SHOPLINE's Facebook Post Sales feature allows merchants to apply SHOPLINE "comment keywords + quantity order" function to non-live-streaming posts on the Facebook Page!
After the customer leaves a message in the post, the system will send the shopping cart link through Messenger by detecting the keywords set up by the merchants, so that the customer can directly complete the checkout.
This article will cover the following:
- Add new Facebook sale post
- Link Facebook post sales to Facebook Page post
- Disconnecting Facebook post sales and Facebook Page post
- Enable Facebook post sales
- Facebook Post sales comment management
- End or copy Facebook post sales
- Customer's view after making comments to Facebook post
1. Add a Facebook sale post
Step 1
In the SHOPLINE Admin, go to [Social Commerce] > [Post Sales], then click the Add New Sale Post button.
Select "Facebook" and click Create.
Step 2
Enter the name for the Facebook post sales event. Click Confirm to complete.
*Note: This name is for internal management use only.
Step 3
Select Choose goods or Add Products to add to your Facebook post sales.
A. Choose goods
Click the Choose goods button and a pop-up window will appear. On the upper right corner of the pop-up you can select what to display in the window:
- "All products" within the store
- Products that "Include Keywords" in the store (all products with set keywords from [Social Commerce] > [Product Keywords], for more information please refer to this article)
*Notes:
- Hidden price products and unpublished products cannot be selected.
- You can select up to 500 products for sale in a single post sales at the same time.
In addition to selecting store products individually, you can also select products in bulk by category.
After the product selection is complete, enter the product keyword. You can choose to quickly apply system-generated keywords, or add keywords in bulk or individually.
After the setting is complete, click Save to successfully add the product.
B. Add Products
You can customize Product Image, Name, Keywords, Price, Quantity, and Product SKU. Once you have completed editing, click Continue to successfully add the products to the livestream.
- Click create new line to add new products.
- Use Quick Import to add multiple products.
Supports adding multiple variant products into the livestream
Besides Product Image, Product Name, Keywords, Price, Quantity, and Product SKU, you can also customize product variants by clicking Add variant to open the setup window.
*Note: You can add variants in the "Product Keywords" tab, yet quick import is currently not supported. To learn more about creating product keywords, please refer to this article.
The system presets two variations: color, and size. You can also customize the variation name.
Click Add product variation to add more variations. The system currently supports adding a maximum of two variations. Click the "trash" icon on the right to remove a variation.
*Notes:
- If the price of each product variant is the same, after entering the price of any variant, click Bulk Sync Price to automatically sync all the prices.
- If one of the product variants has a set quantity, the other variants will also need to be set with a quantity.
Supports editing header
Click Edit header on the right of the "Create product" pop-up window to select whether to display the "Image", "Product SKU" and "Variant" fields.
Uncheck to not display the field.
Step 4
Products that have been added to the Facebook post sales will appear in the "Post Products and Keywords" list. Click Add Products to add/ select more products.
Click the icon on the right of the products to edit product keywords or remove them.
If you want to edit product keywords in bulk, click the Bulk edit button, select the products you want to edit, and then click Edit keywords.
Step 5
Scroll down to the "Settings" section to complete the relevant Facebook post sales settings.
1. Schedule
Set the start and end time for the Facebook post sale. If you want this post sales to take effect permanently, you can check "Never expire".
For example, if the start time is set to 15 April, 2022 14:00:00, and the end time is 16 April, 2022 10:00:00, the customer can only place an order successfully by leaving a message during this period.
Synchronize schedule according to the time the post sales is enabled/ends
Scenario 1:
If you set the schedule start time as 16 June, but you only enable the post sales on 22 June, the post sales scheduled start time will be displayed as 22 June.
Scenario 2:
If you set the schedule end time as 28 June, but you end the post sales early on 22 June, the end time of the post sales schedule will be displayed as 22 June.
Once the post sales end, a prompt will appear indicating "the stop time will be synchronized to the scheduled end time".
