Beginner's Guide to Selling on Facebook Marketplace in 2022

Guides to Selling on Facebook Marketplace

 

Everyone is familiar with Facebook as a platform to keep in touch with friends and family, exchange photographs, and join interest groups. But did you know that you can also sell items on Facebook and even start an eCommerce business? All you need is a Facebook account that is active!

 

In this post, I'll teach you how to sell on Facebook Marketplace using the same tactics I advocate for Amazon sellers.

 

What exactly is Facebook Marketplace?

 

Facebook launched the Marketplace in 2016 and it immediately became a popular platform for selling things to local shoppers. When selling locally, Facebook Marketplace is a safer and more user-friendly tool to utilize than Craigslist.

 

Facebook distinguishes itself from Craigslist even further by enabling qualifying vendors to provide nationwide delivery for items in specific categories, giving them a significantly bigger client base than local-only sellers.

 

How big is it? Facebook has 2.9 billion monthly active users, with an estimated 800 million Marketplace users per month.

 

People often conceive of the Marketplace as a clearinghouse for people's used or unwanted home things because of its roots as a local buy/sell platform. However, because of its shipping capabilities, it is also ideal for retail arbitrage, which is the practice of purchasing in-demand things from a retail shop and reselling them online at a greater price.

 

If you're new to the Marketplace, take some time to explore around and discover what things are available. Like eBay or Craigslist, you can buy and sell practically anything you can think of—from cars to couches, video games, furniture, and more.

 

What do you require to begin selling on Facebook?

To begin selling on Facebook Marketplace, all you need is an active Facebook account. It's actually that easy! If you want to provide shipping on your listings, you must go through the additional process of submitting your payment and shipping details.

 

A Systematic Guide to Selling on Facebook Marketplace

 

Step 1: Create a Facebook Marketplace account

You may access Facebook Marketplace if you already have an active Facebook account. You should notice a "Marketplace" option on the left side of your Facebook homepage. If not, type "Marketplace" into the search field and it will appear.

 

If you don't already have a Facebook account, it's simple to get one. 

 

•     Go to Facebook.com and click the "Create New" button.

•     Enter your information and then click "Sign Up."

 

After that, your account will be ready to use. You'll need to provide some information so that you appear to be a real person—this is a vital step that will make you more trustworthy in the Marketplace. People will not want to buy from you if your account lacks at least a profile picture and some basic identifying information.

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It's as simple as that! You can access the Marketplace after your Facebook account is ready.

 

Step 2: What do you want to sell on Facebook?

Facebook Marketplace, like eBay and Craigslist, allows you to sell almost anything. Your first step in selling on Facebook is to go around your house, garage, or attic to determine if you have anything valuable enough to market.

 

This can contain everything from old furniture to outdated gadgets, video games, kitchen equipment, books, and so on. Look around the Marketplace to discover what other people are selling in your neighborhood.

 

Take note of other merchants' product descriptions and photographs while you're at it. What information did you find useful as a potential client, and where do you see room for improvement? Did the vendor, for example, give the product's measurements and well-lit images shot from several angles? Remember your insights when you make your own postings (more on building listings in Step 4).

 

Facebook Marketplace categories include:

 

On the marketplace, you may sell in a variety of categories, including clothing, musical instruments, and pet supplies.

 

Here is the whole category list:

•     Vehicles

·        Property rentals

·        Apparel

·        Classifieds

·        Electronics

·        Entertainment

·        Family

·        Free stuff

·        Garden & outdoor

·        Hobbies

·        Home goods

·        Home improvement supplies

·        Home sales

·        Musical instruments

·        Office supplies

·        Pet supplies

·        Sporting goods

·        Toys & games

·        Buy & sell groups

 

As you can see, no matter what you're selling, Facebook has a category for you!

 

Product Investigation

Before you begin selling on Facebook Marketplace, conduct some product research to ensure that what you're offering is lucrative. This is an important step, especially for sellers who want to start or grow an eCommerce company on Facebook.

 

Data is essential for effective product research; it evaluates how many units of a certain product sell over time and at what price, as well as how many other suppliers compete for the same clients within a specific niche.

 

Because Facebook Marketplace mostly deals with local sales of one-time things, we don't have a lot of data on what sells and what doesn't. But, that doesn’t mean we have to guess as to what will sell — we can just look to see what works on other marketplaces like eBay and Amazon.

 

You’re not required to use software to do product research, but you should always trust data over gut feelings when it comes to selling online.

 

Let’s talk about the three main points to consider when doing product research for any eCommerce marketplace: profitability, demand, and competition.

 

Profitability

Unlike eBay and Amazon, you don’t have to factor in selling fees on Facebook if you are selling locally. No listing fees, no referral fees, nothing.

