Turn Down The Hustle: Empowering Online T-Shirt Sellers

36 | Create a Facebook Shop [TDTH Challenge #5]

• Episode 36

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Discover the transformative power of Facebook Shops for boosting your T-shirt business. This episode dives deep into setting up a Facebook shop, maximizing customer engagement, and avoiding common pitfalls in an increasingly competitive market.

• Explanation of Facebook Shops and their importance 
• Step-by-step guide to setting up your Facebook shop 
• Tips for integrating with platforms like Shopify and Square 
• Common mistakes to avoid to enhance sales 
• Discussion on the importance of professional images and detailed descriptions 
• Strategies for diversifying sales channels using Facebook 
• Answers to listener questions regarding setting up and using Facebook Shops 
• Action steps for listeners to implement right away

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Speaker 1:

Welcome back to another Turn Down the Hustle challenge, where every week, we are taking one actionable step to work smarter, not harder, in your t-shirt business aka turning down the hustle. Today we're talking about Facebook workshops, why they're a must-have for your business and how to set yours up to make the most out of Facebook's built-in tools. Alert simply posting a link to your website on all of your social media posts isn't enough anymore if you want to play nice with Facebook and its tools. In this episode, we're going to cover why Facebook shops are the gateway to a seamless customer shopping experience. I'm going to go over step-by-step instructions to set up your shop. A few common mistakes to avoid. Step-by-step instructions to set up your shop. A few common mistakes to avoid. How to link your shops with platforms like Shopify, square and Wix. Finally, why it's important to maximize Facebook tools instead of just using your own page for links.

Speaker 2:

You're listening to Tear Down the Hustle, the podcast dedicated to transforming how you run your creative online t-shirt business by working smarter, not harder, so you can spend more time with your why, people and passions that matter most in your life. So throw on your favorite graphic tee and turn up the heat press, because it's time to turn down the hustle. Here's your host digital marketer. Cold brew lover, t-shirt maker, freckled hype girl and owner of Sunkist Virtual Assistant, amy. T-shirt maker, freckled hype girl and owner of Sunkist Virtual Assistant, amy. You're listening to Turn Down the Hustle, the podcast dedicated to transforming how you run your creative online t-shirt business by working smarter, not harder, so you can spend more time with your why, people and passions that matter most in your life. So throw on your favorite graphic tee and turn up the heat press, because it's time to turn down the hustle. Here's your host digital marketer, cold brew lover, t-shirt maker, freckled hype girl and owner of Sunkist Virtual Assistant, amy.

Speaker 1:

Let's dive in. Why are Facebook shops a game changer for your business? Well, the first thing is is that, with a Facebook shop, it can help you reach more customers. First things first. What is a Facebook shop anyway? So the first thing you're going to need is a business Facebook page and on this Facebook page you can set up a shop, and it can either link to your e-commerce website, so whatever products you're putting on that website can feed your Facebook shop, or you can manually set up products through the catalog feature.

Speaker 1:

How we used to use Facebook shop before is it was really helpful, so we could tag all of our products. I think we didn't appreciate what we had when we had it, because I don't think many were using it, but if you were to tag a picture of a product or well, if you posted a picture of a product you could tag a link to it and it would take you directly to your website platform. They would leave Facebook, go purchase the item or go check it out, and then you'd get them on your website. A great way to do that. The item or go check it out, and then you get them on your website. A great way to do that. However, as of August 10th 2023, you're no longer able to shop on a website off of the platform. You now have to shop directly within Facebook, so you don't leave the platform anymore. So now you actually will take orders through Facebook or Instagram.

Speaker 1:

So why are these Facebook shops great for your business? The first thing is it will help you reach more customers where they already are versus. I know we love to get people off of social media onto our email list, onto our website, but the reality is is sometimes maybe just meeting them where they are and not convincing them to move might help you convert a sale. There are over 2.9 billion monthly users on Facebook as of 2025, and many of them are scrolling for ideas or products or inspiration. So having a shop right now on Facebook means that customers can discover your items, maybe browse your items and buy your products without ever leaving the platform. It's a win for you, it's a win for them and it's a win for Facebook. Next, you can maximize Facebook tools over basic posts. So, just like here's my shirt, buy my shirt, click here. When you post a link to your website, facebook's algorithm does deprioritize it, so Facebook shop, on the other hand, integrates seamlessly into the platform, keeping users engaged and making your products more discoverable. If we can play nice with the algorithm, we're going to do that. You will also start to establish trust and credibility. So a professional Facebook shop shows that you are a legitimate business which builds trust with new customers.

