Facebook Live | Bidding promotion

SHOPLINE Live's Bidding promotion feature for Facebook Live allows merchants to auction off a product by letting viewers bid against each other, increasing audience engagement and providing a boost to sales. 

*Note: This feature supports Facebook Page, Facebook Group, and Instagram livestreams. The following instructions will use Facebook Page Live as examples. For Facebook Group and Instagram Live Bidding promotion-related information, please refer to Facebook Group Live Events and Instagram Live.

This article will cover the following:

• How to create a Facebook Live bidding promotion
• Bidding during a livestream 
• Event end & winning bid announcement 
• Notes
• Select existing products

 

1. How to create a Facebook Live bidding promotion  

Step 1

In the SHOPLINE Admin, go to [Social Commerce] > [SHOPLINE Live] and create a new Facebook Page livestream. For more detailed instructions on how to add a new livestream, please refer to Facebook Live | Integrating Facebook Live and Setting.

 

Step 2

Enter the livestream you have just created and click Event at the top left.

 

On the event page, click Add.

 

Step 3

Select Bidding promotion for the event type.

 

Step 4

i. Complete the basic setting

Enter the event name, winning quota, starting bid price, highest bid price, and how long the event will run.

*Notes:

• The fields marked with "*" are required fields.
• The highest bid price cannot exceed 9 digits.
• If the "Event Time" field is left blank, you will need to end the event manually.

 

ii. Select the bidding product

• Click Select product to select your store product as the bidding product. If the product has multiple variations, you will need to select one of the variations.
• Click Add product to create a new bidding product. Once the bid is completed, the system will create a new product with an inventory equal to the winning quota. Customers can only purchase one item of the product.

*Notes:

• If the available quantity of the product is less than the winning quota, the system will prompt you to adjust either the winning quota or the product inventory. The event will still be created for you.
• If the available quantity is zero, the system will be unable to add the product to the winner's cart.
• If the available quantity is less than the winning quota, the system will add the product to the winner's cart. However, when the available quantity reaches zero, some of the winners will be unable to purchase the product.
  

  The available quantity is 5, and the winning quota is 10.
  All the winners will receive the winning messages.
  However, when the first 5 customers have placed their orders,
  the remaining 5 customers will no longer be able to purchase the product.

• When the available quantity is less than the winning quota, and the livestream enables the "Lock Inventory" feature, the system will only add the product to some of the winners' carts.

 

Step 5

Customize 4 event messages below according to your needs. Each message must be less than 400 characters. 

1. Event start message
2. Event end message
3. Announce the winner's information 
4. Winning private message

The dynamic text below the editing field can be directly applied, for example: if you insert the "Event title" dynamic text, when the system sends this message, it will automatically insert the name you have set for this event. 

If you do not modify the content, the system will send the default message. At last, click Create to create the lucky draw.

*Note: The system has added the "Winner" and "Winner's Name & Price" dynamic texts by default so customers can see the bidding results in the livestream. 

 

Step 6

After adding a new event, it will be added to the list of already created events for your livestream. Click on the + button next to an event on the list to see a preview of the event messages. 

 

Step 7

After starting your livestream by clicking "Connect to Facebook Live", click on the GO button next to an event to start the event.

 

Once you have started an event, a green confirmation message will appear on the top-right of the window. The status indicator next to an event will now indicate "Ongoing" to show that the system is automatically recording customer bids.

 

2. Bidding during a livestream

A comment announcing the start of the event will be posted on your Facebook Live livestream automatically. If a customer places a bid that is within the upper and lower limits of the auction, then the system will automatically record the bid time and bid amount. The winning bid will also be announced once the event has finished.  

*Note: Bids must use numbers only. The system does not currently support the recognition of special characters and words for bids.

i. View from Admin

 

During a livestream, merchants can click on the Announce event button to post a comment promoting the ongoing event.

*Note: Once you click the Delete Event button, the system will no longer generate a winner. 

If you have set an end-time for an event, the end time plus a countdown clock will be displayed at the bottom of the "Event info" section.

 

Announce Real-time Bids & Current Highest Bid

Once the bidding promotion is over, the bids, bidding comments, and time can be viewed under the Real-time bids column, with the current highest bid highlighted in red. 

You can switch on the "Automatically announce" feature, and the system will automatically announce the highest bid in the comment section every 30 seconds. 

 

If you have not switched on the "Automatically announce" feature, you can click on the speaker icon to manually announce the current highest bid.  

 

The text displayed within the parenthesis on the left side of the announcement message is the "event title" you set.

*Note: If the highest bid doesn't change within 30 seconds, the system will no longer announce it. 

 

Facebook Live View

 

3. Event end & winning bid announcement

Ending an event 

Merchants can click on the Announce the winner button to end an event immediately or wait until the event's fixed end-time (if it has one) for the event to end automatically. 

 

View from Admin

When an event ends and the winner is announced, the winning bid amount and winning bidder will be recorded automatically. The item that is being bid for will also be added to the winning bidder's cart.

*Note: If two bidders bid the same winning amount, the bidder that bid first will be the winner of the auction. 

Merchants can view a full list of all bidders by expanding the "Winner Information" section and clicking View all bidders. Merchants can then add the product being bid for to the carts of unsuccessful bidders by clicking on the cart icon next to a bidder's name. 

*Note: The winning bid will be displayed in Comment Management for easy identification of the winning bidder. 

 

View from Facebook live 

When the event ends and the system places the product into the cart of the winning bidder, the winning bidder will receive a message via Facebook Messenger. The message contains a checkout button that the winning bidder can click on to check out. 

A product and product price will be created from the product name used in the event and the winning bid price.