How to use Facebook Marketplace for business in Singapore?

Listing your business and products on the Facebook marketplace in Singapore can be extremely helpful in terms of improving your brand awareness. The platform has over 1 billion monthly visitors. So the chances of someone discovering your product willing to buy it is also quite high.

The channel acts as a way to build your presence online. A great element of selling on Facebook marketplace is the social media aspect of it. People can easily share products with their friends on the platform without having to open any other apps. 

Many people say that this marketplace introduced by Facebook was the birth of what we know today as social commerce — a place where buyers and sellers not only transact but also interact with each other and build business relationships. 

Every business knows the importance of competitor research. And the case is no different when it comes to seeing success on the Facebook marketplace. You need to study the product listings of your competitors. See the kind of language and images they use for their products. 

You should definitely research the competitors who are popular and doing well on the platform. This will give you hints and insights as to what you can do to mimic their success. 

The Facebook marketplace algorithm suggests products based on what someone using the platform has recently viewed.

So if your product listing has similarities in terms of the language used, category of the product, and the imagery used by your competitors who are performing well, then chances are that your product will also be pushed and shown to new users.

Optimizing your product listing on the Facebook marketplace means making sure that you follow all the best practices of the platform and play into the way the algorithm works. 

For instance, the marketplace algorithm shows buyers products that are based on their search history and also on the basis of what other products they were browsing through and have viewed previously.

So when adding the title, tags, and descriptions of your product, make sure to be descriptive. Add specific keywords you think your potential buyers might use to search for that product. 

All of these subtle tweaks can make a massive difference to your product’s discoverability and help the Facebook marketplace search engine recommend it to relevant people.

Another great reason for selling on Facebook marketplace is the platform’s in-app advertising tools that you get access to.

The organic audience of the marketplace is strong enough for you to get inquiries about your product. But in case you see that even after a certain period of time you aren’t getting any traction, you can boost your product listing by paying for ads.

This will help you reach more potential buyers based on how much you pay to the advertising platform. 

This cannot be stressed enough. Using product images that are of high quality is essential to get prospects to check your product and then eventually get them to buy it.

As a social commerce platform, while someone can interact with a seller to understand the product offering, having attractive images of what you are selling gives buyers visual proof and builds trust and credibility in their eyes.

Here are two more reasons why businesses see a lot of success when it comes to listing their products on the Facebook marketplace:

• The algorithm can detect, analyze the objects in your image, and suggest your product to new people based on similar products they have viewed.

• The algorithm also enhances images on its own when it feels like it would improve the effectiveness of your product listing.

As mentioned earlier, the Facebook marketplace for business acts as a social commerce channel making it a great avenue for a seller to interact with customers. This is thanks to the platform's native integration with Facebook Messenger which allows a buyer to directly message you, the seller, and get more details about a product.

This ease of communication can help buyers who are not sure or are on the fence about buying your product to gain more clarity after conversing with you. 

From a seller's point of view, you also get to filter your messages based on a product listing. This way you will be able to gauge which of your products have high demand, which products people are most curious about, and so on.

Apart from conversations with your customers, you can use the messenger as a customer service tool to solve any grievances they might have. 

While not mandatory, as a seller, it is a smart move to ensure that you keep your personal transactions and bank account separate from your business transactions and bank account.

This is especially true if you plan to sell not just locally but also ship your products across national borders and if you are into the dropshipping model of selling products. A separate business bank account in such cases can help you gain monetary benefits that you otherwise would not get from a simple personal bank account.

Related read: 7 benefits of opening a business bank account in Singapore

Choose a Volopay business account that can hold funds in multiple currencies and avoid the cost of conversion. This is essential if you happen to be a drop shipper who needs to pay someone else in another currency.

So when you have to pay your supplier to ship the product that was bought by your customer, you can easily transfer them the money without incurring any FX charges. 

To boost the product listing on the FB marketplace you can leverage Facebook ads to increase sales. Be it by directly boosting or any other paid form of marketing that you do for your product listing, you can use Volopay’s platform to create unlimited virtual cards.

This will help you keep track of different marketing expenses and make sure all your spending can be seen and tracked in one place using our platform.

Related read - How to get a startup business loan without collateral in Singapore?