277 – Introducing Facebook Shops with Jessica Totillo Coster of eCommerce Badassery

Gift biz unwrapped episode 277.

They see you taking pretty photos of your products,

sharing it on social.

So their goal is to make it easier for you to

do that and get the sale Attention.

Gifters bakers,

crafters, and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.

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Your gift biz.

Here is your host gift biz gal Sue moon Heights.

Hi there.

It's Sue and I love that you're here with me today.

So thank you.

And if you're new here,

you've picked the right time to join in Facebook shops has

me over the top.

Excited. I can't wait to share it with you,

but before we get started,

I want to make sure that you're aware of the Q

and a sessions over in the Facebook group gift biz breeze.

central standard time.

I'm on answering your questions.

There are three different ways to submit a question.

One is ask right during the live show.

Second is to put your question in the comment section under

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You can record your question right there on the fly.

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just let me know where your stock and let's get you

moving forward.

If you can't show up live,

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forward slash ask,

okay, onto Facebook shops.

This is part four of our six part series covering online

sales platforms.

If you've missed the first shows,

just jump back in your podcast app and you'll find them

they're all in a row.

I'm now describing Facebook shops as the best online,

alternative to brick and mortar.

Why? Because this is the way you can sell your products

through DMS direct messages and live broadcasts.

Yes, customers can buy with a click of the button,

right from there just as if you're side by side,

completing a purchase at a show or in your shop.

Amazing. And it's brand new.

We're going to cover everything you need to know about the

program and how to start selling right away through Facebook shops.

And you don't even need a website or any other online

platform. If you're just starting out,

this is a great way to validate your product.

As we talk about in my program,

start with confidence for those of you who are going through

that, okay?

I don't want to waste another minute of you not knowing

about this awesome new way to sell your handmade products Today.

It is my pleasure to introduce you to Jessica Coster of

e-commerce bad-ass Taree.

Jessica is an eCommerce and email marketing strategist for boutique owners

and product business owners.

She supports scrappy female entrepreneurs with actionable strategies and tactics to

grow and scale their eCommerce businesses.

She's worked in corporate retail for over 20 years,

owned her own multi six figure brick and mortar clothing boutique,

and has spent three years as the only employee of a

seven figure online store learning from the top experts in the

digital marketing and eCommerce industry.

Now she's sharing everything she's learned the hard way,

so you don't have to.

And today we will be talking all Facebook shops,

Jessica, welcome to the gift biz unwrapped podcast.

Thank you so much for having me.

I'm super excited for today's conversation.

Me too.

And I know I'm going to be learning a lot about

Facebook shops myself,

so I can't wait to dive into it.

But before we do,

I have a traditional question that I have to ask you,

Jessica. Okay.

If you were to describe yourself as a motivational candle,

what color really resonates that you would have is your candle

and what type of a quote or a mantra would be.

I love this question by the way,

because it's so unique.

My candle would definitely be black just because I love all

black, everything.

It's like my power color and the quote would be get

your big girl panties because I'm a new Yorker born and

raised, and we just have like a different sort of get

it done,

kind of energy.

And entrepreneurship is hard.

That's where that comes from.

Yeah. You know,

it is hard.

And we have to,

like you said,

get your big girl panties on because you can't just say,

Oh, I'm scared of doing this and run away.

Right. You gotta just buckle up and do it right.

Fear or not.

Exactly. And when it is hard and you're able to push

through it,

that's when the magic really happens.

So true.

And I always say,

it's those hard parts where most people will back off.

So if you can just be strong and get whatever it

is, that's the challenge that you have.

You are so much further along and you can rise above

the crowd.

I feel like it's like a running race where that one

person just bolts ahead of everybody else.

100%, 99% of people are not going to do anything.

So just be part of that 1% and you're going to

see success.

Like you couldn't even imagine,

well, Jessica,

there's your new quote,

right? 99% won't do anything.

So yeah,

It is love it.

Sure. With us a little bit more about how you've gotten

to where you are today,

For sure.

So I'll go far back just to set the stage.

I used to sleep in my new shoes as a little

girl, so I've always been obsessed just with clothing and fashion.

So it was no surprise that I went down the retail

fashion path and I've been in the industry for a long

time. And I love my job and what I do working

in corporate.

I love to the day to day,

but I didn't feel fulfilled.

And I actually started this business by accident because I was

in Facebook groups,

talking to people about email marketing and the Klaviyo platform.

And they started reaching out to me to help them.

So I did,

and my husband looked at me one day and he was

like, so babe,

like, are you gonna start a business or what,

because these women really want your help and your support.

And after working with a few of them,

it just lit me up so much to see these female

entrepreneurs who started this business at their kitchen table,

put their blood,

sweat, and tears into it.

