Facebook Shops for Retail Businesses: An Overview Guide

Following on the heels of the successful Marketplace, Facebook announced the release of Shops for retail businesses in May of this year.  Unlike Marketplace that is an open community buying and selling platform, Shops caters specifically to retail businesses and allows them to create a virtual storefront on both their Facebook and Instagram pages.  

The development of Shops was driven by a vision to both recreate the buying experience for the nearly 3 billion users active on Facebook and Instagram and to open a new retail channel for e-commerce businesses. According to a representative of Facebook, “[Facebook] wants to give people a place to experience the joy of shopping versus the chore of buying. And we want to help small businesses adapt and make it easier for people to discover and shop for things they love… Our goal is to make shopping seamless and empower anyone from a small business owner to a global brand to use our apps to connect with customers.”

Picture via Facebook

How To Shop

Shopping your favorite retailers couldn’t be easier with Shops. Simply navigate to the brand that you want to browse and a View Shop button will be clearly displayed on their account page. Please note that brands must take the initiative to set up their Shop. So if your favorite store is missing the Shop feature on Facebook or Instagram, try sending them a DM to request that they make that feature available!

Below are some snapshots of Facebook Shops as seen on the desktop site (please note I used the New Facebook in Dark Mode as opposed to Classic Facebook).

As an example, I searched for Ink Meets Paper, a stationery store. A blue View Shop button is clearly seen directly below their cover image, on the right.

After clicking on View Shop, I was taken to the Shop home page. As you can see, the store has created different featured collections. Below those are more individual items that can be scrolled through.

When you click on a single item it brings up the product shop page. You can scroll through different images by clicking the arrows, and see all product details and customer reviews on the righthand menu. To buy the item, simply select the desired quantity and click “Checkout.”

And shopping on Instagram is a nearly identical experience. You’ll head over to the brand that you want to shop. On their profile page, you’ll see a View Shop button above their regular feed. Click that and you’ll land on their Instagram Shop! See the images below for a visual guide.

Why You Should Sell On Shops

Setting up a Shop for your business should be a no brainer! There’s no better place to sell to your customer base than your social media profile, especially if your brand tends to cater to the Millennial generation. Users are already landing on your profile to view your products. Having a seamless e-commerce channel integrated with your account removes one more barrier to the point of transaction.

Additionally, they’ve done a great job in giving the buyer Visual Merchandising flexibility. As you can see from the above photos, Shops can be organized by categories and there’s plenty of freedom to incorporate striking visuals to enhance the consumer experience. The photos below also show the product information page. There is space for an adequate description as well as the ability to include need-to-know information such as Returns and Shipping Policies.

Planned Future Enhancements

We have to hand it to Facebook; they did a great job in creating a platform that empowers business owners to seamlessly integrate their social accounts into their overall e-commerce strategy. They’re currently undergoing testing and development to roll out even more useful features, like the ability to connect an existing loyalty program to the Facebook Shop.

Picture via Facebook

As any typical consumer, I know this will be a very compelling feature for me when browsing my favorite shops. I am personally a member of multiple loyalty programs across a wide spectrum of brands and love it when my purchases bring back some kind of return.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Facebook and Instagram Shops integrate seamlessly into both the business’s commerce stack and the consumer’s user experience on social media. We honestly can’t believe it’s taken them this long to roll this feature out, given how popular social media is for the promotion of e-commerce brands. So whether you’re a business that’s looking for additional avenues to merchandise your product, or you’re a buyer who loves a convenient way to browse your favorite stores, Shops is a new feature that you should be taking advantage of!

A Little Bit About The Man Who Mentored Apex Current’s Founder & CEO, Corbitt Chandler

What’s up everyone?!

Corbitt Chandler here, Founder & CEO of Apex Current. I wanted to jump in and write a little blog post - 1) because we’re so busy around the office, other than repurposing content, we’re not as active on our blog as I’d like to be and 2) and more importantly, I wanted to give an appropriate shoutout to someone very special to me, my brother, one of my good friends and mentors, Brad Bearden (check him out on Facebook - Facebook).

Now, real quick caveat, this started as a post on my personal Instagram which very quickly became too long so I decided to memorialize this shoutout appropriately by turning it into a post on our blog. With that out of the way, let’s dive in…

To write that Brad means a great deal to me, would be an understatement. I feel quite indebted to him and quite a few others for having the opportunity to start my company, if I’m honest. I feel like all of those individuals are standing behind me with every decision I make and this business iis an extension of them. But, if you picture a dark room with all of these individuals standing behind me, Brad would be right in the center with a spotlight beaming down on top of him because that’s how crucial he’s been to this endeavor.

Here he is in this picture of us side-by-side, he’s on the left and as his instagram post says (where I originally pulled this picture from), feeling cute making bread and me on the right feeling and doing the same.

Brad was brought on by the awesome company I used to work for as the Vice President of Marketing to help us completely reshape our paid advertising. Brad had developed a proven Facebook advertising system specific to our vertical that was second to none. To provide a little context to this point in time in my life, I was personally in a super weird place.

