As we all know, more and more people are spending more time on Facebook. Just based on studies about the top country population using Facebook, Singapore, on average Singaporeans spend 38 mins 46 sec (dated Aug 2011) on Facebook.

So what do people do on Facebook and how does that relate to online shopping? Research has shown that an amount of 56% surveyed have visited various retailers’ Facebook page to find out about online or offline sales and promotions, and also 25% of an average shopper’s time online is spent on the social media network. With such a high percentage of interest, wouldn’t you as a retailer want to make it easier for your shoppers to have access to your products and promotions?

Enter SocialStore, bringing your E-commerce storefront to Facebook. You will be able to import your product inventory with product description, pricing, image and even SKU number. You can even set a special discounted rate just for your fans, giving them an incentive to be your fan.

Setting up your store

So how do you go about setting up your store? First click on the SocialStore tab, you will be asked to connect to Facebook first. Click on it and install the SocialStore. This will populate the SocialStore tab onto your Facebook page.

Go back to your SocialStore tab, you will be informed that you currently have no product and you will be able to upload your products by .CSV format or by adding manually.

Should you have a long list of products, uploading a .CSV spreadsheet of your products would accelerate your upload process. To view a sample .CSV file, click here.

Store Settings and Layout

Next we come to the store layout. First you would be able to upload a custom header banner image (.JPG, .GIF or .PNG) into the system. The maximum width for the header would be 520px.

After you have uploaded your products, next up would be to customize your store settings and layout. There are two templates that you can choose from, Grid or List. Should you have a lot of products, a Grid view might suit your page and your users will be able to surf through more products quickly. Should you want your products to display more details straight out, the list layout would suit you.

Like all of our SocialPromotions and SocialApps, you will be able to Fan Gate your SocialStore, give your fans a special privilege and also perhaps a special fans only pricing. This will entice users to be your fan.

Facebook share settings

This is a simple and yet crucial section to update. This is where you setup the post that streams into your fans’ wall when the SocialStore is shared. There are 4 things that you would need to key in and upload.

Firstly its the post thumbnail. This can come in the form of .JPG, .GIF or .PNG format. The crucial thing to note is that it must be 90px width and 90px height. Next are the post title, post caption which must be a short description of not more than 100 characters, and lastly a post description. This is where your marketing message needs to strike a cord with users, engaging them to click and see what your SocialStore has.

Once those 3 portions have been completed, your SocialStore is ready! Its that simple and effective. Have a go at it and try it for yourself, leverage on the amount of exposure Facebook can bring to your products as you bring your storefront onto Facebook.