Facebook is pushing Instagram and Facebook Shops (called as Website and Facebook Shop) a lot, and offering 20% or more incentives to merchants as well as customers for using the Facebook Shop. The question is whether you should use it or ignore it.
What is Facebook and Instagram Shop?
Meta launched Facebook and Instagram shops for businesses to make it easier to launch their store on Facebook and Instagram.
Customers can buy any product with a single tap by using their saved payment methods. Facebook processes the transaction and handles the payment gateway, as well as giving flexibility on returns and refunds.
Business owners also do not need a website to sell on Facebook and Instagram Shops
Why did Meta launch the Facebook and Instagram Shops?
There are multiple reasons why it was done, including TikTok, which is a competitor of Facebook, doing the same thing, Facebook not being able to track the users because of cookies, and multiple attempts by Apple for the same.
There is a widely used term called Facebook loves Facebook, which means that Facebook doesn't want its users to leave Facebook and wants anyone to go to an external website. That is the reason why Facebook intends to keep as much data as it can to track customer activity because it cannot track it outside of Facebook.
Should You Use Facebook and Instagram Shop?
It depends on multiple factors, like the website you have, but here are some takeaways from using Facebook and Instagram Shop
You will have less data on Shopify
If you’re using custom attributes (product which needs custom data from user), then the customer’s won’t be able to add them because Meta doesn't support it
The checkout experience isn’t that good
Facebook and Instagram shops get very few customization options, you can't design it the way you want it to be designed.
For example, if you are using custom personalized gift items like LazerDesigns then it would be impossible for you to implement the custom boxes on Facebook and Instagram shops, which means all your products will be rendered without them.
My Experience of using Facebook and Instagram Shops
I have tried it for some of my client stores, and it did get good results, but owning the checkout is always better because you can do more on it (up-sell, etc.)
You can try it if you are new and want to try it out, OR if your business is not established on Facebook.