Speaker 1:

Not just anyone can build and create a Facebook shop. If you've tried to set one up before, you might have been shocked to see how many steps you have to go through for verification to set it up. They do want to make sure you're legit. Also, facebook helps you manage transactions securely when you use its checkout system as well, so you shouldn't have any concerns there. Now I'm going to walk you through setting up your Facebook shop so this episode will make more sense whenever you're actually looking at it. So go ahead and pause this on your phone. Go sign in on your laptop or your computer.

Speaker 1:

The first thing you're going to do is activate the shop tab. To do that, you're going to go to Facebook business page settings. See if you can find that within your page. Click on templates and tabs and make sure the shop tab is actually enabled. Then you're going to navigate to your commerce manager to get started. It should walk you through some steps to set up your catalog, like things it's requiring from your business to get verified, such as also connecting your PayPal to your checkout, is an option as well. So whenever you're starting to add your products, we'll go over like the manual way.

Speaker 1:

Make sure you upload a clear and engaging photo of your t-shirt via the catalog tab. Write your detailed product descriptions. Think beyond like blue shirt. Try something like to make the customer feel like that they can have it on right. Comfortable, unisex, sky blue shirt. Perfect for every day where under the sun or layering, something like that, or a perfect day at the beach. Set your pricing and then include a SKU number if you need to. You can also create product collections so you can start to organize your shop into collections for easy browsing, such as like Easter teas, spring teas, summer things like that, or clearance or sale. And don't forget, all of the payment and shipping is going to be done directly through Facebook. So, depending on the item that you create, pay attention to their terms and when you need to have this item shipped by, so you may find that you're actually only going to be posting ready to ship items so you can fall within compliance of their criteria to meet Facebook's term.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to answer questions toward the end of this episode from some of my club members of what they had and we're going to talk about checking out via like ready to ship versus running items. So if you have a website, you're going to sync your website to your Facebook shop. You're going to do that from the create your shop page. Select sync a partner platform from the menu on the right hand side and then Facebook will then redirect you to set up your shop through your partner e-commerce platform. If you're a Shopify user, all you're going to do is, from the Shopify dashboard, add Facebook as a sales channel and then you can sync your product catalog so updates happen automatically or you can pick which products do I actually want to appear on my Facebook shop.

Speaker 1:

One thing I remember years ago when we were doing this is we couldn't schedule products to become available on Facebook, so if it was for like a future weekly drop, we wouldn't make it active on Facebook. We would just come back and remember to manually update that something of that nature because we couldn't wait to publish it. Like you could on the online store For Square users, open the Square dashboard, navigate to online store and integrate it with Facebook For Wix users. From that dashboard, go to sales channel and connect your store to Facebook. In any changes you make they'll automatically sync with Facebook. So to see those latest syncs, you can go to commerce manager, catalog and data sources to see when it was last updated. A note, though Facebook recommends to not change your catalog directly in the commerce manager Once you've set up your partner integration. Do that directly from your website platform. Like you should not be editing products within Facebook, just make sure that there's not a conflict whenever it's trying to read that product location on Facebook and you have changed that end destination.

Speaker 1:

So some common mistakes to avoid is neglecting inventory updates. If you are selling only ready-to-ship items, make sure your shop is synced with your inventory to avoid overselling. Avoid poor product photos like blurry, dark or inconsistent photos. Those are not going to sell. Aim for bright, high quality images that show your t-shirts in the best light. I'm not saying over editing, because that's also an issue, but take your items on a sunny day or make sure you have the correct lighting to take those photos, but natural sunlight is the best. Don't forget descriptions. Include important details like fabric, fit and care instructions to reduce some of those questions, or maybe reasons why somebody might abandon their cart. And then don't ignore analytics either. Use Facebook shop insights to track what's working and what's not From that homepage. Whenever you select commerce manager, you're already going to see some statistics if you have it set up, for example, which product is getting the most clicks. Use some of that data to guide your future product drops.