 

If you set up shipping on your listing, Facebook will only charge you a 5% selling fee. This fee is there to cover the cost of the payment processing for using their checkout system.

 

For example, if you sell and ship an item for $10, Facebook will charge you $0.50.

 

Compared to:

eBay fees: ~14% + shipping

Amazon fees: 15% referral + 15% for FBA fees

 

To determine your potential profit, simply subtract your buy cost from your selling price.

 

Demand

Since Facebook doesn’t provide us with any data, we need to use data from eBay and Amazon to give us a good idea of what’s selling.

 

Since we’re able to view sold and completed listings on eBay, we can calculate the sell-through rate or the number of sold listings versus the number of active listings for a product expressed as a percentage. We’ve gone over this process in detail in our guide to selling on eBay, but we’ll review it here.

 

A high sell-through rate indicates strong demand — meaning a large percentage of products listed are being sold. If a product has a low sell-through rate, there’s not much demand.

 

So, what is a good sell-through rate? If you want to sell your products rather quickly, look for items with at least a 50% sell-through rate. Below that, you may have to wait a few weeks to a few months for the product to sell.

 

Using eBay’s advanced filters and search results, we can easily determine the sell-through rate of any product using data from the past 90 days. Let’s try an example. 

 

On eBay, search for “Charizard card.” That search term returns 19,816 results. This means there are currently 19,816 active Charizard Pokémon card listings.

 

Now, scroll down the page and you will see the “Sold Items” and “Completed Items” filters.

 

This filtering returns 64,157 results. Wow! This means 64,157 Charizard cards have sold in the past 90 days.

 

Let’s calculate the sell-through rate for Charizard cards. If you divide 64,157 (the Sold and Completed listings) by 19,816 (the active listings), you get 3.23, or a sell-through rate of 323%. So there’s crazy-high demand for Charizard cards. If you can get your hands on some, you should definitely list them on eBay!

 

Let’s try this again, this time on Facebook Marketplace. Here’s what I see after a similar keyword search.

 

While there’s clearly lots of competition for Charizard cards on Facebook Marketplace, eBay tells us that the demand for these cards is even greater—so we don’t need to be intimidated by the pages and pages of results.

 

If you want even more data, such as daily and monthly sales volumes, historical pricing and sales rank data, you can always use Jungle Scout and its powerful data analytics to find product opportunities.

 

Use the Product Database to set custom filters and view popular products in any category on Amazon.

Let’s measure demand for Charizard cards on Amazon. Using the Product Database tool, I’ll set my filters to search in the “Toys & Games” Amazon product category for listings that have a minimum of 100 sales per month and include the keywords “pokemon” and “Charizard.”

 

That search returns over 200 results with my exact search parameters.

 

Looking at the Monthly Sales column, we can see that Pokémon card listings sell by the hundreds each month - this is an excellent area to explore!

 

•     Using Keyword Scout, you can see the monthly search volume and trends for certain terms.

I used Keyword Scout to find out how frequently genuine Amazon consumers look for Pokemon merchandise, including Charizard cards. Term Scout displays similar keywords, monthly search volume, how popular this keyword was in the previous 30 days, and other information. When deciding if a product has adequate demand, I estimate 500 to 1000 searches each month to be my minimum as a seller.

 

This is certainly a very popular niche, since "pokemon cards" and associated keywords receive tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of monthly searches. Pokémon cards are in high demand!

 

•     Use Opportunity Finder to find product ideas that are in great demand and have little competition.

 

Opportunity Finder identifies high-demand, low-competition keywords, assisting merchants in discovering successful product areas they may not have considered previously. Let's use this tool to look for keywords like "pokemon cards" and "Charizard" in the "Toys & Games" category, with competition set from "Very Low" to "Medium."

 

Each of these keywords scores between 6 and 7 on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the greatest potential. This niche has little competition and medium-high demand.

 

​​​​​​While calculating your eBay sales ratio is useful, Jungle Scout will give you an even better idea of ​​demand, competition, and potential profitability - without any math on your part.

 

Competition

Whether you're selling a used couch, a car, or a product of your own making, you'll be competing with tons of other sellers on Facebook Marketplace.

 

As you can see with the Charizard card example, it's easy for the list to get lost in the search results. Optimize your listing with great photos and a keyword-rich description to stand out. In the next section, I will give you tips on how to do this.

 

How to come up with product ideas

If you're having trouble figuring out what to sell on Facebook, check out eBay's Trending Offers page for inspiration. There you will find popular and sought-after products.

 

Here are some strategies to keep in mind when narrowing your product search:

 
Keep an eye out for new releases of popular goods.
Take advantage of much-anticipated product releases. Resellers, for example, have been stockpiling inventories of recently released Xbox and PlayStation 5 game consoles for resale on markets such as eBay and Facebook.

