Facebook Marketplace is a side shoot of Facebook and offers a place for artisans/regular folks to reaches a huge audience so it is easy to get your product to your target audience. This Facebook Marketplace Review will tell you what you need to know to get your key products to your audience without having to spend a penny on advertising, unless you choose to do so.
On the Facebook Marketplace, you can post your products and sell them through the Facebook platform. This platform makes it so much easier for you to reach your local audience as your customers can set the filters to locate products in their area. Its also possible to set filtering by catagory and price but for the artisan business, being able to directly attract a customer who may be within 50 miles of you, is of a great advantage, especially if your product is large.
The Facebook Marketplace offers a quick and simple way of selling your products without fuss and without having to set up a Facebook Business Page – you may want to do this at some point so you can sell on Instagram too but for the start up, the marketplace works well to attract customers to your products and get them over to your website. Its a good place to start if you are new to the business, getting your products out there as soon as you can, to start getting some revenue back without having to fork out money from the outset. It also gives you a chance to see what your audience think of your products.
Categories on Facebook
Facebook has various categories in which your product should fit. There is a huge list. So it is more than likely you will find one that defines your key product perfectly.
There are products that CANNOT be sold through Facebook :
Adult Products/ Services – so no sex toys or services !
Alcohol
Animals
Digital Media/Electronic Devices
Event Tickets
Gift Cards
Healthcare Items – First Aid Kits
Illegal/Prescription/Recreational Drugs
Body Parts/Fluids
Tobacco Products/Paraphernalia
Unsafe Food Supplements
Weapons/Ammunition/Explosives
‘In Search Of’ Posts
Lost & Found Posts
Jokes/News
To be honest the list makes sense, knowing what we see on Facebook. Its not intended for news or lost and found – if you are looking for products, you don’t want to be trawling through extraneous material.
How To List Your Product
If you hop over to your regular Facebook page, you will see on the left hand side that there is a tab for ‘Marketplace’.
This is where you need to click, it will take you over to the marketplace…..
I love resin tables and they are super expensive, but definitely something I would look for on the marketplace. A local artisan that I can give work to, makes me quite pleased ! You can see how the page works for customers searching for your products. They will put in where they live and how far they are willing to travel in the filters, then search. If you produce a product that can be posted, it has to be posted within 3 days and delivered within 7 to fulfil the requirements of the marketplace. More on the rules and regs later.
So for you to post your product. Click onto the +Sell Something Button —–
The screen that is brought up asks what kind of product you are wanting to sell…
Choose your Catagory
Fill in the details of your product. I chose one of my soaps for the example. This of course could be posted so whilst my local audience will find it, because it is something that can be posted, it doesnt matter how far away people are. You can post as many photos as you want, there is no charge for adding photos, so the more the better ! Get your images presenting your product at its best.
Select your Audience from the choices offered on the next window. There will be local choices if you are selling resin river tables that cannot be posted, or countrywide choices if you are selling soap or small items.
Once you have sorted all this out, you are good to go and once you have clicked ‘Post’ your product is out there ready to be bought by your audience. Remember that you have to have the product posted by 3 days and delivered by 7…. So for the likes of me, where the soap must cure for 6 weeks before posting, they have to be ready to go before they’re posted for sale.
How To Get Payment on Facebook
Well as far as shipping costs and payment goes with Facebook, its down to you and your customer to agree how they will make payment, whether they are going to collect or you are going to post – what will the postage cost? These are questions that Facebook leaves to you to decide. They step back and its down to you and your customer to come to an agreement.
A word of caution… Do NOT post anything until you have cleared funds in your account for your product +agreed postage. Alternatively, cash on collection. I have been burnt a few times with dodgy customers and whilst you may really want the sale, its not worth being short changed on the funds not clearing and you wanting to get your product to them as quick as possible so you post before the funds are cleared through your bank, or by not setting a suitable postage price and being out of pocket. You can always use Paypal easily and send a money request. That will clear as soon as they have paid it and you are good to go.
