A Facebook Shop is best for merchants selling online as hobbies and doesn’t need robust eCommerce features, while Shopify is a trusted, all-in-one eCommerce platform for creating, managing, and scaling an online store.
Read to the end to learn more.
In this Facebook Shop vs Shopify comparison, you will learn everything you need to know about both platforms so you can decide which is the best for you.
Both platforms have their pros and cons. Your choice will be determined by the goals you are trying to achieve and your mode of operation.
Let’s dive in.
Facebook Shop vs Shopify: Overview
What is a Facebook Shop?
Facebook Shops is a mobile-first shopping experience where businesses can quickly create an online store on Facebook and Instagram for free. Sellers can choose which items to feature, merchandise with product collections, and tell their brand stories with customizable fonts and colors.
What is Shopify?
Shopify is a robust e-commerce platform that allows sellers to create, manage and grow their online stores from a single dashboard. Every tool you need to succeed with your eCommerce business is available on Shopify. This is why millions of brands around the world trust it.
Benefits of a Facebook Shop
1. Wider Audience
The number of Facebook users as of today is over 2 billion. So by selling products on Facebook, you can get a crazy number of people to check your store. The good thing is that Facebook does promote shops built on its platform to the right audience.
Considering the extensive user data the platform has accumulated for years, you are likely to make a good number of consistent sales.
Let me illustrate this with an example; if you search for “Hoodies” on Google but didn’t buy any before closing the page. Once you log in to Facebook, you might start seeing ads and stores selling hoodies.
The point I am trying to highlight is that you can leverage Facebook’s broad audience to grow your store and get consistent sales.
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2. Easy Cataloging
Creating a product catalog is easy on Facebook Shops; you can arrange your products beautifully and add all vital information. Using the Catalog Manager, you can quickly update your product information (product images, descriptions, prices, variants, etc.).
You can also organize your products into collections (sorted by Season, Always-on, New, and more) and tag them in pictures to gain more traction on Instagram and Facebook.
The Facebook shops catalog would also be accessible via the Messenger and Whatsapp apps to enhance easy shopping on both platforms. Facebook is also working on enabling shopping from live streams so sellers can tag products from their catalogs and sell them on live videos.
Customers can browse your entire collection from your Facebook Shop, save products, and place orders seamlessly.
3. Dynamic Collections Ads and Promotions
Every Facebook Shop owner is eligible to run targeted ads and leverage the Messenger app to start conversations with customers who seem interested in their products. This type of integration is not free if you are selling on a platform other than Facebook Shop.
You have many ad options, including collection ads, dynamic ads, carousel, and collaborative ads). Learn more about ads here.
Dynamic ads are getting bigger on Facebook and Instagram because they automatically show relevant items from your catalog to people who are interested in them.
4. Connect With Customers
The goal of every online store is to convert potential customers into buyers. Through Facebook shops, you can quickly achieve this. Apart from connecting with your shoppers from your page, your store also connects with customers via Whatsapp, Messenger, and Instagram.
This allows you to reach your customers quickly, answer their questions, offer support, upsell them, and more.
Does a Facebook Shop Cost Money?
Creating a Facebook Shop is free. Once you have a Facebook page, you can create a shop for free. However, for every order processed using the in-app checkout option, you will have to forfeit 5% as a transaction fee or $0.40 for a purchase of $8 or less.
Benefits of Shopify
It’s important to note that Shopify is a more robust eCommerce platform that does almost everything possible with a Facebook shop and more. In fact, you can connect your Facebook Shop with Shopify. More on that later.
Here are the advantages of Shopify.
1. Easy & Quick to Setup
Creating a Shopify store is very easy. However, you first need to sign up for a 14-day (no credit card required) free trial. This will give you access to an intuitive and clean admin dashboard where you can manage all your store’s activities.
Shopify also provides extensive documentation and video guides to help you get started as quickly as possible. With Shopify, all you need are products to sell; everything else is in place.
2. Secure and Reliable
Being the best eCommerce platform in the world, Shopify is secure and reliable. Your customer’s sensitive information like credit card details is protected from hackers and malicious bots.
Shopify also handles all server maintenance and upgrades to make your store always accessible and load quickly.
To be fair, Shopify and Facebook Shops are 100% secure because both platforms take security seriously.
3. Mobile-Ready
Like Facebook Shops, Shopify is mobile-optimized; it looks beautiful and loads fast on mobile devices. This is crucial because recent research has proven that more online shopping is done on mobile than on desktop.
You can also manage your Shopify store from an android or IOS app, plus you can also convert your store into a mobile app so your customers can connect better with your brand. Unfortunately, this feature is not available for Facebook sellers.
4. Own Payment Gateway
Like how your customers can make purchases from your Facebook Shop without leaving Facebook, Shopify also has its built-in payment gateway that allows you to process payments from your store without installing a third-party gateway.
Using this payment mode also means you won’t be paying any transaction fee per sale, and your credit card fees will be low.
Does a Shopify Store Cost Money?
Shopify isn’t free to use. Although, you can sign up for a free trial that allows you to use the platform for 14 days without paying a dime. No credit card is required. Shopify has three popular paid plans; Basic ($29 per month), Shopify ($79 per month), and Advanced ($299 per month).