Keep abreast of emerging trends
Use the previous Pokemon/Charizard card example. Pokemon trading cards have resurfaced in popularity in recent months, and many are eager to get them.

Seasonal items
Consider the various goods you purchase as the seasons change. The winter months are ideal for jackets, coats, holiday decorations, and so forth. Similarly, inflatable pools and swimming equipment are popular throughout the summer months.

Ordinary, everyday objects
It's nice to offer fresh, fashionable items, but steady ecommerce best-sellers sometimes go unnoticed. Facebook Marketplace is an excellent platform for selling common household things such as furniture, cleaning supplies, books, and glassware. These types of things will always be in demand.
 

Step 3: Find things to sell on Facebook.

How can you really get your hands on these things now that you know what will sell on Facebook? In general, product sourcing for Facebook is comparable to product sourcing for eBay. The retail arbitrage approach, in my opinion, is the greatest way to proceed, so we'll start there. But there are a couple other approaches I'd like to examine.

 

Resell goods from retail stores

This is retail arbitrage, a business model that works well for Amazon. In fact, 26% of Amazon sellers are retail arbitrage, and more than half of them make $1,000 or more in sales each month.

 

It also does well on eBay, so there's no reason why you can't find success with it on Facebook. If you have locals in your area looking for the same products, you will have customers.

 

Keep in mind that people notice products with steep markups, and Facebook users aren't shy about bashing sellers who try this. It is best to judge your arbitrage products wisely and ignore baseless complaints. Eventually, you will receive messages from people who want to buy.

 

Look in the clearance or sale sections of retail stores like Walmart, Target, and even grocery stores. Chances are, you'll find great deals to resell.

 

Using our eBay example in Step 2, use the eBay app while you're browsing websites and use the sell-through bidding method to find profitable opportunities.

 

Sell ​​your own private-label products

Chances are, if you have a private label product (i.e a product you sell under your own unique brand), Facebook Marketplace is already on your radar. 10% of Amazon sellers (mostly private label) currently sell on Facebook, and another 8% plan to expand in 2022.

 

If the concept of a private label product is new to you, just know that selling your own branded products is a proven path to success on Amazon and presents an equally good opportunity on Facebook. Remember, Facebook Marketplace has over 800 million active users nationwide—a huge pool of potential new customers.

 

The private label strategy has the following advantages:

•     You develop your own distinct product and brand.

•     You can sell something that no one else can, which distinguishes you from other merchants.

 

You can save money by buying items from sources outside your country.

 

Check out our new How to Sell on Amazon guide for an in-depth explanation on producing and sourcing a private-label product.

 

Visit your neighborhood secondhand store.

Thrift stores are great places to locate hidden treasures. If you seek hard enough and consistently enough, you will come across some hidden jewels priced well below market value.

 

Keep an eye out for antique or designer apparel, secondhand but working video games and toys, furniture, glassware, and other collectibles.

 

Purchase from garage and estate sales.

Garage sales and estate sales are fantastic venues to locate amazing stuff at even better prices. When a homeowner has one of these sales, it's usually because they're attempting to clear their house or are moving—which means they'll let things go for cheap.

 

These might be hit or miss, but if you persevere, you can find gold. To discover garage sales and estate sales in your region, use these two free websites:

•     Estatesales.net

•     Garagesalefinder.com

 

Step 4: How to Organize Your Items

Now that we've covered product research and sourcing, let's talk about how to make your listings and start generating money.

 

It is simple to offer things for sale on Facebook.

 

•     On the Facebook homepage, click "Marketplace" in the left-hand menu.

•     Next, click "Create a new listing."

•     Then, choose "Choose your listing type." You have the option of selecting "Item for Sale," "Vehicle for Sale," "Home for Sale or Rent," or "Create Multiple Listings."

•     Select "Item for Sale."

•     Fill out all of your product information and submit product photographs now.

 

This is where we begin the process of listing optimization: making our product more visible to customers, and more likely to click and sell.

 

For starters, you need to make sure your listing title and description contain as many relevant keywords as possible to optimize your SEO – this helps your product appear more prominent when a customer searches for it (or similar products).

 

The more details and keywords you include, the more likely customers will actually see your product.

 

How to Interact with Buyers

As I previously stated, some buyers can be rather unpleasant, especially if you are reselling a product for a higher price than the retail price. Whatever the scenario, remain calm and courteous.

 

•     Respond to communications as quickly as possible to maximize your chances of making a transaction.

•     Ignore or block harsh or angry messages.

•     Use the messaging app to address queries while you're not at your computer.

•     Expect to bargain – consumers will undercut you.

•     If asked, respectfully convey your lowest price and remain firm.

 

How to deal with a local sale.

It goes without saying that meeting up with strangers via the internet might be risky. Simply be cautious while delivering a product to a local buyer and follow these safety precautions:

 

•     Meet at a shopping center parking lot or some equally crowded location where you know there will be a lot of other people. If you're meeting late at night, park near the front entrance of a still-open shop or beneath a lamp post.

