How to sell well on the facebook marketplace

Facebook Marketplace launched in 2016 and now has over a billion users.

It is a platform for people to sell to each other on Facebook, and history has proven that it is a good idea. But the most interesting thing is that businesses can also sell on Facebook Marketplace, especially e-retailers.

It must be said that the 2.85 billion people using Facebook every month, with their geolocated profile, who mainly exchange about their daily life or their opinions, represent a rather interesting source of prospects.

For both individuals and businesses, selling on Facebook Marketplace is completely free. Unless you decide to advertise.

You can sell just about anything and everything.

If the Facebook Marketplace has some disadvantages compared to other online sales sites, it also offers some serious advantages.

If you want to know how to sell well on Facebook marketplace, but also how to buy, this article should interest you.

Let’s get started.

Why sell on Facebook Marketplace?

After all, classified ads are not the initial field of activity of Facebook and there are many other sites to sell clothes or other items, such as Vinted, eBay and of course, the favorite site of the French: Le Bon coin.

So what is the point of selling on Facebook?

Advantages of the Facebook Marketplace
It’s simple and easy to set up.

Many people wonder how to set up Facebook Marketplace, but there is no need, because it is integrated into your FB account. So you don’t need to sign up or open an account on another platform. And since you have plenty of good reasons to spend time on Facebook, you’re on top of your ads. This is not the case on other platforms, where you have to log in regularly to keep up.

On Facebook, all you have to do is click on Marketplace on the left side of your profile, post your ad and turn on notifications. If you want to buy on Facebook, you can also easily create an alert.

You can sell to your Facebook friends (or not)
While you’re at it, if you can sell to someone you trust, that’s not insignificant. Save yourself the stress of the scam, the weird negotiations and the runaround and post your listing on Facebook Marketplace so that your friends will see it.

If you don’t want that friend who gave you the juicer to see that you’re reselling it on Facebook, you can block them. You can prevent all your Facebook friends from seeing your ad or just a few people. In short, you have control over your audience, which is not the case on other platforms. What’s also cool is that you can ask some of your friends to share your ad on their network too, which can increase the visibility of your ad.

It’s free
It is not the only free marketplace, there is also Le Bon Coin, but there are also many paid marketplaces or that take a commission. This is not the case on Facebook.

New sales channel for professionals
Professionals can indeed sell via the Facebook store, but also via the Facebook marketplace. This is an opportunity to develop your acquisition channels, especially since you can advertise on Facebook Marketplace. We’ll come back to this later, but it’s clearly an option to explore.

Be careful though, it’s a localized sales channel. It is particularly interesting if you have a physical store, because the Facebook France marketplace works on geolocation. It’s still interesting if you don’t, just be aware that only customers close to you will see your content.

The disadvantages of buying and selling on Facebook

As it is not a platform specialized in selling between individuals, there are no real rules. Of course there are conditions of use, you can’t sell anything, anyhow, but overall, people do what they want. Especially when it comes to prices. On Vinted, for example, once you have entered your product, you are given an indicative price. This is not at all the case on Facebook, so you can have huge price differences on the same product.

It’s really up to you to do your research to make sure you are selling or buying at the right price.

Few guarantees
Another consequence of the previous point: you are a bit on your own in case of a problem. If your contact breaks the Facebook rules, you can contact them, but we know that they are not always very reactive. And if the problem is something else, for example if the person doesn’t make the expected payment, you are not covered.

On the other hand, you still benefit from a little reassurance thanks to the Facebook profiles. Be careful, this is not always a guarantee. But by looking at the person’s profile, you can see how long they have been on Facebook, their activities, their friends (perhaps you have some in common) in short, you can get an idea of the person.

Buyers have a little more assurance with seller badges and customer reviews. Indeed, some sellers are recommended by the community. We come to this below.

Little information

Posting a sale ad on the marketplace is very simple. That’s why it’s more complicated for a buyer, because often sellers are not very descriptive: few pictures, no details. Most of the time, you will have to contact the seller to get more information. But a priori, the exchanges are done well and quickly.