[Journey] Facebook Marketplace - Making easy sales with no fees!

Teh Canadian

Teh Canadian

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Note: So this started out as a discussion post, but I've decided to turn it into a story. I want to share my process and see where I can improve. I also want to bring in discussion and see if there is something I am missing.

Disclaimer: I've found an item that has been in demand due to pandemic. It's not related to any hand sanitizer, masks or pandemic related products. The item costs on average $2 which I can't get direct from the supplier due to the Pandemic, but I have been buying up stock everywhere I can. Amazon does not even have stock of the item.

The product normally retails for $2.99 per item but I've been selling them in packs of 3 for $30 Free Shipping.

I have been selling this item on Ebay and Etsy and averaging 5-10 sales a day. Which is nice, but I wanted to do more and preferable a way with no fees.

So I stumbled across the idea of using Facebook Marketplace. The process is simple.

Facebook Marketplace limits the location of items depending on search parameters. So what I did was create listings and put the items in every major city across Canada (Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver). Total I have about 20 locations. This has boosted my sales to 20-30 a day which is amazing, but Facebook takes a lot of work with speaking to each person. You need to get their information, receive payment and ship the item. I've tried automating it, but I lose conversions as soon as I send over any form of automation to the buyers. They don't trust it. I also don't want to send them to Ebay or Etsy because of fees.

I strongly believe this could be scaled. I've been experimenting with some recently and looking for feedback and anyone else who has tried or tested this. I'm looking at risk of account closure mostly.

What I need to do:
  1. Improve the item locations (Every 100kms)
  2. Add United States Locations (52 States)
  3. Somehow add automation process for Facebook Marketplace. Not currently working.
  4. Get stock directly from manufacture
My concerns:
  1. Facebook grey area and listing restrictions.
  2. Facebook block my account for posting the same item across Canada/United States
Questions
  1. Higher conversions selling singles or different pack sizes? People really don't need more than 2-3 of them.
  2. Can the price point be increased and keep the conversion rate?
 
Last edited:
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Here are my 2 cents. At least what I would do:

- buy premade Facebook accounts, 1 account per location
- if possible, use 4g proxies
- write automation that publishes item to the market
- write AI Chatbot using Amazon Lex or facebook Wit to chat with the customers

For collecting payments - you can use Paypal or custom-built landing with any other payment processor.
 
Teh Canadian said:
Note: So this started out as a discussion post, but I've decided to turn it into a story. I want to share my process and see where I can improve. I also want to bring in discussion and see if there is something I am missing.

Disclaimer: I've found an item that has been in demand due to pandemic. It's not related to any hand sanitizer, masks or pandemic related products. The item costs on average $2 which I can't get direct from the supplier due to the Pandemic, but I have been buying up stock everywhere I can. Amazon does not even have stock of the item.

The product normally retails for $2.99 per item but I've been selling them in packs of 3 for $30 Free Shipping.

I have been selling this item on Ebay and Etsy and averaging 5-10 sales a day. Which is nice, but I wanted to do more and preferable a way with no fees.

So I stumbled across the idea of using Facebook Marketplace. The process is simple.

Facebook Marketplace limits the location of items depending on search parameters. So what I did was create listings and put the items in every major city across Canada (Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver). Total I have about 20 locations. This has boosted my sales to 20-30 a day which is amazing, but Facebook takes a lot of work with speaking to each person. You need to get their information, receive payment and ship the item. I've tried automating it, but I lose conversions as soon as I send over any form of automation to the buyers. They don't trust it. I also don't want to send them to Ebay or Etsy because of fees.

I strongly believe this could be scaled. I've been experimenting with some recently and looking for feedback and anyone else who has tried or tested this. I'm looking at risk of account closure mostly.

What I need to do:
  1. Improve the item locations (Every 100kms)
  2. Add United States Locations (52 States)
  3. Somehow add automation process for Facebook Marketplace. Not currently working.
  4. Get stock directly from manufacture
My concerns:
  1. Facebook grey area and listing restrictions.
  2. Facebook block my account for posting the same item across Canada/United States
Questions
  1. Higher conversions selling singles or different pack sizes? People really don't need more than 2-3 of them.
  2. Can the price point be increased and keep the conversion rate?
Click to expand...