 

•     Most police stations have a designated space where individuals may congregate to purchase and sell products.

 

•     If you're okay with it, offer the individual your home address so they may come and pick up the merchandise when it's convenient for you.

 

•     Keep a counterfeit money pen available if you're selling high-value things to cash customers.

 

You should always check someone's profile before meeting them so you know who to expect. Check to see whether they have a few genuine photographs of themselves on their page, as well as basic information about themselves, such as where they live or work, family members, or life events. If anything doesn't seem right, stop all communication with the customer. Trust your intuition. You may also report suspicious people or conduct on Facebook's Marketplace.

 

Step 5: Advanced Facebook Marketplace selling tips

You can become a Facebook Marketplace pro if you've mastered product research and listing optimization. Let's go through some advanced tactics for increasing sales.

Improve your listings

You may promote your Facebook listings by "boosting" them or re-ranking them at the top of Marketplace search results. Increasing the size of your list effectively transforms it into an advertisement, which has a few advantages:

 

•     Your listing will also be displayed in people's news feeds

•     Target potential buyers by tailoring your audience

•     Create your own daily budget and advertising timeline.

•     View Facebook analytics on the performance of your listing

 

Here's how you can improve your marketplace listing:

Go to "Your Listings" under Marketplace's "Your Account." Locate the listing you want to promote and select "Boost Listing."

 

Set your daily budget and duration after that. Based on your budget, Facebook will estimate your audience reach, so you can make a cost-effective decision on how much to spend.

After you set your budget, you can choose the audience you want to target. Facebook allows you to target users by location, age, and even interests. You can save custom audience settings for future use.

 

Once you’ve defined your target audience, click “Promote Now” to begin your boost campaign.

 

After your boosted ad starts to run, you can monitor its performance with metrics like reach and clicks. You’ll be able to see what you’ve spent, how many people saw your listing, and how they’ve engaged with it.

 

Offer free local delivery

Many customers don’t want to leave their houses to go pick up items, especially things like heavy furniture. Offer free local delivery within a range that’s convenient for you, and you’ll boost your conversions.

 

Take great photos

I know this sounds like a no-brainer, but you wouldn’t believe how many listings on Facebook I come across that have dull, poorly lit, or blurry photos. Take some time to make sure your photos are crisp, clear, and well-lit. If you don’t include good photos in your listing, you can bet people will ask for some.

 

For taking great Facebook Marketplace photos, you can borrow tips from Amazon sellers. Check out our guide to product and lifestyle photography and best practices for Amazon product images for more information. 

 

Remember, customers want to know exactly what they’re going to get, so be sure to include high-quality pictures taken from different angles, close-ups of cosmetic errors, and lifestyle images showing the product in use.

 

Post your listing in local selling groups

I mentioned this in Step 4, but I want to touch on it again. Putting your products right in front of local customers is always helpful.

 

Keep in mind that if you post a listing in one of these buyer/seller groups, people can comment on your post. This can be good or bad. If you’re reselling an item for a dramatically inflated price, for example, you risk racking up some disgruntled comments.

 

On the other hand, if the group is fairly active, your listing will get immediate attention.

 

Renew your post

If your product has not sold yet and has been listed for at least 7 days, you can renew your listing. This will “bump” your listing back to the top of the results — for free! As more sellers list or renew products, your listing will be pushed back down the list.

 

To do this, go to the Marketplace, click “Your Account,” then “Your Listings.”

 

Find your listing and click on the 3-dot icon in the listing thumbnail. In the drop-down menu that appears, there will be an option to renew your listing.

 

Expand to other marketplaces

If Facebook Marketplace is your first taste of eCommerce, you can eventually move onto more advanced selling marketplaces like Amazon and eBay.

 

eBay is still alive and well, with 147 million active buyers worldwide, over 70% of whom are coming from the U.S. eBay is probably the next step up from Facebook Marketplace, as you can easily set up an account and sell similar products.

 

Amazon has an audience of millions and will account for almost 40% of all US retail eCommerce sales this year. Needless to say, it’s a great place to launch and grow an eCommerce business. On top of that, Amazon’s sophisticated fulfillment network (Fulfillment by Amazon) makes shipping a breeze.

 

If you’re interested in selling on Amazon, check out our in-depth guide here.

 

Begin selling on the Facebook Marketplace!

You'll be hooked after selling your first thing on Facebook. This user-friendly platform simplifies purchasing for both customers and merchants.

 

You only need a Facebook account to start selling things from your home on the same day.

 

Conclusion

I hope this comprehensive tutorial helps you get started selling on Facebook Marketplace! If you've already experienced success on Facebook, share your best advice in the comments.