I hope this has been helpful in understanding what a simple process it is to set up a product on Facebook Marketplace and whilst I dont really like the way they leave you to it as far as payment is concerned, I think with caution and the use of Paypal or Stripe, you can keep any issues to a minimum.
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Hmm, I’ve never heard of Facebook Marketplace before and it seems that this social media giant is starting to look like something else (Amazon? eBay?). But I would imagine that because Facebook carries mountains of personal data, their targeting towards the right audience is simply topnotch.
Now that I’m thinking of it, can I sell digital products in this marketplace? I’m pertaining to ebooks, video courses, or membership sites that I’m trying to create for an added income source.
There are specific products that cannot be sold through the Facebook marketplace such as digital media. The things that sets Facebook aside from other online selling sites, is the locality of selling your products, but also the fact they do not enter into any form of payment through their site. It is all down to you and your customer to sort out payment. Facebook takes no commission. This is a good thing and a bad thing as there is no safety net.
I have never tried Facebook advertising before and have read a lot of mixed reviews about doing this. Some say it is really expensive and others say that they got no return for their buck.
I am sure it is a case of picking the right audience for your products. You have to imagine what type of person would be interested in what you have to offer and work from there. In the case of soap, I wouldn’t know where to begin. But in the case of an online business opportunity, you would have to be very specific who you target your ad at.
This I think is better in a way than using Google Adwords, as there you can’t specify, however, I am still a bit nervous to try.
The beauty of Facebook Marketplace is that it costs nothing. It doesnt take any commission so you dont lose anything in that regard. You also have to sort out payment from your customer, they dont do that for you either. But it works so much better for local products that do not ship well.
It been 4years that I realise Facebook is not only a platform for fun and show off. One can start promoting his/her business through the platform. I started my cosmetics business via the platform without paying a dime for advertising. Although,the product was only limited to my local customers. I can make the business expand by paying Facebook for the marketing promotion. I just realized that now. Thanks for sharing this review. It is helpful.
Thankyou Stella for your comments and experience with Facebook Marketplace. It is very interesting to hear from a user as an advocate for the platform, Thankyou !
I didn’t realize FB marketplace was a viable way to get locals interested… I love how you laid it all out in visuals. I will definitely look to FB now to sell some up cycled furniture. What categories are the big movers in your opinion? How do you price out product? Do people expect a “deal”? like on craigslist? So much to know and learn about this realm of FB.
I think everyone expects a deal! But to be totally clear about it, I would think that on Facebook marketplace you would expect to pay a reasonable price, especially from an artisan whose products are high quality and selling on Facebook Marketplace to a local audience. I couldn’t say what are the biggest movers as I haven’t researched that but from personal experience, I would be looking for an awesome ceramic planter, something that cannot be easily shipped. I think that would be a real find !
Thank you, there still are a few of us not knowing what the marketplace of Facebook is and how it works.This is a thorough description of the procedure and easy to follow.
Good to know what are not accepted on Facebook Marketplace. Can your private page and your business page merge or should they be kept separate?
Thank you
Stella
Thankyou Stella for your comments and question. I would recommend you keep your business page separate from your private page.
Hi Quinn, big thanks for the detailed review on Facebook Marketplace. I haven’t had a close relationship with the Facebook network since graduating from high school. I knew it could be a useful tool in marketing, however when I started my businesses online I never attempted the Facebook side as I wasn’t aware of how it could benefit the businesses. Now that I feel more equipped to try out promoting on Facebook. But what about the pricing? Do Facebook ads provide enough value as a sales booster for the prices they ask for? Thanks in advance.
I think thats very wise Laureen, too much on your plate when you start a business is not helpful. That overwhelming feeling of frustration at not being able to do everything all at once is not great, but that why blogs like mine are great, they bring you the information later on when you can action it !
No 9 Well hello there. I’ve seen Market Place on Facebook so many times but never went there. You now have changed my mind about that. Does Facebook post your ad the same day, or does it have to be approved first?
Thanks for opening my eyes to this area of Facebook. Maybe we’ll run into each other shopping. Fantabulous article. Really enjoyed reading and learning something new. Thanks!!!