How To Create a Facebook Shop in 5 Simple Steps

If you want to tap into the growing social commerce market, a Facebook shop is a great place to start. It’s free to set up, add products, and even customize its look to match your brand. When you tag products and customize collections, it’s easy for Facebook’s vast audience to discover your ecommerce business.

It’s also a popular place to be. Almost a quarter of global shoppers named Facebook their favorite social commerce platform in 2024. Instagram (owned by Facebook’s parent company, Meta) follows right behind.

Ahead, learn everything you need to know to create a Facebook Shop.

What is Facebook Shops?

Facebook Shops (now officially called “Shops”) is a feature that lets businesses create storefronts on Facebook and Instagram. When you set up a shop, Instagram and Facebook users can browse your products without leaving the platform. When they’re ready to check out, they’re directed to your ecommerce site’s checkout page.

Shopify integrates with Shops, offering automated product syncing, unified inventory management and integrated analytics. This lets you manage your Facebook and Instagram shops from the Shopify admin.

What are the requirements for opening a shop on Facebook?

To be eligible to open a shop on Facebook, you’ll need to meet Meta’s commerce eligibility requirements, which lay out general rules for selling on Facebook. There are also a few extra requirements. In short, you must:

• Have an established online presence, which might include an established follower base
• Provide accurate information about your business
• Follow Meta policies including community standards that bar you from posting hateful content, bullying, engaging in fraud, and other behaviors
• Sell physical goods other than vehicles, and make sure those products aren’t listed in another shop
• Be in a supported country (e.g., the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, or several European and Asian countries)
• Verify your domain

How to create a Facebook shop

1. Create a Commerce Manager account
2. Create your shop
3. Add your catalog
4. Set your shipping profile and checkout URL
5. Finish setup

Here’s how to create a Facebook shop through Meta’s Commerce Manager. This allows you to manage and track your sales across Facebook and Instagram.

If you use an ecommerce platform like Shopify, the shop creation process is easier, and you can skip to the next section to learn how to set up your shop.

1. Create a Commerce Manager account

First, you’ll need to create a Commerce Manager account. This is where you’ll manage your shop. When you set up your account, you’ll be able to create a business Facebook page. If you already have one, you’ll link your new account to it.

To get started, navigate to Meta’s Commerce Manager, log in to your Facebook account, and click “Get started.” After you read about what you’ll need to do, click “Next.”

Below “Business information,” click “Set up.” Here, you’ll name your business. Make sure your name matches the public-facing name of your company. Click “Next.” Here’s where you create a Facebook Business page or link to an existing one.

If you’re not seeing your existing page, it’s possible you don’t have proper control over it. Double check your permissions by navigating to Meta Business Suite. Click “Settings” at the bottom right, then view the “People” tab.

If you’re an account admin, you’ll see you have full access. If you don’t have full access, you’ll need to ask the account admin to grant you full permissions.

If you want to sell on Instagram as well as Facebook, link your business’s Instagram profile at this point. Note that you’ll need a valid Instagram business account.

2. Create your shop

Go to the “Create your shop” page. You’ll need to log in with a Facebook account to access this page. If you use Shopify or another ecommerce platform that supports Facebook Shops, select “Sync a partner platform” to finish setup on the partner platform. If not, follow Facebook’s prompts to create your shop.

3. Add your catalog

Your catalog includes all the products you plan to sell on your shop. You can upload products by hand or with coding. Or, if you’re a Shopify merchant, integrate your shop with Shopify and auto-sync products for a streamlined process.

To begin your catalog upload, click the “Catalog” tab in Commerce Manager. There are a few ways to get your products on your new shop:

• Partner platform. Link your Shop to a platform like Shopify, and automatically sync your products from Shopify to Facebook. The sync is ongoing, so you won’t need to reconfigure your Shops catalog every time you update your Shopify store.
• Manual. Fill in forms for each product you want to upload.
• Data feed. Bulk upload products with a spreadsheet or XML file.
• Meta pixel. Use the Meta pixel code to automatically sync products from your site to Facebook. Note this option is complex, and you might need technical help from a coder.
• Catalog batch API. This method is best for big businesses with tech expertise and large, fluctuating inventories

4. Set your shipping profile and checkout URL

Click “Set up” and select “Set up default shipping profile.” Here, enter important information like where you’ll ship to and your available shipping speeds. Click “Save.”

Next, enter the link to your ecommerce website’s checkout page. When customers in your shop are ready to checkout, this is where they’re directed.

5. Finish setup

Review your shop details, confirm everything is correct, and agree to Meta’s seller agreement. You now have a shop to customize with your brand colors.

To further optimize your shop, customize your storefront’s layout, create featured collections, display ratings and reviews, and advertise promotions.

When you’re ready, publish your Facebook shop. Once Meta reviews and approves it, it will go live.

After your shop is up and running, you could opt to drive traffic to it by running Shops ads. These are clickable Facebook ads that direct viewers to either your Facebook shop or your ecommerce website, whichever Meta thinks will result in more conversions. You can set these up through Meta Ads Manager, and feature products you already added to your catalog.

How to set up and manage your Facebook shop with Shopify

1. Download the Facebook & Instagram app
2. Connect your Facebook account
3. Follow the prompts
4. Manage syncing

If you use Shopify, it’s easy to create and manage a Facebook shop. Here’s how:

1. Download the Facebook & Instagram app

In the Shopify App Store, download the Facebook & Instagram app. Navigate to “Sales Channels” in your Shopify admin, then select the “Facebook & Instagram” app. Click “Get started.”

2. Connect your Facebook account

Connect your Facebook account. Don’t worry if it’s your personal account: You can set up a business account now, and your personal and business pages won’t be publicly linked.

3. Follow the prompts

Now, Shopify’s setup wizard walks you through every step of setting up your Facebook Shops page. You’ll also be able to set up your Instagram shop.

As you click through the setup questions, select your desired level of data sharing, and if you want to install Meta pixel.

The Meta pixel tracks customer behavior across your site to deliver customers relevant Facebook ads and Instagram ads. (To make sure your Meta pixel runs correctly, you might also want to install the Meta pixel helper.)

4. Manage syncing

Once you’re done, your products will automatically sync between Shopify and your Facebook Shop.

If you want to exclude certain products from this process it’s simple. Navigate to “Products,” filter by “Sales channel,” filter by “Facebook & Instagram,” then select “Excluded.”

To sync product collections to your Facebook Shop, find your collection, select “Collection availability” and click “Facebook.”