:

    Screenshot_2022-02-18_at_17.43.58.png

Products that you archived will be hidden from your Facebook catalog. 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.

Selling_on_Facebook__1_.png

Customers automatically receive confirmation emails about their orders from your store. You will see the orders in your Ecwid admin, go to My sales → Orders, and in your Ecwid mobile app for iOS or Android.

Get useful insights about your store’s performance with Google Analytics and other reporting tools.

Processing orders from Facebook

Orders generated from Facebook are available in your Ecwid admin, My sales → Orders, or in the mobile app for iOS or Android along with your regular sales.

When someone places a new order in your Facebook shop, you will get an email or a push notification in Ecwid mobile apps for iOS or Android. Learn more about processing orders in your store →

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 Ecwid store will no longer be connected to Facebook.  

To hide the shop from your Facebook business page:

  1. From your Ecwid 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.

That's it. All your sales channels will be hidden.

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

Desktop
iOS
Android
  1. From your Ecwid admin, go to Facebook.
  2. Click Disconnect the page.

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

If you track Facebook Pixel data or have Instagram product tagging associated with your catalog, 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 Ecwid catalog 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 color 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 Ecwid 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.

facebook_shop.png

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.

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.

Related articles

Ads campaign on Facebook
Tagging products on Instagram

Webinar__Growing_your_Business_with_Facebook_and_Instagram.png

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