When Deb Liu entered her Product Marketing interview with Sheryl Sandberg in 2009, she knew that Facebook could benefit from a marketplace.
She thought incorporating commerce into the networking website would bring a lot of advantages, not only to the platform but also to the users.
It took until 2015 for the tech giant to work on Marketplace, but five years later, it became one of the most successful online venues for buyers and sellers.
It's used by over 1 billion people every month, according to Mark Zuckerberg.
Here are five especially benefits that you can get from Facebook Marketplace.
Gaining Access to a Low-Risk Testing Ground for Your Products
Whether you're a budding or seasoned entrepreneur, testing a product is one of the most important parts of launching a business.
Some companies do it small-scale by commissioning a survey, soliciting feedback from friends or family, or engaging in quantitative research.
Others invest in full-on market research.
The market research industry accumulated over 76.4 billion dollars in revenue in 2021; North America took the most significant share of the pie at 54%.
Product or market testing is essential in determining a host of things, including:
- Your target audience
- Level of demand for your product
- Your competitors
- Projected sales for the first months
- The right advertising and promotional methods
And the process can get complicated, especially if you're new to your industry.
But with Facebook Marketplace, you can test the viability of your products without the steep learning curve.
Sellers can go to Facebook Marketplace, find "create a new listing" or "sell," upload photos, set their price, and voila.
What makes it even more beneficial is that it's free.
And you can get insights from playing with different pricing, setting exclusive discounts, etc.
However, if you want to spend a little to see whether specific strategies work better, use FaceBook ads.
Take handcrafted accessories supplier Pura Vida, for example.
They wanted to get more new customers between Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2019. They invested in a Facebook ad campaign that posted ads throughout Facebook's family of apps, including Marketplace.
After the campaign, the company saw a 2X increase in sales compared to their previous record and a 28% boost in average order value.
What they spent on the ad campaign also gave them a 2.8x increase in returns.
Reaching an Initial Wide Audience
A 2019 study found that the most significant reason a small business fails is the lack of demand for its products or services.
Facebook Marketplace can help create demand for your products by enabling you to reach a broad audience.
Accessible from more than 70 locations worldwide, this platform can open up your offerings to virtually anyone worldwide.
Additionally, Marketplace gives businesses a potential customer base of 2.91 billion people.
This represents almost 37% of the entire human population among those that can go online!
More than 58% are on Facebook.
Do all these people use Facebook frequently, though?
79% of Facebook users use the platform daily, and on average, they spend almost twenty hours a month browsing and posting.
The fact is that a single advertisement on Facebook Marketplace can help you reach 562 million people.
One digital marketing agency saw a 20% average increase in sales and landing page visits and a 50% decrease in cost per action.
Their clients also saw their ad spend investment return twice the amount they spent.
Finding Customers Ready to Buy
Creating a campaign to reach many people is only effective if the people you get are ready to buy.
On Facebook Marketplace, sellers are assured of meeting potential customers actively searching for products.
In 2019, 6% of people surveyed said they buy things on Marketplace.
In 2020, this number doubled to 12%.
And today, Marketplace is among the top five most popular marketplaces in the United States.
Similarly, Facebook asserts that one in three people use Marketplace.
This was especially true at the height of the pandemic, as restrictions drew more people to online shopping.
Demand for products in these categories is exceptionally high, even now:
- Seasonal Goods
- Books
- Fashion Apparel
- Electronics
- Health and Wellness Products
- Baby Products
- Furniture and Home Decor
- Toys
- Sports and Fitness Supplies and Equipment
- Mobile and Accessories
Facebook Marketplace is also an excellent platform for those selling secondhand luxury goods.
Statista found that 53% of Americans use it to buy these items, making it the second most popular platform for online trading luxury goods behind eBay.
In other parts of the world, Marketplace has similarly started making ripples.
In Germany, 6% of those aged 30 and above have used Marketplace for sourcing or posting secondhand goods in 2020; among their younger population (people between 16 and 29), 15% have used Marketplace for buying or selling.
Simplifying Social Selling and Buying
A Nielsen survey found that shopping is a chore for 46% of customers.
E-commerce has revamped the way we buy by creating online experiences that are not only more convenient but also more rewarding.
Social commerce, in particular, is expected to rake in three trillion dollars in revenue by 2028.
Gen Zers are especially fond of social shopping, as an eMarketer report found that among 18-24-year-olds, 56% have made at least one purchase on a social media platform.
Meanwhile, 47.5% of those aged between 14 and 17 have done the same.
Facebook and its apps are expected to gain even more footing in this area because of the convenience Facebook Marketplace offer for buying and selling.
Since Marketplace integrates with Facebook accounts, users only need to log in to access Marketplace features and start selling or buying.
You can also filter search results by location, pricing, and category.
And it enables easy messaging since it connects with Messenger.
Its convenience has led experts to call it "a friendlier Craigslist" for sellers and buyers.
Integrating the Shopping Experience for Customers
Another great thing about Marketplace is its ability to personalize and provide an integrated customer experience.
According to market data, 70% of customers believe that a personalized experience is important.
This makes personalization one of the most critical aspects of modern business operations and something all entrepreneurs must strive to deliver.
Many businesses now do, as HubSpot reports that according to their research, 53% of marketers use message personalization when creating email marketing campaigns.
Other established brands have also done the same; one of the most famous examples is Spotify's yearly Wrapped campaign.
Marketplace allows sellers to personalize their customers' experiences through helpful integrations with Facebook features, such as messaging.
For Hats Unlimited, 20 to 30 percent sales growth is primarily due to Marketplace.
Additionally, selling on Marketplace has increased customer engagement on their Facebook page and listings, giving them more direct points of contact with clients.
Additionally, you can leverage Facebook Insights to gain a closer look into how your listings on Marketplace are doing and effectively strategize towards more personalized strategies and better returns.
Some of the performance insights you can access include:
- Audience reach
- Number of checkouts initiated through your ads; and
- Cost of ad spend based on the number of conversations it started
Similarly, you can look at the number of times people saw your ads, their link clicks, and how many times they were on people's screens.
Yclas Marketplace
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