Side Hustles
9 Strategies For Consistent Sales On Facebook Marketplace
What I Would Do If I am Starting Out To Increase Exposure, Engagement & Boost Sales
One of the best side hustles that I have been involved in since starting my online income journey in 2014 is using the Facebook marketplace to sell both used and handmade items.
It has been a lucrative journey filled with endless trial and error and required the most patience on my end.
Keep in mind that when you are selling on Facebook Marketplace you are required to deal with people on a consistent basis and you need to leverage communication skills in order to ensure you make the sale, avoid misunderstandings and identify when it's time to implement boundaries when needed.
According to BigCommerce.com:
As of October 2018, more than 800 million people globally use Marketplace each month to browse, buy, or sell items, giving retailers an opportunity to drive discovery and sales of key products in a place where their consumers are already shopping. — Source.
In this short piece, I discuss what I would do differently if I was just starting out selling on the marketplace. These are also effective strategies I have implemented myself to get out of a plateau in sales and kickstart my brand.
Here are 9 strategies and tips I implemented to make consistent daily sales on the Facebook Marketplace. It does not matter if you are selling used products that you need to get rid of, or utilizing the platform to start your small business.
- Stay safe: This is the number one advice I would give to anyone starting out on the platform, especially if you are dealing with local buyers. Make sure you avoid giving your address to anyone you do not know. It may be tempting at first since it seems easier for you to just sit at home and have the buyer pick up, but it's never a good idea to give you your address as the pickup location. Instead, choose a public location such as a busy bus stop or in front of your local grocery store and negotiate on the pickup. You’ll be surprised at the weirdos that you’ll avoid if you just opt for a public secure location. Although it may seem like a common-sense thing, there are still people who give their private address and regret it later.
- Ask for reviews straight after the purchase has been made: make sure to nicely ask for a review on the marketplace since that will help you rank better as a seller and bring more sales while raising your trust level to other buyers. Facebook has implemented a 2-way review system: through the faster and easier star rating system and a comment-style review for buyers to describe their experience in detail. Kindly ask the buyer to review their experience with you and briefly explain to them, if needed how this will help you in connecting with potential buyers. If a buyer still doesn’t leave a review even after being reminded, do not take it personally and simply move on. Yet, make it a habit to remind buyers to make a review and stay consistent in this habit.
- Take the time to improve your profile: Your public seller profile is just like your CV or the storefront, make sure it's clear and easy to identify. If you have a brand or theme, utilize colors that emphasize your products and industry. The more professional-looking your seller profile is, the easier it is to get found and attract the right buyer who will take you seriously. Personally, I found that once I redesigned my profile, I had more consistent sales and the quality of the buyers improved. Also, the number of buyers who were asking me to lower my prices was reduced and I was happy to get buyers that accepted the prices without the hassle.
- Take Product Images similar to Stock photography: this one was a major game changer! I noticed more consistent sales rolling in once I was mindful of the quality of my product images. I treated the marketplace like it was an Instagram page, focusing on getting my angles and lightening right and utilizing decorative elements to further highlight my products. At that time, my focus was on handmade gemstone jewelry so it made sense to shoot besides a natural plant and play around with the lighting. As I became more confident in this approach, I implemented the same style to my daughter’s used clothes, paying particular attention to the quality of the photo. One big tip is to utilize the sunshine and take the images outdoors if possible. Nothing compares to basic natural lighting.
- Don’t waste time on jerks, block and move on: if there is one thing I would definitely do differently is mass blocking losers and time-wasters. I’ve lost count of the number of migraines and frustrations I suffered from simply avoiding the block button in hopes of closing the sale. You will be faced with potential buyers who ghost you, demand stuff for free, or call you at 3 am for no obvious reason, just block and move on. With experience, you will learn to identify these jerks and spot them from a mile away! Just run and don’t look back. The sale that may happen from these time-wasters is definitely not worth your time and may bring you a series of hurdles once you keep that door open.
- Take images in bulk: If you have been following me and my work, you would know I’m a big fan of multitasking, bulk creation, and scheduling and this side hustle are no different. This saves time, energy and makes your work easier to manage. Dedicate a timeslot to shoot your product images, label them, and edit them in bulk. Try it, you’ll thank me later!
- Renew your products every two weeks: If you have not used the ‘renew’ or ‘delete and relist’ feature you are definitely missing out on effortless sales. Every two weeks, you need to keep your listings alive by renewing them, it gives it a boost in the platform’s algorithm and helps your products be found easier. Remember you are allowed to renew a full 4 times every 2 weeks. If your product has not been sold after the 4 renewal times, then before you start to delete and relist: have a second look at your title, description, and image. Change it around if necessary and then delete and relist as if it's a fresh product ready to hit the market.
- Track your sales: just like any other side hustle you pursue, in order to grow and maximize profits, you need to track your sales and analyze your analytics. The Facebook marketplace has an in-built free analytics system that allows you to view how often each listing is viewed and the engagement rate. Once a week, sit down with your analytics data and view your top and worst listings. Double down on what’s working and improve the weak ones. Once you effectively track and monitor your progress, you are ready to upscale to the next level.
- Think Outside The Box: find your passion and utilize it as a product to sell in the marketplace. This one tip has changed my life in many avenues, not only in the Facebook marketplace. Before you start, take a moment to sit down and identify your hobbies, and see how you can utilize your hobbies or skills in order to create simple products to sell. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with starting out on the platform by selling you used clothing and decor, but once these are sold your sales will end. Only until you have a list of handmade products or imported goods will you be able to bring consistent sales and build a brand that’s beyond selling your personal items.
Have you used Facebook marketplace?
What have you sold?
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About The Author
Noor is a second-year business student at Tredu. She is also studying for Diploma in International Smart Industry at TAMK. She is passionate about marketing and content creation. She recently launched her YouTube channel specializing in holistic healing.