Speaker 1:

I love Facebook shop because you can diversify some of your sales channels. So if you only have one sales channel, that's one sales channel too close to zero. So relying just on your website or Etsy can limit your reach. But Facebook shops brings your business to a platform where maybe your customers are already spending time. So diversification equals more opportunities to sell. But do you need a website to sell on Facebook shop? Hopefully you know this answer. You do not need a website to sell on Facebook shop. All you need to do is set up that Facebook shop, have a Facebook business page, and you can also sell through Facebook Marketplace and in Facebook groups through your Facebook shop. So can I sell on Facebook without a website? Yes, you absolutely can do it without a website. All you need is that Facebook shop and Facebook business page, and don't forget to also leverage Facebook Marketplace and some of those Facebook groups, maybe local groups, where you can post. Another question does it cost to set up a shop on facebook? No, so that's the beauty of free. It does not cost anything. However, currently meta does charge five percent fee per shipment. If you're using shopify payments, you'll be charged your usual fees from shopify and not meta, so that's something to pay attention to when you get those statements back.

Speaker 1:

Okay, as I mentioned earlier in the episode, let my Product Drop Organizer Club members know that this challenge was coming and a few of them had questions or conversations ahead of this episode, which I was excited about, so I could record some of those questions or conversations here. Now, leslie and Leslie says I have an e-commerce site that I no longer use, still attached. Somehow anyone know how to disconnect it and connect a new one? So how you're going to do that, leslie, is you're going to go to commerce manager? Then I want you to find your shop, select that and then in that left hand menu, select settings from there, select business assets, navigate to commerce merchant settings and click disconnect and then you'll be able to reconnect your new shop. So, members that already have it set up are. Joanne well done on setting up your Facebook shop, and Laura as well already has her set up as well. Ashley has her set up as well.

Speaker 1:

However, ashley is running into some of the same issues I found on my retail side, in that whenever you see the product and then there's like the link to click it to go to the Facebook shop, it says it's a broken link or it doesn't work. Well, what I figured out from my troubleshooting is that if you use the infinite options by shop pad add on app through Shopify to give you all of your menus and variants, facebook shop doesn't read that because that's a shopify app. So somehow it's creating confusion because there aren't any variants or options listed for that item and so it's creating a broken link. So I alluded to this earlier in the episode. That's where I recommend for your Facebook shop potentially only listing things that are ready to ship or have a specific size, so potentially you're not going to list your whole catalog. If you're a t-shirt seller on Facebook shop, you might pick and choose which items you want to advertise, which that's okay. You could pick 10 or less and then really focus on getting those items moved or that inventory moved, and then you can re-upload, maybe once a quarter, and try again. All right, so here are your weekly action steps and I can't wait to take a look at all of your Facebook shops.

Speaker 1:

So the first thing you're going to do is set up that Facebook shop tab. To be eligible for opening that Facebook shop, you need to make sure you have that established online presence. You may have to verify your identity or your business information. Make sure you're complying with Meta's policies. Verify that you have a domain, if you're using a site that you're going to direct shoppers, to Make sure you meet the location requirements there's different rules for different locations and then also ensure that you're providing clear, accurate information regarding availability, pricing, returns and refunds all that good stuff. Then go ahead and add 10 products yourself, if you are not going to link it to your website, including descriptions and prices. And then, if you are going to integrate with the e-commerce site, go ahead and link your Shopify, wix or Square, if applicable, and then start promoting your shop in social media posts and stories. So post a picture of that item and then, after you post that item, if you're on a desktop view and you go to edit the photo to tag the photo, you'll see you can tag it with the shop and it'll give you a recommendation on what to tag it with.

Speaker 1:

So if you decide to skip this challenge, there's a possibility that you might have a missed sales opportunity because some customers might not want to buy if they have to jump through hoops to find your products, or without a shop, you could be losing out on some potential impulse purchases, not to mention if your local competitor is using Facebook shop to their advantage.

Speaker 1:

That could also put you a tad bit behind if others in your area are finding a way to shop and navigate easier with a local competitor. So I know setting up your Facebook shop might feel like one more thing on your plate, but trust me, this one is worth it. When you are trying to automate your business, this is your chance to create a professional, streamlined shopping experience for your customers while also boosting sales at the same time. Now don't forget, if you do want a more detailed guidance on this or community support on all of these Turn Down the Hustle challenges. They're pulled directly from my product drop organizer. You can get access to this product by checking out the show notes below this episode for all of the tools, templates and strategies to keep your business thriving. No-transcript.

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