They're so passionate and creative,

but they just didn't know the business stuff.

Right. They just knew how to create this amazing product.

And so being able to come in and give them those

tools, I've never felt so excited and happy and just lit

up. And it fulfills me in a way I just never

really thought was possible.

And I just kind of went with it from there.

And here we are.

And it's been really amazing.

Well, Speaking my language,

because most of the people who are listening here are doing

exactly what you described.

They make something,

they started at their kitchen table.

Cause it was a hobby at first.

And now they're thinking,

Oh, maybe I should look at monetizing this.

Maybe I could start a business for myself.

Just exactly what you're describing.

And I really like that.

You talked about the fact that there were a lot of

people coming and asking you for help because that's such a

good sign and give biz listeners,

I'm talking to you right now,

too. If someone's looking for your product and likes your product

and you're not a business yet,

that should give you and say,

Hmm, maybe there is a market out there for me.

So it's a great first step.

Like some acknowledgement kind of like the light bulb,

right? Jessica?

Yes, totally.

It's like,

Oh, Oh wait a minute.

Maybe there's something to this.

Yes. Yeah.

I didn't even really think about it.

I just liked being in those conversations and in those entrepreneurial

spaces and I just like learning,

right. So I would learn and apply it even to my

day job.

And I didn't think that people were going to pay me

for this.

I was very wrong.

It was very wrong.

So definitely take that as a sign that you've got something

special. Yeah.

Let's just dive right into this Facebook.

Like many social media platforms keeps changing,

keeps adding and so interesting.

Cause we just have to kind of figure it out or

rely on experts who know to the point about learning from

others. And so Facebook keeps coming up with new things.

We know that video is important.

We know that lives is important.

Now we have groups,

which is awesome.

And now there's this new thing called Facebook shops.

So I know that there have been some people who are

listening, who have experimented with it,

but I'd like to take this from the top.

When did Facebook shops first appear on the scene?

What's it all about share with us everything,

you know,

You got it.

So Facebook shops,

like what they're calling Facebook shops is actually relatively new.

It's only been about a month or so that they made

the announcement admittedly,

the last couple of months or one big blur.

So I don't remember exactly when it was,

but what they're doing is it's a step up from the

old Facebook catalog that you could have where you can actually

create a storefront.

Now you can create collections of your products.

You can have lifestyle imagery,

make it look pretty things like that,

just like you would do on your own website,

but you have the power of the Facebook ecosystem behind you.

So there is checkout on Facebook.

People can save their payment information,

things like that.

So their goal is to give you a place where you

can create a mini store is very similar to Etsy in

that way,

but they want you to sell on the Facebook platform,

fall in love with it and then advertise with them.

That's how they intend to make money off of this.

So what that means is you can get started on it

for nothing.

And you only pay if someone makes a purchase just to

cover the cost of processing the sale,

like you would do on any other platform.

Right. But this is different too,

in that you don't pay unless a sale is made versus

other sites where you pay by listing.

Right. Right.

Exactly. So it's more like if you had your own website,

granted you would have the monthly fee to have it up,

but you really only pay when someone makes a purchase on

Facebook. You're not going to pay until someone buys something.

So you can get started for $0.

Okay. So I'm thinking about the Facebook platform and in the

past, I'm being one of our listeners right now.

Okay. I have a business page I've posted on the page

a lot.

I don't get a lot of viewers.

I've gotten people to come and like my page and all

that, but I know that a lot of people aren't seeing

my posts on Facebook.

So I'm a little confused about the platform in that way,

in terms of reach.

If I were to add in some of my products and

kind of create a Facebook shop,

if you will,

because that's what it's called.

Where does that align with visibility as compared to like posts

on my page?

Got it.

So the way Facebook shops is going to work is it's

going to be over Facebook and Instagram.

So let me just take one quick step back to say

they are releasing a beta version and there's going to be

a lot more features that slowly roll out to help you

sell better.

But let's talk about kind of the goal and where it's

gonna end up.

Okay. Can I clarify something first though?

It's going to be just like,

if you're running ads,

you can run to Facebook or Instagram or both that type

of thing.

Will the Facebook shop also have options or maybe it does

already to show up on Instagram too at the same time.

Yes. Okay.

That's where you were saying.

It's like the overlay of the two.

Okay, exactly.

But it sits on Facebook.

Right? Got it.

But it will still tag your photos.

It will tag your products in your photos on Instagram,

just like you can do right now.

Okay. It's going to work that same way.

So you're still gonna have those other platforms to push traffic.

Additionally, the products in your Facebook shop,

if they're eligible and Facebook is a little vague on how

they describe these are going to work.