2. Commodity Order Rules
A. Keyword order rules: Click Edit to set the keyword ordering rules.
There are three order rule options:
- Comments containing keywords or keywords + quantity (e.g. I want A1 / Hello A1+1 / A1 / A1+1)
- Comments containing keywords + quantity. Entering keywords only is not valid. (e.g. I want A1+1, A1+1)
- Comments only consist of keywords or keywords + quantity. No other text is allowed. (e.g. A1, A1+1)
B. Reserve inventory: Switch the toggle on the right to turn on the reserve inventory function, and you need to set the time to reserve inventory.
When a customer places an order through a keyword, the product inventory will be automatically locked, and the product will be reserved for the customer until the specified time. For details on how to reserve inventory, please refer to this article.
3. Comments and Message Setting
A. Keyword Order Message Settings
Click Order message settings to edit the comments and message content.
a. Reply by private message
Switch on the "Reply by private message" toggle and customers will receive a private message after leaving comments with keywords. Switch off the toggle and customers will no longer receive the private message.
To apply parameters in a customized message, you can click the "Available Parameters" drop-down menu, and click the parameters to have them copied. Paste them in the message field to apply.
b. Reply by comment
Switch on the "Reply by comment" toggle to edit the comment content. When customers leave a comment with keywords, it will send a reply with a comment. Switch off the toggle and the system will no longer reply to the customer's comment.
You can customize the comment reply.
c. Out of stock message
Switch on the "Reply with an Out of Stock message through private messages" toggle. When the product ordered by the customer is out of stock, it will send an out-of-stock private message to the customer.
You can customize the content for the out of stock message.
You can also insert the dynamic texts for "Customer Name" and "Product name" into the message content.
B. Auto-reply General Comment Settings
Click the Auto-reply Settings button.
*Note: Currently, the "Auto-reply General Comment Settings" is only available for Facebook Page post sales.
Click Add auto-reply.
Enter the auto-reply name. This name is for internal management use only.
Select the keyword auto-reply mode and matching method. Then, set up the keywords to trigger a reply.
Method 1. Basic mode＋Matching method "include any keyword"
- You can only enter one keyword in each field.
- Click Add to insert multiple keywords. To edit the keyword, click the "trash" icon to delete the keyword and then enter a new one.
As long as the customer's message contains any of the keywords, it will trigger a reply.
For example,
If you set "shipping fee" and "free shipping" as the keywords,
the following message will trigger a reply:
- May I know how much is the shipping fee?
- What is the minimum requirement for free shipping?
Method 2. Basic mode＋Matching method "include all keywords"
- You can enter up to 10 keywords into the field.
- To edit a keyword, please click the "X" icon next to the keyword and then enter a new one.
The customer's message should include all of the keywords to trigger a reply.
For example:
If you set "how much" and "free delivery" as the keyword
- This message will trigger a reply:
"How much should I spend to get free delivery"
- This message will not trigger a reply:
"May I know the minimum requirement for free delivery?"
Method 3. Advanced mode
- You can add up to 10 keywords in each field. Every keyword in the same field is referred to as 1 keyword group. You can add up to 10 keyword groups.
- Click Add to insert multiple keyword groups. Click the "trash" icon to delete the keyword group.
- To edit a keyword, please click the "X" icon next to the keyword and then enter a new one.
The customer's message needs to include at least 1 keyword group to trigger a reply.
For example: If you add
- Keyword group 1: "how much"; "shipping fee"
- Keyword group 2: "domestic"; "free shipping"
- Keyword group 3: "international"; "free shipping"
The following message will trigger a reply
- How much is the shipping fee?
- What is the free shipping requirement for domestic shipping?
- Is free shipping applicable to international shipping?
The "What is the domestic shipping fee?" message
will not trigger a reply.
Next, select if you want to reply by comment or by private message. You can enable both options and customize the reply content.
*Notes:
- General comment keywords should be different from product keywords or event keywords. Otherwise, the system will only respond to product and campaign keywords but not the general comment keywords.
