Why you should sell via Facebook
Here are some stats on user behaviour.
* Visitors now spend more time on Facebook than Google
* An average person spends more time in Facebook than watching TV
* Bing user Facebook liked pages and links in its search engine results
* A Facebook fan has 68% chance of buying a recommended product through his social network
* There are 500 million Facebook users
* All signs and trends points towards Facebook Domination rather than Facebook downfall
Essentially Facebook is so integrated online and with search engines, that without a good Facebook presence, you are potentially discarding almost half or more of your customer base.
Facebook for Businesses
Its amazing how most people still see Facebook as a place where teenagers go to talk to their friends. In the last few years Facebook has identified and filled the gaps to pull businesses and help businesses work better in Facebook. Some of the examples are
Facebook Events

Facebook Events allows a business (or individual) to host events and invite their social network. The social network can then RSVP and tell if they are attending, maybe attending or not attending. We wont’ go into depth here but we have a few posts on Facebook events on this blog.
Facebook Groups
Facebook Groups has had a good revamp that allows businesses as well as individuals to not only create groups and discussions but also leverage it for marketing and promotions.
Facebook Fan Pages for Businesses
A game changer, with Fan pages, businesses could virally generate huge amounts of leads and promote and market to those users.
Facebook Like and Facebook Share

Facebook Like and Facebook share allows easy integration with websites/links but those links now show up in Google and Bing.
Facebook Connect

Facebook Social Connect allows a business to leverage Facebook logins on their website making it easier for customers to interact with their website.
So Facebook is vibing community for individuals and businesses.
Advantage of Selling in Facebook over Google/ website
Humans are social beings. We talk, we socialise and we get persuaded by what our friends like. We tend to like paintings that people are gathered around etc. Facebook creates this opportunity for social recommendations that Google and your normal website can’t. There are ways to validate products on your website / Google but not as effective as the way you can leverage on Facebook.

Tools Available to sell things on Facebook
Facebook Marketplace
The inbuilt solution that allows you to post things on the marketplace. It is not as effective for commerce.

Facebook Plugins
There is an ever growing list of plugins that allows you to put your inventory in the fan page. This is the best way to put your products online. Some plugins allow you to rate products etc.
However this said, it wouldn’t be right to just have a Facebook store and not a website. A day might come when you might just have products no Facebook and mobile apps but that day is still a long way away. So you should also do a really good Facebook integration with your ecommerce store.
Facebook to ecommerce Website Integration
Facebook Comments on Products
Allow your customers to comment on products on your website via their Facebook login.
Facebook Like and Facebook Share
Allow your customers and visitors to like and share your products. This has multiple advantages such as:
- Users don’t need to log in via your website
- Most liked products show up in Facebook Search when Facebook users search for the words
- Most liked/shared products show up in Bing Search Results
Best Selling Products List
Have a best selling product list on Facebook so that users can quickly view your best products. This will help you turn the lookers to bookers 

DzineClub does Facebook commerce and consulting for its clients everyday. We live and breathe social media and websites. Talk to us for tips and tricks that we have implemented for clients but can’t discuss on the blog.