Cause they haven't rolled out a ton of information yet,

but your products will also show up in the marketplace on

Facebook. And when a customer is shopping in shops,

they can shop multiple stores.

So they haven't been super clear on what the search experience

will be like for the customer.

But I do expect that you will be able to kind

of search within Facebook shops to find products that you're looking

for, like you would in a marketplace,

right? Because they're going to definitely want to compete with all

of the Other platforms.

Right? Exactly.

This is it's going to get pretty clean and proficient and

all of that.

I'm just kind of thinking this through here.

If I were to go to Facebook to look at someone's

shop right now,

do I just have to pick and choose and see if

I can find someone who has a shop or how would

I see a shop just by way of example,

if I'm researching and thinking about putting one up for myself,

Right? So it's not fully rolled out.

So right now,

yes, you would have to go look for specific people.

And I have three examples that you can go look at

Rebecca Minkoff,

inc meets paper and Arctic R T I C outdoor.

They all have active Facebook shops that you can look at

and you can see it on Instagram as well.

Perfect. So then we can see,

and even though it might not be rolled out to everybody

because I'm assuming if you haven't updated your app lately or

potentially all of us don't even have the capabilities yet,

although we will soon.

Right. Is that true at this point in time?

That is true.

So I think what they did is obviously some companies or

brands who already had a large shopping presence on these platforms

got first access and they also built the integration with Shopify.

So anyone who has a website on Shopify already will be

the first to get access to it.

Oh, I so love that.

I love Shopify.

Anyway, one of my websites is a Shopify site,

so that made me smile right away.

So if you are on Shopify now and you had the

old Facebook shop app,

right. Where it fed your products over,

that will automatically convert to the new Facebook shops.

Okay. Okay.

All right.

Perfect. But we can also just go in and look at

these three that you just mentioned,

whether we have it for ourselves.

Correct. Okay.

So let's keep going with talking about visibility just a little

bit more.

So we don't know the full extent of what this is

going to look like yet.

So you have a shop,

you put together a shop that has your products.

I'm thinking it looks similar to not really a website,

but it has the functionality of like a website.

You see the products probably descriptions and prices.

Exactly. Yep.

How does that link with a page post or it sits

there unto itself.

You put up a shop for yourself.

How do you work with it?

So right now it's its own space.

So just like you had a product catalog on Facebook,

if you've ever seen those,

the old school way that you either connected from Shopify or

you just uploaded a catalog to Facebook,

that's going to work the same.

What's really different is how you can organize and arrange your

products into collections or categories and then add additional imagery.

So the way it sat before on that separate tab is

going to be the same,

but they're adding more features on how you actually integrate it

into what you do.

So this is some of the future items I'd love to

talk about right now.

So like I said,

it's going to be over all platforms,

including WhatsApp.

So if you are already talking to customers on WhatsApp and

making sales,

you're going to be able to integrate your products into there.

You will be able to sell directly through the DMS.

And my favorite feature is if you sell,

doing live video,

which I will say to the audience,

if you're not already doing that,

you should definitely try it.

Cause it will likely make you money.

Amen. I preach that all the time,

Jessica. Yes.

100%. You will be able to tag your products in the

live video that you are selling.

So you don't have to say comment below,

and then I'm going to send you an invoice.

You'll be able to tag the product.

They can click through and make a purchase.

You know What this feels like to me,

an in store.

So like walking into a brick and mortar shop,

but online,

like with the DMS,

like you're talking about,

I'm having a one on one conversation with you and you

might say,

well, yeah,

if you want it here and then you send a link

and then you buy it.

Right, right.

Or if you're talking to maybe a group of people or,

you know,

just come in and take a look around,

if there's anything that I can help you with,

have you seen this with like a live presentation?

And then there's the link there where you can buy it

100% coming from the brick and mortar space.

I've been in econ the last four or five years.

But I come from the brick and mortar space when you're

trying to sell online,

you're trying to recreate that in person experience because nothing beats

that. So Facebook is giving you the tools to be able

to recreate that as much as possible.

And they did that because they see what brands are already

doing. They see you selling through live video.

They see you selling in the DMS.

They see you taking pretty photos of your products,

sharing it on social.

So their goal is to make it easier for you to

do that and get the sale.

Okay. So I just had a vision,

someone who is putting a product or putting the final touches

on a product could do that live and then say,

if you want this exact piece that I just made and

then however it comes up,

would that be possible?

Yes. You'd have to have some type of a product in

the shop to be able to reference it.

I'm thinking.

Yes you would.

