Starting Your Social Media Post Sales with SHOPLINE

SHOPLINE supports social commerce, including Live Shopping and Post Shopping. The Post Shopping sales channel can be integrated with your Facebook and Instagram to sell products in posts that are not a livestream. You can manage products and keywords associated with the post from the SHOPLINE admin panel. When your customers comment on your post and the comments match the keywords you configured, the system generates a draft order and sends a checkout link to the customers for purchase.

Adding the Post Shopping Channel

You need to enable the Post Shopping channel before you can sell products through posts. 

1. From your SHOPLINE admin panel, click Channels or the plus sign (+) next to it in the left pane.
2. The Add sales channel pop-up window opens. Find Post Shopping, and click the plus sign (+) to add this sales channel.
   

Integrating Facebook and Instagram

You need to integrate with Facebook and Instagram before you can create a post. Skip this step if you have completed the integration.

1. Go to the Facebook sales channel, and click Get Started in the FACEBOOK SOCIAL COMMERCE section to open the page for integration.
   
2. Click Link now in the Facebook Fanpage Account section to complete integration with Facebook. Click Link now in the Instagram account section to complete integration with Instagram.
   
3. After the integration is complete, the integrated account will be displayed in the corresponding section.
   

Creating Posts

1. Go to the Post Shopping channel, and click Create Post Shopping.
   
2. The Select a post shopping type pop-up window opens. Choose a platform from Facebook or Instagram, and the post-shopping type from Keyword order sales or +1 Live Sales. Let’s take Keyword order sales on Facebook for example. Click Confirm to proceed. You will see the Connect to Facebook page or Connect to Instagram account button if you haven’t completed the integration with Facebook and Instagram, respectively.
   • Keyword order sales: Use this mode If you want to sell multiple products in one post. Each product corresponds to one keyword. If the customer comments match the keyword, the system automatically adds the product to the draft order and sends the checkout link to the customer.
   • +1 Live Sales: Use this mode if you want to sell one product in one post. The customer only needs to leave the comment “+1”, and the system will automatically add the product to the draft order and send the checkout link to the customer.
     

3. Configure your post, including Post Shopping Name, Settings, Post Products, and Connect post on Facebook. Once finished, click Create to initiate the post.
   

Below, we are going to show you how to configure these settings.

Settings

• Order Rules: They indicate how you want your customers to place orders. Lock Inventory, Combine multiple post-sales orders, and Customer can edit product quantity in the checkout page need to be specified.
  • Lock Inventory: When this setting is turned on, you need to set the end time for reserving the products. When the customer leaves comments to place an order, the product will be reserved until the specified time.
  • Combine multiple post-sales orders: When this setting is turned on, if the customer leaves comments in one or more of your posts, these products will be combined into the same draft order ID. When the draft order ID is paid and converted into an order, all posts with this setting enabled will generate the draft order again and complete subsequent product additions. 
  • Customers can edit product quantity in the checkout page: When this setting is turned on, customers can adjust the number of products on the checkout page. Please note that this function does not support determining the maximum purchase quantity of each person, and overselling may occur.
    
    

• Schedule: You specify the start time and end time for your keyword-based post sales.
  • Start time: The start time needs to be later than the current time. Otherwise, the post sales can’t be started.
  • End time: By default, post sales never expire, but you can set a specific end time by unchecking the box in front of Never expire. The post sales stop by then. Even If customers leave comments, products will not be added to a draft order. If Never expire is checked, your post is available for placing orders without a time limit.
    
    

• Comment Settings: By default, comments of all customers are displayed under your post, and any customers can view the comments. You can choose whether to hide post comments by enabling the Hide comments setting. If you turn it on, you need to configure the Hide contents of comment rules and need to select at least one of them.
  • Hide all comments: All comments from all customers are hidden.
  • Hide comments with phone numbers: Only customer comments containing phone numbers will be hidden.
  • Hide comments with email address: Only customer comments containing email addresses are hidden.
    

• Message Settings: You can customize the Add to Cart Message and Auto-reply content. When a customer comments on your post, the system will send notifications to the customer based on the rules you set.
  • Add to Cart Message: When the customer comments on your post and the comments match the product keyword you specified, the system automatically adds the product to a draft order and sends the checkout message to the customer. You can configure the message, dynamic text, CTA button name, and preset message here.
    
    
  • Auto-reply: When the customer comments on your post, the system replies to that comment in a thread. You have the option to enable this function.
    
    

Post Products

These are the products you want to sell through the post. You need to specify keywords for each product. If customers comment on your post and the comments match any keyword you specified, the system creates a draft order and sends a message to remind the customer of payment.

1. If you already have products in your store, you can click the Select product(s) button to choose products for post sales. Click Add at the bottom of the pop-up window once finished. If you do not have products in your store, you can click the Add Product button to add products, and then add them to the post.
   
2. The Edit keywords pop-up window opens. Specify 1 to 3 keywords for each product. You can specify keywords as needed, but the keywords can’t be the same. You can type keywords in the text boxes, or click the Quick generate button in the upper right corner to generate keywords for all products with one click. Click Join once finished.
   
   

Connect Post on Facebook

1. First, choose how you want to initiate your post sale: Associated posts or Create a post.
   

• Associated posts: You associate the post to a post already published on your Facebook. In the Connect post pop-up window, select the source page and post you want to associate. Once finished, click Connect.
  
• Create a post: You create a post from the Post Shopping channel and publish it on the connected Facebook Page. In the Create a post pop-up window, select the target page where you want to publish the post and provide post content and images. Once finished, click Connect.
  

2. After the successful connection or creation of the post, the post content will be displayed in this section. After you complete all the configuration on this page, click Create at the bottom. The post sale is initiated.
   
   The status of Ongoing displayed on the top of the post means your post sale is running. Then, if your customers comment on your post and the comments match the keywords, the system automatically adds the products to a draft order and sends the checkout message to the customers.
   
   

When Customers Comment on Your Posts

1. When the customer comments on your post and the comments contain product keywords, the system automatically sends a Messenger message to the customer for purchase.
   
2. The customer receives the message in Messenger and clicks the checkout button to complete the payment.
   
3. Orders for which the customers have just completed payment will be displayed on your post details page. Click Manage comments to view the comments that your customers leave.
   
4. Check the customer orders. If the customer has completed payment, the order number is displayed. If the customer has not completed the payment, the Placed orders column is empty. Once the order is paid, you can proceed with the delivery process.