- Every keyword requires at least 2 characters with no more than 50 characters.
- English letter case will not affect the auto-reply trigger. Any inserted English uppercase will be automatically converted into lowercase.
- Special characters such as ? , ! @ $ * are not supported.
- Adding similar keywords under 1 "keyword auto-reply" and using similar keywords in two separate "keyword auto-replies" are not supported.
- When the customer's message simultaneously contains the keywords of two separate keyword auto-replies, the most frequently triggered reply takes precedence. When the trigger frequency of two keyword auto-replies is almost the same, it will randomly select one reply.
Once you are done, click Create.
In the auto-reply list, you can enable, edit and delete each response individually.
*Note: If customers' comments include product keywords and general comment keywords, the system will only send the keyword order message.
For example, if you enable keyword order message and general comment auto-reply:
- Product keyword: A1
- Keyword auto-reply: Shipping fee
1. Customers comment "I want A1, how much is the shipping fee?
the system will respond with the keyword order message.
2. Customers comment "how much is the shipping fee?",
the system will respond with the general comment auto-reply.
Supports editing general settings
You can preset post sales general settings for schedules, order rules, comments and private messages, and apply them when creating new post sales campaigns to save time and effort. For more information, please refer to this article.
2. Link Facebook post sales to Facebook Page post
i. Created Facebook Page post
Step 1. Scroll up to the "Connect post" section and click Connect post.
Step 2. Select a published or scheduled post on the Facebook Page, then click Connect.
*Notes:
- Facebook post sales do not support live posts.
- Due to the limitation of Facebook API, when you select a scheduled post, you can only link to the scheduled post published through Facebook's classic version publishing tool. You can access the tool by going to https://www.facebook.com/{page}/publishing_tools. (Please remember to replace the {page} with your Page ID)
a. Supports connecting to multiple posts
When connecting to a post, selecting multiple posts is supported. Customers can place orders by commenting keywords under all linked posts, and you can view a sales overview for all posts.
*Notes:
- Once successfully connected, you can still connect to a maximum of 20 posts.
- The number of linked posts will be displayed in the Sales Events list.
ii. Uncreated Facebook Page post
Step 1. In the Connect post section, click the Create Post button.
Step 2. Select the Facebook Page on which you would like to post, and enter the post content.
*Note: When creating a post, if you decide to switch to another Facebook Page, the created content and images will be cleared.
Step 3. Select the scheduling options.
- Publish now
- Schedule post publish time: Set up the publish time on Facebook Page (30 minutes - 75 days later)
You can set the publish time for your future Facebook Page post.
For example, if you create and schedule the post publish time to 2 days later,
it will directly link the post to the post sales.
When the post is published two days later,
it will already be linked to the post sales.
*Notes regarding Facebook Page post scheduling:
- Currently, scheduling is only available for Facebook Page post sales, comment sales, and lucky draw.
- When creating a post, once you selected scheduled the publish time and inserted the post content, changing it to "Publish now" will clear the inserted content.
- Once you have created a scheduled post, it will display a "Scheduled publish time" under the connected post. Once published, it will be displayed as "Connect Time."
- Disconnecting the scheduled post will not delete the post simultaneously. Please proceed to Facebook to delete it.
- Click the "Preview" button on the right to edit or publish the scheduled post. However, due to the limitation of Facebook, you are unable to change the scheduled publish time while editing the post.
- To change the scheduled publish time, you can use the Planner on Meta Business Suite. In the post sales settings page, you need to preview the post and then refresh the page. The new scheduled publish time will appear under the connected post.
- If you are viewing the post sales settings page when the post is published, it will display the "Published" prompt.
Step 4. Provides multiple quick inputs for you to create your post quickly.
- Product information: You can choose to input the information of all the products sold in this post sale, or select one of them to input, and click Confirm after the selection is complete.
- Order rules: Click to input the order rules you have set.
- Custom content:
1. Click Create to enter the title and content.
2. Click on the custom content you have just created to input the content into the post. In the future, you can just click to apply directly, making it easier to create posts.