Yeah, but we always talk about like behind the scenes,

how products are made so interesting to see,

even if you don't have the skill,

it's always interesting,

you know,

the fast forwarding and all of that to watch how these

things come from nothing or just literally ingredients,

if you will,

all of a sudden to the final product.

And so that would be a way to do it and

then buy right there.

Yes. And people eat that stuff up more,

or you can show that behind the scenes,

they love it a hundred percent.

Okay. So in WhatsApp,

selling through direct messages and we all know that one to

one contact,

private messaging,

all of that.

There's so much behind the scenes now on social that you

don't see.

And that's really the golden section.

That's where you can really place custom orders,

all of that.

So that's perfect.

And then live video.

Right. So do you then still post and reference products in

your shop?

Also I would 100%.

That is part of having starting the conversation.

Right. It's starting the conversation.

It's sort of like your store window.

If you were a brick and mortar,

you've got to put something in front of them to entice

them to pay attention.

So you still have to do that part.

So you do that first,

right? Okay.

Or just as regular content on your page,

right? Yes.

So based on whatever you have,

you have a selection of your products.

Let me know your opinion on this.

Jessica. There's so much conversation on social,

about service based businesses.

And as product companies have gravitated to social and selling on

social, we talk a lot about what percentage you should be

direct selling versus just showing behind the scenes or doing lives

of who you are.

All of that.

Where do you put the percentage or how you should represent

yourself as a product based business on Facebook?

You'll hear Jessica's response right after a quick break.

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So I think it depends a little bit on where you

are at in your journey.

The newer you are,

the more you need to be talking about who you are,

what you do,

why do people want to buy from you?

Because you don't have that know like,

and trust factor yet as you move further down and you've

got customer testimonials,

you've got some word of mouth going on,

things like that.

And you've got some repeat customers coming back to you.

Then you can start to shift to more about your product,

but you never really want to drop below.

I like to say like a 60,

40 in either direction,

depending upon where you are in the journey.

So you would never want to be less than 40% selling.

Right? So almost half.

Right? Interesting.

And when I say selling,

selling is not always just here's my product,

buy my product.

Do you like my product?

Some of that is a little bit more subtle.

Some of it is just you showing up and talking about

how you incorporate your own products into your own life.

So you're doing both of those things at the same time.

So you're still selling,

it's just a little bit more passive,

right? I mean,

you're still showing and representing your product in some way,

but you're not saying here's my product.

Here's the price go by.

Right. Okay.

Got it.

Where do you feel?

This is more of a general question,

Facebook shops,

but any of these other selling platforms,

where does this sit in comparison to having a website?

This supports a website.

I will always tell my clients and any product based business,

you have to have a platform that you own.

And the only thing you own is your own website and

your email list.

So if you're just getting started and you don't really have

an online presence and you just started creating your product and

figured out that people want to buy from you,

Facebook shops will be a great place for you to start

because you can get it up and running easy with little

to no investment,

but it's not a longterm solution.

Okay. I would even suggest this is a great way to

start when you're just testing out your product.

Because before you invest a lot of time and money into

building a business,

you want to make sure that the product you're making has

a market and that it sell at the price.

That's going to allow you to build a business and have

an income from it as well.

Yes. Pricing in,

especially in handmade,

I think is very often overlooked,

but so important.

You do have to make sure that you are priced so

that you can create a business and that people will still

buy it.

So you have to find that balance there.

But yes,

it definitely is a good place to test just like another

marketplace would be because you've got some of that built in

traffic because one of the other features,

and this is going to be another later thing is when

customers are shopping in Facebook shops,

remember Facebook knows a lot about you as a person.

So as a consumer,

it's a little creepy how much Facebook knows.

And as a marketer,

it is gold,

right? They're going to personalize product recommendations based on what they

know about the person shopping.

So you're going to be able to take advantage of all

the data that Facebook has.

So it is a great place to get started and get

a feel for how your product will do in the market.

Beautiful. I love that because a lot of people that's a

barrier point,

right? Is putting up a website.

So before you do that within Facebook shops,

you can put up your products and see if people are

buying them at the right prices.

I love that.

That's the case,

but there's a lot of platforms out there,

right? Jessica,

why would you suggest that Facebook shops would be a good

one versus an Etsy or an eBay or one of the

other platforms?

We already talked about the fact that financially,

you don't really have to put any investment in unless someone

buys. So that's one,

Right? So it's new for Facebook.

And for them,

they are using this as a tool to create more ad

revenue. And they have said from day one,

that ads,

that is their monetization strategy.

That's how they make their money.

It's in their best interest to give you all the support.

You need to make sales on their platform.

Whereas someone who is more established at this point,

they don't need you anymore.

They've built their business.

They're raking in money.

They don't need anybody new on the platform.