To learn more about how to get started with this platform and how much it costs, read this guide on Shopify monthly pricing.
Differences Between a Facebook Shop vs Shopify Platform
1. Customizability
Even though it’s easy to create a Facebook Shop that displays your products elegantly, you are limited to Facebook’s pre-made designs and features. As a result, you can’t go overboard with your customizations.
The problem with this is that different stores have designs that suit them and convert well. For example, you shouldn’t use the same clothing store design for an art print store.
With Shopify, you can access over 160 pre-design themes you can install on your store and customize. Every theme is designed based on what you intend to sell on your store,
For example, if you go to the clothing category on the Shopify theme store, you will find themes created for displaying and selling clothing products.
Plus, these themes are easy to customize. You can modify the designs using drags and drops—no learning curves.
2. App Store
You can’t install a third-party app on your Facebook Shop. You are only limited to the apps owned by Facebook; Instagram, Whatsapp, and Messenger.
This means you can’t have access to any feature not supported by Facebook. For example, you can’t add a contact form to your Facebook Store to collect your customers’ information for email promotion.
On the other hand, Shopify has an App Store containing apps for everything. Think of any activity you need on your store; there is an app for it.
You can add reviews, customer wishlists, loyalty programs, get detailed analytics, print labels and packing slips, integrate with shipping companies, accounting software, social media sites, and more.
With over 1,500 options to choose from, you can find any app you need to take your business to the next level.
3. SEO and Marketing Tools
You can only sell your products to Facebook and Instagram users with a Facebook Shop. Unfortunately, you can’t be guaranteed high conversion because many people are on those platforms to have fun, not to make a purchase.
Facebook Shops aren’t SEO-compatible, meaning they don’t appear on Google or other search engines.
For example, even if you create a Facebook shop selling “Black Joggers,” if someone goes on Google and searches for “buy black joggers,” your store will not show up.
However, if you build a store with Shopify and follow the eCommerce SEO guideline, your shop can appear on Google when someone searches for a keyword you optimize it for.
So one of Shopify’s big selling points is its SEO compatibility.
Plus, Shopify App Store also has a ton of marketing tools, including product reviews and email marketing tools, and also allows you to connect your store with all social media platforms.
Unlike a Facebook Shop, you can create discount codes and gift vouchers for your Shopify store.
The bottom line is that Shopify provides you with all the marketing apps you need to grow your online store and boost your sales.
4. Abandoned Cart Recovery
The Abandoned Cart Recovery is a powerful feature available on Shopify but not on a Facebook Shop.
According to research, over 2/3 of visitors will check your store without buying anything. If this happens on a Facebook Shop, you will most likely lose those potential customers.
The case is different with Shopify. Using the Abandoned Cart Recovery setting, you can automatically track and email those that visit your online store and add some products to the cart but didn’t make the purchase.
You can remind them about the products they wanted to purchase earlier and even offer them discounts to encourage them to proceed with the order.
From all indications, it’s clear that Shopify is the best choice for selling online due to all the tools and customizations it offers. However, I recommend using both platforms together since one is free.
Integrating a Facebook Shop with Shopify
If you want to build a successful eCommerce brand with complete control over your business, I highly recommend you go with Shopify. You should start your 14-day free trial to have a better experience.
After creating a free Shopify account, here is a guide on how to create a Shopify store.
However, since building a Facebook Shop is free, it only makes sense to have both Shopify and a Facebook Shop. The best part is that you can connect your Facebook Shop with Shopify and manage it from its backend.
This means the products you added to your Shopify store can be displayed on your Facebook Shop without leaving Shopify. You can manage both platforms from one dashboard.
Have you created your free Shopify account and are ready to connect it with your Facebook Shop? Read this guide.
Facebook Shop vs Shopify Pros & Cons
Pros of Facebook Shops:
- Access to a massive audience
- Easy cataloging
- Multiple mediums to connect with customers
- 100% free
Cons of Facebook Shops:
- 5% transaction fee
- Third-party apps not supported
- Limitations on store design
- Not SEO-ready
- Sharing attention with other sellers
Pros of Shopify:
- Easy to set up
- Built-in payment gateway
- Highly customizable
- Access to 1,500+ apps to boost your store’s performance
- SEO and marketing tools
- Abandoned cart recovery feature
- Integrates with Facebook Shops
Cons:
- Not free to use
Conclusion
I believe this Facebook Shop vs Shopify comparison has informed you about everything you need to know about both platforms and helped guide your decision.
Facebook Shop is more suitable for merchants who are not trying to build a massive eCommerce brand, hence don’t need access to advanced features to facilitate their growth.
On the other hand, Shopify is an all-in-one eCommerce platform that most successful brands today use to power their business. It provides all the tools and features every online store needs to succeed.
So if you are about building an online store you’ll have 100% control of and can scale faster, Shopify is your best bet. However, It’s an excellent approach to connect your Shopify store to a Facebook Shop so you can sell on both platforms since the latter is free.
Finally, a Facebook Shop or Shopify, Which do you prefer?
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