Step 5. Click Add image to add images to the post.
*Note: Currently supports up to 20 images, the format is required to be JPEG, PNG, and not exceed 4 MB.
During the editing process, you can preview on the right.
*Note: If there are more than 4 pictures in the post, the right preview screen will not display the images after the 4th one. Enlarging the images is not supported in the preview area.
Step 6. Once set up is complete, click the Create button on the bottom right to successfully create the post.
The Facebook Page post will automatically link with the Post Sales.
Successfully linked with Facebook post
Once the Facebook post is successfully linked, click the icon on the right to view the original post, preview post, create a new post or connect to another existing post.
*Note: If you have already enabled the post sales, connecting to a new post is supported but you cannot disconnect the post.
If you wish to adjust the Facebook post, you can also click the Preview icon and click Edit post.
Editing post content and images are supported, but not switching Facebook Pages.
*Notes:
- If this post only contains 1 image, then adding and deleting an image will not be supported.
- If this post contains multiple images, please do not delete all images, it is suggested you keep at least 2 images to make sure the post can be edited normally in the future.
3. Disconnecting Facebook post sales and Facebook Page post
If you have not enabled the post sales, in the "Connect post" section, click the "..." icon to disconnect from the Facebook Page post. You can still reconnect after the disconnection.
*Note: You cannot disconnect the post once the post sales event is enabled.
*Note: If this post sales ends, the end time will be shown. Also, this Facebook post can still connect with other post sales.
4. Enable Facebook post sales
Click the Enable button at the top right of the page.
*Please double-check:
- The status of the linked Facebook post is published or scheduled (If it is a scheduled post, make sure that the Facebook post sales schedule corresponds to the Facebook post schedule time so that customers can place orders successfully when the post is published).
- The content of the Facebook post contains the description of product keywords. This can ensure that customers can view and place an order successfully.
When this window appears, it means that the post for sale has been successfully created and the status will be updated to "Open".
5. Facebook post sales comment management
Click the "Message Management" icon on the left side of the page to view customer comments and sales performance.
A. Sales Overview
In the "Sales Overview" section, you can view the "Total Comment(s)", "Orders(s)", "Total Order Amount", "Unpaid" and "Unpaid Amount".
B. Comment Management
In the "Comment Management" section, you can view all the comments, keyword order product(s), their current cart product(s), and created order(s).
*Note: If the customer left a comment after the post sales has ended, then this comment will not display in the Comment Management section.
You can also filter out comments through the fields above.
On the right side of each comment, there are three feature buttons:
- Instant Chat: Send a message through FB Messenger to the customer
*Note: According to Facebook's policy, if the customer does not interact with you through Facebook in the past 24 hours, you will not be able to message them again. - Edit Cart: Edit the products in the customer's cart
- Create Order: Directly create an order for the customer
6. Copy, end or remove Facebook post sales
Click the drop-down menu next to the Enter button to select to copy, end or delete the post sales.
Bulk copy/ remove Facebook post sales
Check the boxes to the left of the Facebook post sales (check the box on the top to select all), then click Copy or Delete to execute the action in bulk.
*Notes:
- If you remove a post sales that is still "Open", customers will still be able to place keyword orders by commenting on the post.
- When you remove a post sale, a pop-up window will ask you to double confirm before proceeding.
- The copied post will show on the top of the post sales list.
- When you copy a post sales, the system will only copy the name, product, keyword, order placement rules, comment, and message setup, and scheduled time of the post sale. The Facebook link will not be included, so you will need to relink the Facebook post.
7. Customer's view after making comments to Facebook post
Customers place an order by leaving comments consisting of keyword + quantity to the Facebook post.
Customers will also receive a Messenger message and can hit the Continue button to checkout.
Read more
- SHOPLINE Live｜Livestream shopping with Facebook Live
- SHOPLINE Live | Performance Dashboard & Comment Management
- SHOPLINE Live｜Comments Management
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