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Own Your Own eStore. Build Your Own eCommerce site.
You will have much to learn. Your business Website will need great focused Traffic from Google and Bing search engines – referred to you. You will need fantastic articles, great products, relevant content and amazing video where by your ‘brand’ is searched for in the search engines to locate you. Or you will organize your merchandise onto a pre-built eCommerce website or eStore with everything wired up in advance.
If you have a few products I suggest that you start building an eCommerce website (I prefer WordPress open source software building blocks) using an enormous source of pre-built code (called templates and plug-ins) and sell it yourself. Next I would link into a Facebook eShop social media business commerce page with my eStore maybe built with WooCommerce technologies in WordPress.
Shopify and Big Commerce are really good solutions as well; where you will go all in placing your products and services into their platforms. They have the referral traffic (the potential online customers) coming into their eStore infrastructure so that you can be found and compete. Otherwise you will have to figure out the whole world of demand generation: it’s a big ask to learn product marketing – content development – digital advertising – search engines – social proof (like reviews) – payment solutions – customer support etc. And continue to upgrade your IT – the Website and Hosting technologies.
There is much debate going on about what the best eStore ‘platform’ is to get into online commerce or improve your chances of selling something with an existing or new eShop and receiving delightful feedback.
Facebook / Instagram formally announced that they can be your “everything” for eCommerce and Online Shopping. Facebook Business Commerce is a thing. That extra business Web PAGE is a complete Website eStore plumbed in advance to conduct business commerce. Dump in your merchandise and run with it! It’s been a long slow journey for Facebook to get into eCommerce.
Facebook (including Instagram) eStores are fierce competitors against Google, Amazon, Shopify, Big Commerce, eBay, etc. — and potentially your own Website with a modular eCommerce capability bolted on to it (e.g. WooCommerce on a WordPress Website) for managing inventory, shipping and payments). Where and how are you going to get your customer to click onto you products and buy them? Facebook has the advertising system in place already so adding products is compelling with a bunch of potential customers already looking around.
We extended the capability of a fantastic WordPress Website (with traffic exceed 500,000 Annual Website visits!) into eCommerce. It’s far from simple; but we would do it this way again if we started from scratch.
We ‘own’ the Site. We license the building blocks and have experience with 4 different Hosting platforms. We choose whom to affiliate with to extend our reach on their Websites and which Ad Platforms to connect into.
Committing to one single source just didn’t feel right; nor for the complete solution. Getting locked into large Platforms completely ties you into their long term capability and cost structure. https://www.websitebuilderexpert.com/ecommerce-website-builders/comparisons/woocommerce-vs-shopify/
Of all the choices out there — we choose WordPress and it’s ecosystem to build on. This is a good start up guide on WordPress eCommerce. https://www.constructdigital.com/insight/the-ultimate-guide-to-creating-a-wordpress-ecommerce-website
Each platform has its own Super Powers. Facebook’s eCommerce momentum has been building for quite some time.
Facebook is driving hard to become the premier Platform and maybe even the operating system into our connected world. (see date on this article)
And Facebook Shops, introduced in May, will help members across Facebook and Instagram create end-to-end ecommerce stores. It’s not hard to imagine how a small business owner might share photos of a new line of dresses on Instagram, then connect it to her Facebook Groups and Shops storefront. Add Facebook Pay and the loop is completed, all within the larger platform. My throat is getting dry thinking about this topic lol
https://www.thestreet.com/tech/news/facebookjdm093020
Facebook is essentially building an operating system for smart devices.
The business models at these companies (the Facebook competitors) are under attack, and Facebook is probably going to win.
Facebook Finally Ties Up Its Empire (the Street article — see link above)
“After years of building separate audiences for Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger, the social media giant takes steps to integrate and monetize them in a clever way that should worry Amazon, Amazon and Google.”
But putting your eStore on a Facebook Page ? I love Facebook et al, but I feel a gas bubble. Did they run out of People to become the Product (your data)?
