Whether you're a new seller on eBay or someone looking to branch out and find more customers and sales, both Instagram and Facebook are great places to start. There's a reason we're talking about both of these social media sites together – Facebook owns Instagram, so the two platforms work together in a variety of ways.
Instagram is primarily a photo-sharing application that lets users take videos or photos, add filters, incorporate effects, write on them, and then share them with others on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Facebook acquired the company in 2012 for $1 billion. Instagram has hundreds of millions of active users every month, while Facebook has even more.
With so many people browsing Instagram and Facebook, there is a huge audience for people selling products. While it can take a lot of time and effort to manually sell products on three platforms at once, integration makes it much simpler. Sellers get all the benefits of using popular platforms without the downfalls like needing to post every product in three places.
Facebook has invested a significant amount of resources to make their platforms shopping friendly. As a business seller, you can leverage the Facebook product catalog to sell through Instagram Shops, Instagram posts, Facebook Shops and your own Facebook business page. While Facebook has limited B2C selling on Facebook Marketplace when using the Facebook product catalog, there has been talk about it returning at some point.
Since Facebook and Instagram are already linked with regards to e-commerce, integrating them with eBay tends to be fairly simple. Since you can connect both platforms to eBay at once, it's possible to spend the same time setting up Facebook and Instagram to increase sales as it would be to set up a single other platform, such as Amazon, Shopify, or BigCommerce. The best way to connect products to all three platforms is to use a multichannel e-commerce software solution as it will enable you to publish and update products and inventory to all catalogs simultaneously.
Below are the steps you will take as a seller to start offering your items on Facebook and Instagram as well as eBay.
If you haven't already, the first thing you need to do is set up a Facebook page that is specific to your business. Name the page after your business or choose another name that will be easy for customers to find. You can also fill out the about section with important information about your business. Add in your address, phone number, type of business, and other information. You'll want to set a cover photo and profile photo that makes your store stand out. The top of the page can include a call to action that tells customers to visit your store or get in contact with you.
If you don't have an Instagram account for your business, that should be the next step you take. You can start with making a personal account and then switching it to a business account from the settings. Make the account, visit your profile, and tap on Settings. Go to Account and select "switch to business account." As with Facebook, you can then add in information like the business category and your contact information.
Once you have a Facebook page and an Instagram account, you want to link the two with each other. You'll need to be the admin of the page you made on Facebook and your Instagram should be converted to a business account before going through the process.
Visit Facebook and click on Pages before hitting Settings to bring up options. There will be a section for Instagram. Select that and click on "connect account." This will allow you to put in your username and password for Instagram. This will link things on the side of Facebook.
Next, you will need to log into Instagram and access your business profile. Click on "edit profile," and under Public Business Information, select the link for Page. This is where you can choose the Facebook page your Instagram should connect to. If the page hasn't been made, that can be done at this time.
Without software like SureDone that integrates eBay, Facebook, and Instagram, the process requires a lot of manual effort. For instance, you would list your items on eBay like you normally would and have them link to your Instagram account. However, when you make posts on Instagram, it would be required to make manual posts on Facebook with the same information. This can take a lot of time and lead to unnecessary errors.
On top of that, without eCommerce integration software, keeping track of your inventory while accounting for three platforms is going to be your responsibility. By incorporating software, much of that is done automatically so your time can be spent on other aspects of your business.
You have the opportunity to reach an audience on eBay, Instagram, and Facebook, which can greatly increase your reach. In addition, sellers can ensure the same information is provided on every platform, and all messages can be responded to from a single space. It also makes it easier to target specific audiences on each social media platform and the eBay marketplace.
SureDone offers a singular simple solution for growing your brand on eBay, Facebook and Instagram. You can sync, sell, and ship your products on Amazon, eBay, and other platforms. Our software offers order management for all channels you use, a centralized inventory and product data source, and much more. And if you want to point your Facebook products to your own e-commerce website and let users checkout there - well, we have a built in e-commerce storefront that comes with your account.
There's more information on SureDone's direct integration with Facebook and Instagram here.
This software lets you list items to your Facebook catalog for use on Facebook Shops, Instagram Shops and Checkout, and eBay. All orders from the platforms are funneled to the SureDone platform for a centralized seller solution. Sellers can also fulfill their orders from the software and automate tracking to ensure exceptional customer service.
With SureDone integration, you can list all of your products in bulk to save time, customize the look of your shops to feature products and showcase your brand, and scale your business beyond only offering products on eBay. It's a leading option for Instagram and Facebook integration that provides a global reach that can skyrocket your sales.
Ready to look into the many perks of eBay integration with other platforms? Our guide goes over the top platforms, like Amazon, Walmart, and Shopify.
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