Getting started with a new business in today’s digital world is no easy task. When deciding on where and how they will sell their products and services, an entrepreneurs’ head can spin getting lost in the storm of marketing options, website set-up, payment systems, inventory management and social media.  In many cases, new merchants to selling online bypass traditional options like a website or established marketplace outlets like Ebay, Amazon or Etsy by starting their commerce strategy with a Facebook Shop. We see evidence of this strategy in action every day for many small retailers and for new retailers in emerging economies who don’t have the historical investment or experience in managing these traditional approaches.

We like to call these emerging online retailers “micro-merchants” since they are typically new to online selling and are testing to see if they can create a viable channel for their products.  A social network like Facebook is a fertile starting point when you have interested fans and followers on your business page.  While ShopTab has traditionally optimized our delivery of Facebook selling by connecting to existing website stores or marketplaces, we recognize that creating a simple to deploy and fully integrated payments option is critical for these types of merchants.  One of the solutions that have demonstrated great results for our micro-merchant clients is TinyPay.me. We had a number of clients create a store in a matter of minutes for the recent holiday season putting them in business for the first on their Facebook page for this critical selling season.

(more…)

Tracking and measuring data is vital to understanding the effectiveness of your various digital marketing campaigns. It helps you see what parts of your online effort are working, and which are in need of a tune-up. While this has become easier to do for things like your website, tracking social media and specifically your Facebook shop can be a more difficult task – especially when it comes to demonstrating ROI. This unique value in building social relationships with your fans and followers must be included with your overall ROI analysis measurements. You can’t be left asking if the  promotion of your Facebook Store is – you need to know!

While it is may be hard to answer to how much a relationship with a fan is worth, ShopTab can help you to quantify your social engagement rates by tracking your traffic and sales through your Facebook store. With ShopTab, you can increase web traffic and monetize your Facebook page by adding a social shopping destination directly to your Facebook Business or Fan page.

(more…)

Too many choices can be overwhelming in almost any situation, and let’s face it; your ShopTab store is no different. When faced with too many choices it can be difficult for a customer to find the best solution that suits their needs. As with most things, keeping it simple can provide a smoother and less confusing shopping experience that leads to more sales and happier customers. And let’s face it, isn’t that why you started with social selling on Facebook in the first place?

Why Less Can Be More in your Facebook Marketplace

While it is certainly not applicable to all eTailers and ShopTab store users, a slimmed down version on your eCommerce store hosted on your Facebook shopping app can help improve user engagement rates with the products you have for sale. In today’s digital world shoppers are looking to get in and out in a breeze. If a user does not instantly see something that catches their eye they are likely to leave. Can you remember the last time you went past the first or second page in a Google search?

(more…)

Your Facebook page is a great place to create new customers and grow your business. There are many exciting ways to leverage social media to draw in new fans, but the real value lies in the relationships that are built once they arrive. It is important that your business focus on adding value to the user so they remember your page and have a reason to return and interact with your updates and create a long-term relationship.

Ways To Add Value To Your Page

• Utilizing different Facebook landing pages
• Adding a ShopTab Facebook store
• Sharing photos, videos, and interesting links
• Posting original content from your blog or website
• Communicating with all users who interact with your page
• Utilizing unique apps on your Facebook page
• Running Facebook contests and promotions

(more…)

In today’s world Amazon is known as the powerhouse of online shopping. With its modest beginnings in bookselling back in 1994, Amazon has come a long way to develop into the world’s largest eCommerce platform with $34 billion dollars in annual revenue and over 137 million customers a week. It has even been estimated that Amazon makes up 1/10 of North American online sales. With impressive figures like that it makes sense that the Amazon Marketplace would be a great place for many retailers to set up shop.

Amazon makes it easy to set up a storefront and start selling within their marketplace. ShopTab makes it just as easy to amplify your e-commerce success through social selling by adding a shopping experience on your Facebook page.  With a few simple steps you can be up and running with your products visible to millions of users on Facebook.

(more…)