Amazon and eBay just totally rule the eShop roost. And they sell you access to THEIR customer base.
They merchandise your Product Catalogue online. You get the net net net left over after paying for many levels of Fee structures. I am not complaining! These are giant expensive Platforms with vast nuanced learnings.
And … how exactly are you going to ACQUIRE your customers to even consider buying your product in a competitive ruthless marketplace. Do people go to Facebook et al to BUY stuff? Maybe. Facebook Marketplace is full of ‘yard art’ for sale.
What if I want really strong Brand identity on Facebook? You’re surrounded with FB pixels. Unsure about the UI and screen space allocation.
We started eShops and interconnected advertising Spring 2019. We used the API for Social Selling back into the Websites(s) and put up an eStore right on the Facebook Business Page. We used Instagram as a booster rocket to showcase panels of 6 related business topics (photos). We put the eShop product catalogue on the Website and it synchs with the Facebook business commerce page; so there only one Product Portfolio. Otherwise it would be a nightmare and would totally suck and be inop.
We checked with our Facebook visitors casually to ask if they noticed our Store. Most said, “what Store !” It IS right on the main Wall of the Business Facebook Page ! You can click to make it larger. Thank goodness for test marketing! Either the Products were totally junk or the Facebook Page UI was inept? Right? Laughter.
If you want to go about Facebook eCommerce without just winging it … this is a fantastic Facebook eStore guidebook right here: https://www.business2community.com/facebook/full-guide-to-facebook-ecommerce-02355770
— everything you need to know about Facebook eCommerce features, campaigns, and tools to not only drive more traffic to your store but boost sales!
Wiring the whole thing up, including FB Messenger took time and accuracy. Ordering real products with credit cards is not a joke. People get hostile ! We only had ONE Payment option to get started. Probably Zuck Bucks or something (Stripe maybe?).
Net net it functions well. 1) read the fine print about what businesses are *not allowed, 2) easily connect into FB Ad Network and/or FB Ad Manager. 3) we have a Website eStore(s) so adding the inventory to get more ‘Distribution’ potential was the thinking. One product catalogue — many sales channels … right.
If Facebook / Instagram didn’t support APIs and synch with ONE central Product Catalogue or Portfolio. “In no possible way” — would we put everything eCommerce in Zuck Land.
Think AOL. Think Yahoo.
Just No. Never.
Why?
- We have substantial online Traffic to be able to have an ongoing business. (See 3)
- If you don’t have squat for traffic nor interest on your Website or Facebook / Social Media Pages. Back to Step 1.
- Own Your Code (you mostly own your software stuff when using WordPress eCommerce building blocks.
- Facebook, Shopify, eBay, Big Commerce, Amazon …. are EXPENSIVE. When you go ALL IN; it goes ALL UP.
- And when THEY ( See 4) add features and capabilities for betterment of the Platform, your costs will increase.
- Customer acquisition is really expensive and referral traffic is EXPENSIVE.
- Answer: To stop circling around and getting dizzy, you should have a Website for Street Cred. It’s sketchy not to have a one page Website to introduce yourselves. Whom buys from the ether-ness ? (did that pass spell check). Seriously, a solid WordPress layout has a WooCommerce eStore embedded into it as a starting point.
- WRITE. Author some material about your stuff and ethos. People want to know WHY they should but your goodies. They can see WHAT your product or service is, but might be hating on you for for the plastic do-hickies, the negative shakra, the ugly logo color …. and on and on. It’s cyber-mania. You going to get heinous feedback whether you like it or not. Roll with it. One thing people can do is see through opportunistic capitalism just to improve your view. Welcome to Branding. They did not pound the BUY button because it didn’t feel right ! It’s just not hard to write up WHY you are selling something. People care. They want to know your not a scumbag — by what ever their definition is. Put it out there. Better. Faster, Cheaper. More ….