They're going to survive and be fine.

So they don't care about you quite as much,

right? Whereas Facebook,

they want to build you up just like when it came

to live video,

for example,

they want more people to do live video.

So they give live video more reach.

That's true.

And I'm also thinking that there aren't as many people on

Facebook shops yet either.

So if they're wanting to give visibility to that portion of

the platform overall,

they've got do it with whoever's there.

So now would be a great time.

Even if it's in beta,

even if there are a couple of hiccups along the way,

you have an opportunity to jump in first because you're listening

to this show and Jessica is sharing it all to us,

but there are a lot of advantages in doing and showing

up First.

Absolutely. There are,

I personally have never been great at being an early adopter,

but there's so much power in that,

but it's something I am being more conscious of in my

own life and business.

Right. So if you can innovate faster and you get to

learn first and work out all the hiccups before everyone else

has caught on.

So you're going to be further ahead in the game And

get that initial visibility just because there are less people.

Yeah. Okay.

So we gone to a couple of platforms,

including the three that you've mentioned.

We see that it looks like something.

Maybe we ought to test out what is our first step?

I think you have to do it from a business page.

I think we start there,

right? Yes.

100%. And then it's going to depend on whether or not

you already have a Shopify store or if you don't.

So if you have the Shopify store and you never had

the Facebook app,

or it may have been a sales channel,

I don't remember if you didn't already have that.

You want to get that installed and then you'll be able

to send your product feed over Shopify store.

And you're connected properly through the app.

It'll automatically Would be there.

Yes. Wow.

That's like magic.

It will send everything over.

It's super easy.

You're not creating duplicate listings and all of that stuff.

It's going to pull it from what you already have in

Shopify. And then if you don't have that,

you can upload your product catalog right.

To your Facebook business page.

And they have some great tutorials on how to do that.

So Do you have to click somewhere to say starting my

shop or like if someone went to their business page right

this minute,

where would they find where to upload?

And I'm trying to get really granular.

So no one has excuses not to do this.

If they're interested,

That is fair enough.

You have to have the business page set up in the

shopping template.

Okay. That's important because you can classify your business pages as

different things.

Right? Right.

So your business page has to be classified as shocked.

Correct. Once you have that,

then you will have the shop tab where you can upload

your products.

Okay. So if you go and look at your account right

now and you don't see the shop tab,

it might be because you haven't classified your account as a

shopping account.

Correct. Okay.

Perfect. And then from there you just start uploading your categories.

Right? Right.

You start with the products and you're gonna want to use

their commerce manager is what they're calling it.

That's the Facebook term.

Okay. I'm writing this down here.

Commerce manager,

my guess is that there are YouTube videos already in existence

because they made like,

just been done like a couple of weeks ago about how

to work with the commerce manager.

Yes. Yes.

And Facebook has some good tutorials on this and we can

put some links in the show notes.

Oh, wonderful.

Perfect. If you email me those links,

I'll make sure to put those in the show notes for

us. You got it.

It's very hard to explain without seeing the visual,

Since they can access that elsewhere.

I want to get all of your information and knowledge,

the tactical stuff we can also worry about later.

And when you upload,

I do have this one question,

obviously just like anywhere,

the imagery is important.

So you want good quality pictures.

100%. It's coming in from Shopify,

the product name and the descriptions are already there.

Right? If not,

then you would enter those manually.

I'm guessing.

Correct. Okay.

Any tips on product names and descriptions,

Please be clear over clever,

clear over clever.

I repeat this over and over again,

clear over clever.

It is fun to be cute and witty and all of

that and create personality around your brand,

but save that for your marketing.

When it comes to your product names and your product descriptions,

you need an eight year old to understand what you're saying.

So is it similar to the way we should be Approaching

our product name and descriptions for SEO purposes?

You want it to be easy enough to be found?

Is it the same concept over here on Facebook?

Yes, because that should be your concept.

Always doesn't matter what platform you're on.

Of course,

on certain platforms like an Amazon or an Etsy,

right? There's a lot of keyword stuffing that kind of happens

there in titles,

which is not good on your own website.

But the idea is you want to be clear.

So the customer understands what that product is and when they

are searching for something that those search algorithms can bring your

product to their search query And that it matches what your

product is.

Exactly. Yes.

I've got to put in a funny story here because It

just happened this morning.

We were having a VIP call for my maker's MBA group.

And this is a woman who owns a gift basket business.

And she has college survival kits and anniversary survival kits.

Are you like all types of things,

but she called them survival kits.

She was looking at her SEO and survival kits was like

her third largest keyword bringing in a ton of traffic to

her website.

But she's like,

but my survival kits really aren't selling.

