Facebook marketplace as the name implies, is a marketplace created by Facebook for businesses to sell their physical products on Facebook. The marketplace unlike others, allow only the sale of physical products and for anyone to start selling on the platform, you must have a Facebook account.
In this post, I will be answering a number of questions concerning Facebook marketplace and ways through which you as an individual or a business can leverage on the magnanimity of Facebook and sell on their marketplace for free.
Facebook marketplace also helps businesses reach more targeted customers as your products get shown to customers who are interested in or have talked about things related to your business.
Are all countries currently supported by Facebook marketplace?
No, Facebook marketplace is not available to their users from all parts of the world. As at the time of writing this post, the marketplace by Facebook is available in the following countries:
Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Belize, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Dominican Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States and Uruguay.
Although available for the aforementioned countries, the languages that are available at the moment on the marketplace include: Afrikaans, Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French and French Canadian, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian (bahasa), Italian, Malay, Norwegian, Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, and Turkish
I cannot access Facebook marketplace, what could be the problem?
If you want to access Facebook marketplace through this URL and you can’t, then it could mean two things:
- You are not up to 18 years of age
- Your country is not currently supported by the marketplace.
What are the benefits of buying from Facebook marketplace?
You might be asking this very important question of why do you have to buy from the marketplace by Facebook while there are thousands of other online marketplaces that you can buy from. The benefits you get to enjoy from buying on it include:
- You get to see products for sale by people near you: unlike in other marketplaces online that may be far from you, the Facebook marketplace brings to you all products that are sold by merchants and individuals living very close to you. With that, you get to spend less on transportation and can easily return the item.
- You get the best deals from sellers and businesses: best deals are served to you in a bid to make you save more money and shop smart.
- Easy search feature: the marketplace breaks down all products into filterable categories and as such, you get what you want with ease.
- Chat the seller and pay through messenger: since you retain your Facebook account, you can directly chat up the seller, negotiate with them, arrange pickups and payment methods without giving out your details as done on other marketplaces online. There is also a secured payment feature through which you can pay on messenger without stress.
What are the benefits of making use of Facebook marketplace as a seller?
For you as a seller, you have lots of mouth-watering benefits and they include:
- Free listing: Unlike other marketplaces where you get to pay some amount of money to get your products listed, you don’t need such on the platform. It is free to post all the products on the platform.
- Easy communication with your potential customers: you can respond to questions and other inputs from customers directly on the platform using messenger. This ensures that you don’t lose customers due to poor communication or feedback.
- Get your products seen by an increasing audience: as we all know; Facebook is one of the leading social media networks with its customer base increasing on a daily basis. What does this mean for you as an entrepreneur or a business? It means your audience is increasing and you can leverage it to reach more and more people and also get more potential customers and leads. You can target these audiences using Facebook advertising and chatbot as well. This means a lot for you as a seller and you should get onboard the platform and increase your sales.
Can I sell anything on Facebook marketplace?
No, at the moment, Facebook does not allow people to sell some items on the platform. This is in accordance with their policy. You will need to read the policy and find out if the item you want to sell is allowed. Some of the items that you cannot sell on the platform include:
- Digital products or subscriptions
- Weapons, ammunition or explosives
- Animals
- Illegal, prescription or recreational drugs
- Tobacco products and related products
- Unsafe supplements
- Adult products and services
- Gambling services
- Real, virtual or fake currency
- Health care items are not also allowed on the marketplace by Facebook
- Counterfeit, illegal or stolen items
- Event tickets: You can’t sell event tickets without prior written permission from Facebook
- Gift cards: You can’t sell digital or physical gift cards without prior written permission from Facebook
How do I access Facebook marketplace?
It can be accessed directly through this URL facebook.com/marketplace. You will have to be logged in from a country that it is available for. You can also access the marketplace from the Facebook app on your Android or iOS devices. All you need to do is located the marketplace icon on either the top or bottom of the application and click on it.
What precautions should be taken while buying on Facebook marketplace?
Just like with other marketplaces on the internet, you will have to be cautious of the people you want to buy from on the platform. This is because fraudsters and other dubious beings cannot be totally eliminated from the internet.
Make sure you look at and verify the profile of the seller, make use of secure payment options that you can request for a refund peradventure it turns out to be a scam (like messenger pay and PayPal).
The watchword, as usual, is to be careful on Facebook marketplace as you would be on other online platforms. You can check out this article on how to shop online safely.
