Mastering Facebook Messenger for Sales: Your Ultimate 2023 Guide

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As many of us know, Facebook Messenger offers an instant messaging module for Facebook users. It connects you with your friends, and generates quick, easy conversations, without having to go on a friend's wall to post something that should most likely remain private for whatever reason.ย Just recently, Facebook opened this section of its platform up to businesses. This means that companies can get sponsored content on there, sell their products and potentially post ads or even generate bots to interact with customers.

Overall, the Facebook Messenger app has become rather successful, considering so many people hang out on Facebook all day, yet they still want a way to have a private conversation with their friends.

Seeing as companies can now sell on Facebook Messenger, it's worth looking into a new Shopify feature that integrates directly into the Messenger.

shopify-messnger

The Skinny

The whole point of the new Shopify integration is to create personal conversations with your customers through Facebook. It works similar to a Shopify app, yet it's actually considered a built-in feature.

What's cool is that you don't have to open up a completely new customer service module for this. All of the communications go directly through your Shopify dashboard, almost serving as a new form of live chat, except in one of the most popular websites of our time.

How Shopify Facebook Messenger Works

The first great example of how Shopify Facebook Messenger works is when someone comes to your store to make a purchase. Before they decide to pull the trigger they can ask you any questions they want. It works very similarly to any customer support chat box you would place on your own website.

After the transaction has been completed, the customer receives automated order tracking and shipping updates without having to look at their email accounts. An instantaneous message shoots over to their Messenger, also sending them a notification on the mobile Facebook app.

making-an-order

Furthermore, all of the communications with each customer consolidate into single threads. Therefore, both you and the customer don't have to go scrambling around to find past emails or customer support tickets. It's all brought into the Facebook Messenger feed, minimizing the amount of frustration that tends to occur with customer support communications.

communications-in-one-thread

Payments Directly Through the Chat

Considering your conversations with customers are meant to lead to more sales, sending them to your website or to any other page for that matter, seems unnecessary. Therefore, a Buy button can go right into the chat, keeping your customers in Facebook, and preventing them from having to take any additional steps to make the purchase.

The payment processes through the chat for your customer, yet it still runs through your website on the backend. After that, a receipt makes its way to the customer, and they get updates through the chat when shipments are made and delivered.

Browsing Products Through the Messenger

browsing-products

One rather unique aspect of the Shopify/Facebook Messenger is the way users can browse through your products. It almost works similar to a bot, where the person can type in requests, such as “choose color.” After that, the messenger recognizes what they are asking for and delivers it upon request.

They can even flip through your entire product category if they want since all of your images, prices, descriptions and other details are revealed. The cool part is that you don't even have to be around to make the responses most of the time. If they're simply looking for standard website information, the bot does the deed for you.

 

Do You Have to Pay for This Functionality?

Although this could change in the future, the Facebook Messenger tool doesn't have a price tag when you go through Shopify. Obviously, you must pay for one of the monthly Shopify plans, but that's to be expected. This strategy may change in the future, but as of now you can signup for an account and find the tool right in your Shopify dashboard.

This ties into the various other built-in social media tools on Shopify. For example, you can already build a shop on places like Facebook and Pinterest, so it makes sense that the Facebook Messenger module comes along with your package as well.

Finally, you don't have to install an extra app to get the Messenger tool working. Although apps are pretty simple to work with through Shopify, this at least cuts down on some of the time you spend configuring your site.

How To Setup Facebook Messenger Sales in Shopify

Although this is a new feature, it doesn't seem like there's going to be much to configure for this tool. Think about it: All of your products, descriptions, images and other elements are already in your shop. Even if you don't have a Facebook store, the Messenger app can still pull all of the details into the chat for people to make purchases and browse around.

I'm not saying that things aren't going to change, but right now it looks fairly easy to walk through and manage.

Is This For Everyone?

Well, just about any Shopify customer could utilize this tool. You have access to so many customer support chat apps out there, but none of them integrate with one the most popular social network in the world. This way, you have a direct link to customers where they are constantly browsing. Facebook is where people hang out online, so why not give them the opportunity to reach out to their favorite companies and make the purchases quickly?

The Shopify Facebook Messenger feature seems like it can do great things for companies of all shapes and sizes, so give it a try today and let us know what you think. If you have any further questions about the new Messenger tool, feel free to drop a line in the comments section below.

Joe Warnimont

Joe Warnimont is a Chicago-based writer who focuses on eCommerce tools, WordPress, and social media. When not fishing or practicing yoga, he's collecting stamps at national parks (even though that's mainly for children). Check out Joe's portfolio to contact him and view past work.

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