They're not my best seller compared to the traffic coming in.

And we talked this through and the fact is people are

Googling survival kits looking for the real survival kit.

Right. So then they're going to our website and finding a

gift basket.

That's titled survival kit.

And then they're not buying it because it's not really what

they were looking for.

Right. So this is a great example that we're talking about

in terms of product names and then also the descriptions.

Yes. 100%.

And I see that a lot and I've had clients come

to me and say,

I know I'm getting this traffic,

but they're kind of just bouncing off of the home page

and they're not converting.

And when you go to their home page and you look

at the collection names and things like that.

So I have no idea what you sell.

So it's really important to be clear over clever.

And if you want to use that cause college survival kit,

like that's fun.

Use that in an email to your existing audience who already

knows who you are and what you do Makes a lot

of sense.

It's boring.

I mean,

you know,

we're around our products and we are creators at heart,

right? We like to do things that are different in florally

and light and fun and interesting and clever as you said,

but don't do it.

It doesn't serve you.

Well, It doesn't.

And I know that when it's your product and you're the

one creating the content and writing the emails and you're doing

all the things and wearing all the hats,

you can get a little bored and you feel like you're

saying the same thing over and over again.

But the consumer,

the person you're trying to reach,

they need to see something or hear something seven to 15

times before it really clicks.

They are not bored.

Right. So you don't have to reinvent the wheel every time.

Good. All right.

So we've got our products up there.

Now we had to do it manually because we don't have

a Shopify site yet.

We didn't experience that magic perhaps.

So now we've got our shop fully populated.

Maybe we've broken them out into collections.

You know,

however, we set that up.

So they're all sitting there now,

what do we do Once you have that all set up?

Now it's time to start marketing it.

This is not an,

if you build it,

they will come.

Nothing is right.

It's really not.

So yes,

Facebook is going to give you tools and create all these

options to make that easier for you,

but you still have to show up and you still have

to sell your product.

Okay. So can I do it only in Facebook?

You can,

if you want,

but I would expand that to insult them if your customer

is there.

Okay. Okay.

Well, that's what I meant though.

Are you limited then to promoting only within the platform?

Oh, no,

definitely not.

It's just another place that you're going to send your potential

customer. So you really can treat Facebook shops,

kind of like a mini website with all the precautions that

Jessica just shared.

Right? You don't own it.

So heaven forbid something happens with Facebook or your shop gets

banned. I don't even know if that's a thing yet,

but my guess is it's coming and you,

for some reason,

your account went dark.

You have no way to access anybody.

Who's liked your page to see any of your things.

That's why a website and email lists are so important,

but as you're starting out and as a supplemental,

really strong place to also show your products,

Facebook shops can very nicely compliment.

Whatever else you have.

It's just another place it's like having multi location,

brick and mortar shops,

if you will.

Yes, exactly.

That is the perfect way to explain it for sure.

I love that.

So we've got The shop and so I'm thinking this through

for myself so I can then promote on Facebook and Instagram

and obviously then the products come up cause it's right in

the shop.

That's right on that same platform.

Can I then promote it elsewhere with a link to the

Facebook? Yes.

So I would,

if you have,

maybe you have no online presence.

Let's say you're really just on social media,

online presence,

meaning a website,

right? Okay.

Yes. So maybe you've done most of your selling in person

at markets and things like that.

Hopefully when you're doing those,

you are collecting emails.

And if you're not start doing that now,

now that you've collected the emails at the show,

email them and let them know,

Hey, I have this place where you can come online and

shop, buy products.

Here's what's new.

Here's what I've created.

Since the last time I saw you,

you don't have to wait for me to come to the

next market whenever that's going to be cool.

You know,

I could see this as such an awesome tool because even

people who come to market,

but you don't have everything there that they want.

You could just pull it up on your site and order

right from there.

Yes. Have you ever shopped in a retail store and I'll

use Nordstrom as the example because they do this very well.

There's plenty of times where I have gone into the store.

They didn't have exactly what I wanted and they ordered it

right there for me on the spot and shipped it to

my home,

Walk you right over to a computer or they have something

handheld now or however it works.

Yeah. Because you don't want to that opportunity.

Right. Cause the second people walk away,

probably 50% probability that they're going to come back and do

it. We just get busy.

Right? Not that they don't want it Busy.

Yes. I mean,

even if you think of e-commerce in general,

if you do have your own website,

the average abandoned cart rate is like 70% because people just

get distracted and their kid is pulling on their leg or

something happens.

The doorbell rings.

People just get distracted.

So if you can make that process as smooth and as

easy as possible from the beginning and get that first sale,

it's going to be so much easier moving forward.

Okay. Absolutely.