What’s funny is I’ve seen someone trying to sell this method lol for 900$.
 
John4life2017 said:
How do you take payment?
Click to expand...

I've been taking EFT and Paypal. Most are willing to transfer direct to bank.

I've been thinking about a VA but right now I need to scale inventory before expanding.
 
Teh Canadian said:
I've been taking EFT and Paypal. Most are willing to transfer direct to bank.

I've been thinking about a VA but right now I need to scale inventory before expanding.
Click to expand...
Ok. Do you think bitcoin payment would work?
 
^^^^ yes, this. I was going to say that only. less clutter to manage.
 
soheb123 said:
Why not make an ecommerce site and just send interested people there? youll seem more legit and you can get that facebook pixel warmed up
Click to expand...

micpitt said:
^^^^ yes, this. I was going to say that only. less clutter to manage.
Click to expand...

The problem occurs when they don't trust the process. They won't even go to Ebay or Etsy so I can only assume a third party website wouldn't work.

As for the comments above about payment gateway Bitcoin it's the wrong demographic, the users are female and above the age of 30.

To date only 5% of sales have been Paypal outside of Ebay. Everything else has been EFT via Interact.

I appreciate everyones suggestion. I'm interested if the process via Facebook messenger would convert more if it's more personal and less "automated". I have a series of copy paste that I use for the conversations. This is possible that VA would make it more personal, but I need to get more inventory.
 
Teh Canadian said:
the users are female and above the age of 30.
Click to expand...

But this is the most easy-to-sell user group.. why wouldn't you create a small Shopify shop that screams authority in your niche and behave more like an experienced and trusted vendor related to your item that you sell? Then even automated message replies would work - just redirect your traffic to sales page that is stuffed with reviews, guarantee, shipping information, etc etc..

That should even increase your conversions as most of people ar sceptical to send something over bank transfer to other person, but if it looks like a legit business, then your chances will only increase..

Just search up what drop shippers do on youtube related to increasing CTR & conversions.
 
Crazyfire said:
But this is the most easy-to-sell user group.. why wouldn't you create a small Shopify shop that screams authority in your niche and behave more like an experienced and trusted vendor related to your item that you sell? Then even automated message replies would work - just redirect your traffic to sales page that is stuffed with reviews, guarantee, shipping information, etc etc..

That should even increase your conversions as most of people ar sceptical to send something over bank transfer to other person, but if it looks like a legit business, then your chances will only increase..

Just search up what drop shippers do on youtube related to increasing CTR & conversions.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestions. I was actually referencing the demographic regarding Bitcoin specifically. Could be wrong through.
 
Update: Day 2

Had 34 sales yesterday. 9 Ebay 2 Etsy and 23 from Facebook.
Had over 47 messages on Facebook only 49% converted to sales. Average length of conversation 11 minutes 23 seconds.
11% of all messages on facebook did not get past "Is this item still available".

Today I will be posting more item locations on Facebook (aiming for every 100km) and trying different product images.
No facebook posts have been taken down yet.
 
Update: Day 3

Had 42 sales yesterday. 16 Ebay 1 Etsy and 25 from Facebook.
Had over 81 messages on Facebook only 30% converted to sales. Average length of conversation 8 minutes 41 seconds.
14% of all messages on facebook did not get past "Is this item still available".

I now have over 32 facebook marketplace listings with 3-4 in each province (minus YT and NT, NU)
No facebook posts have been taken down yet.
 
"Is this item still available".

How fast did the response to those queries were? if that is an emotional/passion-driven purchase, then it could be very important to send response immediately.
 
Crazyfire said:
"Is this item still available".

How fast did the response to those queries were? if that is an emotional/passion-driven purchase, then it could be very important to send response immediately.
Click to expand...

Sadly, It ranged from 2-17 minutes response time (depends on time of day). Looking back at the data I am starting to pull, 62% of them read the response and rest have not.

This item can actually be considered essential for home cleaning/house product.

Edit: I am doing a rough gender dive on all the purchases to date. Going off names that are clearly male vs female. 92% of sales are female. 8% being male names, but of those male purchases 40% shipping name is female (almost if it was bought by their husband).
 
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