Facebook has been the leading social networking site. For online business or e-commerce it offers advantages, too. Creating a Facebook page allows you to interact with your customers and prospects better.
However, it is arguably not wise to run your e-commerce entirely on Facebook page. There are disadvantages you might have overlooked, but they exist and might affect your business in long term.
Not Search Engine Friendly
Facebook is the best site to find old and new friends and interact with them. But unless you are intended to sell your products only to friends, running it on Facebok page is not good. You can suggest the page to your friends and pay the Ad to expose your business to wider market. But that’s about it. Search engines will help your customers find your store better if you locate it on a site, not on Facebook.
Moderation is Tricky
Everyone can post almost anything on your Facebook page, and it is visible to other members. You do not have control over how, when and what media they are posted with. If someone posts spam on your page, all you can do is deleting it manually. If your business receive positive feedbacks, they are visible to every member and that is a good thing. On the darker side, if your business receive negative feedbacks, they can wreck your brand.
If you have thousands of members, and the interaction rate is high (it means many members post on your page frequently), it might take time to browse through the posts.
Product Highlight? Not Likely
Yes, you can post unlimited products on your Facebook page. However, you cannot highlight feature products the same way you have with sites.
No Advanced Search
There is no product search feature on Facebook page. The search box you see on Facebook site is to search Facebook users, not specifically for your products.
If you have more than 2,000 products, how on earth your customers will find the one they need? Too time consuming, your customers might end up with headache instead of buying stuff from you.
Social Network = Time Consuming Interaction
Facebook is a social network sites. It is where people go to interact to each other, including your page fans. You need to answer questions, comment on the posts they post on the wall, create games and quizzes with prices.
If you do all these while running business: taking orders, posting new products, confirming payments and sending products to buyers, would you have enough time and energy?
Personal – Professional Imbalance
People go to Facebook because of many reasons, but mostly for fun. Most are not interested in being enticed to buy your products when all they want is to see where you have been last weekend. Yeah, you should be professional running your business and interact with them as friends. Hard, huh?
No Contact Form
Facebook page does not feature contact form. Nuff said.
No Checkout
Facebook page does not feature checkout. The only payment gateways you can provide are PayPal and local bank transfer. Your customers can’t also go through an automated checkout process. They might have to contact you somehow to place their orders, pay their stuff with limited options of payment and contact you again to confirm their payment. All those are just too complicated.
Manual Transactions Recording
Facebook does not feature automated transactions recording. You have to do it on your own manually.
While during first weeks or months doing such thing seems easy, after your business grows bigger, it will be hard and time consuming to manually record all transactions.
However,
I never say that you should leave out Facebook page entirely.
Your online business definitely needs Facebook, but for different reasons. The point here is not to run your business entirely on Facebook page, not to use it as your online store.
You need a reliable site and shopping cart to run an online store. As for Facebook page, you need it for these obvious reasons:
Interact with Customers
As a social network site, Facebook is perfect for interaction with customers. You can answer questions and offer suggestions instantly.
Create a Brand Awareness
You need to brand your business and social network site is only one of many efforts you can do. Using Facebook page you can create games and quizzes where all members can join. Doing such thing regularly can help boost your brand.
Market Your Online Store
Online store needs online presence. Your customers are the ones going online, including those who play around on Facebook. So use Facebook page to reach them and entice them to visit your store.
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