Now I just think Facebook shops Facebook overall,

let's face it.

You keep hearing that people are abandoning Facebook and there aren't

as many people on Facebook anymore.

Well, yes and no.

I mean,

let's look at all of our activity.

We are on Facebook and probably the majority of people who

are customers or potential customers are on Facebook already too.

So to be able to get in front of them on

a platform that they're normally using three,

four, five times a day,

maybe more,

maybe a little bit less versus having to go and enter

another platform.

Right. I think just sets you up for so much more

opportunity to sell.

Totally. And Facebook is going to make it easy because they

are going to save payment information for the customer.

So they don't have to enter in type in their credit

card. It'll be as easy as using like an Apple pay

or Amazon pay.

So that's going to be a feature as well.

So they're doing their part to make it as frictionless as

possible. And like you said,

we're already on Facebook.

Our behavior has changed,

right? We're not necessarily posting that.

We just had lunch anymore.

We're using it differently,

but we're still on it for a long time.

I know No one uses it a little bit differently.

Some people I know particularly now just go into their private

groups. They don't want anything to do with the feed,

if there's drama going on.

Right. But they're still on the platform or they're still following

different accounts or different friends.

I think it's a strong platform.

If they have a new program,

we should be paying attention.

So why we're talking about it obviously.

Yeah. And the other thing about social is the idea of

the silent follower.

Just because they're not liking your posts or leaving a comment,

doesn't mean they're not paying attention.

Ooh. I've never really thought about that before.

And you don't really know who that is either.

You don't really know who that is,

but I will tell you that when they are ready,

they will show up and they will engage or they will

purchase. So it may feel like you are posting to crickets,

but that doesn't mean that you are.

So I encourage you to keep showing up anyway.

Okay. And I'm also thinking we might be projecting now into

the future,

but as shops become more advanced,

people are making sales.

Facebook knows that then you could probably run ads to existing

Purchasers. Yes.

You're going to have that full access to Facebook's advertising platform.

It doesn't mean hundreds and thousands of dollars Either.

No it's access to them.

Right. It's just think about your shop.

If you're already doing Facebook ads,

for example,

and you have your pixel on your website and you're capturing

all of this data in Facebook that you can use,

you can create lookalike audiences from things like that.

This is just one more place to get data from.

Right? Okay.

Question. Someone places,

an order.

What comes to you So that you can fill the order?

Okay. If you are on Shopify,

the order is going to come through your regular Shopify admin.

If you just have the Facebook catalog,

the fulfillment happens within Facebook.

They were not clear about what notifications you're going to get,

but I imagine it will be an email and or a

notification within the Facebook platform.

I'll get a notification that I have an order probably.

And then it will give me for sure not the email

address. I can make that assumption already.

Right? It'll give me the name,

the product they've purchased the name and where to send it.

So a physical address.

And that's it.

So again,

a big point about not owning the platform,

not owning access to that customer,

if you will,

a good best practice here would be to include some type

of an insert.

When you send out a package that prompts them in some

way to get on your newsletter list for more specials,

somehow to capture that email from them.

Cause you're not going to get it through.

Right. And they haven't come out specifically and said that.

But if we know anything,

they're likely not going to give that up because that's technically

a Facebook customer.

It's not your customer.

And I would imagine,

cause I haven't seen it in the Shopify admin yet,

but I would imagine it would come through the way an

Amazon order comes through where it's just like scrambled letters and

numbers. There's no real email address there.

Right? I think we can count on that.

I'm pretty sure for sure.

And they haven't said anything about not being able to put

those inserts in,

I know some platforms limit what you're allowed to do there,

but they haven't come out and said that you can't.

So I definitely would.

So Don't ask for now anyway.

Right? All right.

Wonderful. Any final comment on the platform that we should know?

Yes. There are a few further out features that are not

relevant right now,

but I want to give you a little bit of something

exciting to look forward to.

One is they're going to be creating an option for augmented

reality. So if you've ever seen this,

where you shopped on maybe a home goods store,

for instance,

and you're looking at a lamp,

you can kind of hold that up in your home and

see how it would look in your space.

No way yes.

Way. Oh my God,

That's trouble right there.

Amazing. And they're also going to be doing,

and I don't know if any of your people have makeup

or anything like that,

but where you can actually try on makeup.

And this is going to be very big in the retail

And COVID,

you're not going to go into Sephora and try makeup on

anymore. Like that's not going to be a thing.

So this new technology where the customer can try it on

is amazing.

And Facebook is going to give you the ability to do

that. That's awesome.

So cool.

I want to smell makeup just so I can set that

up and have a store that does that because that's so

cool. They're also going to allow you to link rewards.

So if you have a rewards program,

you'll be able to include that in Facebook,

shopping on Instagram will be part of the discovery tab and

the explore pages.

So that's going to be great visibility for you.

And I think I touched on this before,

but once it's fully rolled out,

there will be a persistent cart between Facebook and Instagram.

So if the customer starts their journey on one platform,

they'll be able to finish it on the other.

Oh, Nice.

So really easy experience,

checkout experience from either platform or cross platforms.

Yes, exactly.

Wow. Yes.

And then lastly,

they are going to be partnering with other eCommerce platforms like

big commerce and WooCommerce,

et cetera.

So if you're on one of those it's coming,

you can just upload manually in the meantime,

Upload a few,

try it out.

I think that they make sense that they go with one

platform, get out all the kinks and then continue adding on

top of that.

Right. And when it comes to the small business,

for the most part,

those people do have their store on Shopify.

So it made sense as the first step.

Oh my gosh.

So exciting.

I love that we got you on so early in the

game so that we can all jump on,

learn experiment.

We've gotten a lot of great information.

It sounds so exciting for the future.

Love it.

It is so cool.

Everyone has their own feelings about Facebook.

I think they're really stepping up to support the businesses that

are on their platform and I'm in a non condescending way.

I'm very proud of what they're doing.

I think it's really great.

The future seems very bright,

I think for sure.

So let's talk about your future.

What is going on with you?

How are you moving forward and also share with all of

our listeners how they could reach out to you?

For sure.

So my future is supporting female e-commerce product entrepreneurs.

I've learned so much in my last few years,

like you mentioned in the intro and I learned so many

things the hard way.

So my goal is to give them as many shortcuts as

I possibly can and kind of clear out the noise that's

on the internet Because it only gets to be more right.

Yes, exactly.

And that's really where I'm focused.

And I do that mostly between general e-commerce consulting.

And then I also focus a lot on email marketing because

it is like the most under utilized marketing strategy for the

small business that I've seen.

Cause nobody's talking about it as much as they should be.

We were definitely talking about it.

Yes, for sure.

And some people who were caught unaware when we all got

sent home are now forced to learn that that's something that

needs to be happening.

Yes. I love that.

And you know,

you can find me on my website,

which is e-commerce badassery.com

and it's the same across all of my social channels.

Perfect. And we'll put all of Jessica's links in the show

notes page,

as well as the other information Jessica you'll share with me

the other links that we talked about earlier.

So you'll have all of that over on the show notes

page, everybody,

Jessica, this has been fabulous.

Thank you so much for enlightening us about Facebook shops.

I can not wait to go and check it out.

I am so glad that you had me.

This was so much fun.

I appreciate it.

And I hope everyone jumped on this bandwagon.

Be one of the first be the 1%.

All right.

We will.

We'll all make a commitment in unison.

We will be that 1%.

I love it.

I love it.

Take care.

Have a great day.

You too.

Bye bye.

So right after this interview,

I went over to our website for the ribbon print company.

It's a Shopify site already.

I switched it to be a shopping page over on Facebook,

and then followed the steps in Shopify to connect the two

together seriously in about 30 minutes,

all our products were showing over in Facebook shops and it

couldn't be easier.

I can't wait to test out selling our products there now

through DMS.

And maybe when we have promotions,

I'm thinking maybe I'll go over into our customer support group

to announce the promotions and then sell right from there.

Can't wait to experiment.

Two other big points.

I want to underline from our talk with Jessica.

Remember that clear over clever for product names will serve you

best. And don't forget about your secret followers.

They're right there watching you and may not be engaging,

but they will when the time is right.

That's a wrap for part four of our six part series.

Next week is drum roll Etsy.

I know many of you have been waiting for that,

but honestly,

I'm seeing such value in each and every platform we're covering

here. And remember many are now selling from multiple places.

You just don't want to try and get several up and

running at the same time.

One, get it perfected,

locked in.

Then you can move on to another.

Also make sure to subscribe to the gift biz on wrapped

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First thing next Monday morning,

did you know that if you're not subscribed,

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So take a moment and do that now until next week.

Remember you can catch me live in the breeze for those

Q and a sessions.

Even if you don't have something to ask.

It's so valuable to learn from other people's questions too.

You'll hear more about the group in the outro clip,

closing out this show that happens right now.

I want to make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook

group called gift is breeze.

It's a place where we all gather and our community to

support each other.

Got a really fun post in there.

That's my favorite of the week.

I have to say where I invite all of you to

share what you're doing to show pictures of your product,

to show what you're working on for the week to get

reaction from other people and just for fun,

because we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody

in the community is making my favorite post every single week,

without doubt.

Wait, what,

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