Only a few months into a new sober lifestyle, I felt like a young doe on shaky legs learning to walk along with re-learning how to do everything else in my life. I was pretty sad too - depressed. I guess I was mourning the loss of what I thought was my closest friend because me and booze did everything together. Obviously, I know now that this “friend” of mine was quite the opposite. 

This was pretty much me at the time… My quads were just bigger.

He boomed with confidence and positive fearless energy. I was a little taken aback and as the VP of Marketing, felt a bit territorial over what I thought was my domain.

It didn’t take a significant amount of time for that to subside and I realized the opportunity as well as incredible challenge that stood before me. His marketing system relied heavily on a substantial volume of targeted media buying and placement through Facebook as well as someone with prowess to manage it all continually optimizing for the best results. He wasn’t hired to do, but to teach us his system so someone was going to have to step up to press the buttons. 

For whatever reason; be it fate, obligation, drawing the short straw, my own personal desire; I became his protege. In my entire career up until this point, I had never bought a penny of digital media on any platform. I had managed plenty of agencies and partners, but pressing the buttons was completely foreign to me. Brad took me under his wing and not only did he mentor me through this insanely complex & granular process, he taught me how to be and think like a marketer (when it comes down to it, he taught me a great deal more than that helping to reshape my entire thought process about how I approached any situation in life).

We used to put in these 10 plus hour days, laptops appropriately in our laps, him guiding me very patently all the way. He’s an excellent teacher and I was very fortunate to learn from him.

Back to that whole teaching me how to be and think like “a marketer” thing. Hold up, wait... How does what I that even make any sense? I had a college degree in marketing from the University of Alabama, a successful career in marketing for well over a decade at that point in time for numerous big brands, , but I wasn’t a marketer? Yep! 💯... My formal education and all of my years working professionally combined couldn’t touch what I learned from this man. He schooled me in effective marketing.

There was, of course, buying and placing digital media and becoming comfortable with that process as well as how to identify and ptimie the best performers. There was building effective Sales Funnels in Clickfunnels… There was learning how to build email campaigns and logic in the CRM, Infusionsoft (aptly dubbed “Confusionsoft” by many and something that had alluded me for over 2 years as I fumbled though it). BUT, most of all, there was how to select the write type of creative and write effective ad copy.

I literally can’t put a value on the education I learned. I was very fortunate in that my company hired him and I was the direct recipient of this knowledge. In six months, my company had driven over $1 million in new customers with a solid 4:1 return from his program.

He also inspired me to become an entrepreneur more than anyone in my life, that’s for certain! I NEVER considered myself anything, but a “corporate man” before meeting him. He told me flat out that I was an entrepreneur and knew with what he had taught me, it was only a matter of time before I started to spread my wings and exit my company, that i so greatly appreciated for so much as well because without them, none of this would have been possible either.

Him along with my amazing wife, Michelle, who had always believed in me, taught me to believe in myself. He taught me to be fearless. He taught me to be confident in my abilities. He showed me how to go get what I’m worth and not be afraid to demand the respect I deserved. He taught me to be a better man for my family and friends.

I won’t go into too much detail on the rest of the story because I’ve shared that in separate posts multiple times, one of which you can read here if you’re interested. It wasn’t long that I started consulting with brands and even though Brad was being paid anymore to mentor me, he continued to do so and does to this day.

I began consulting in April of 2017, founded Apex Current in September of 2017 and since then this rocket ship has achieved so much and grown into something much bigger than me with so many valuable players involved that have made this all possible. Apex Current was a Finalist in 2018, for Small Business of the Year, I was honored as one of Birmingham’s Top CEO’s last year, this year Apex Current was recognized by DesignRush as one of 2019’s Best Ad Agencies in the World which was published in Business Insider. I’ve generated $1.5 million dollars in topline revenue in only 18 months, Apex Current having months where our revenue was more than I made in one year of my career before starting my company.

Apex Current DesignRush 2019 Top Worldwide Ad Agencies Highlight Reel (4:5) from Apex Current on Vimeo.

DesignRush 2019 Top Ad Agencies - Apex Current Highlight Reel

All of it is very humbling and would not have been possible without him. All the long nights and weekends working add up. It’s not always easy, but he taught me to persevere and win at all costs. As I sit on my laptop late at night or early in the morning, when I work when no one’s looking, in times when I feel so alone because I’m pursuing something that most can’t understand and even though he’s just a phone call away, I still have that picture in my head of him encouraging me just like he did in the beginning. It spurs me onward and motivates me to this day.

I’m so grateful for the brotherhood we share and that he’s become such a big part of my story. I can never thank him enough or show enough gratitude. It’s hard to even say, where i’d be if we hadn’t met, but thank God we did because it changed everything in my life. 🙏

Alright, thanks for checking this out! I hope you enjoyed it. Be sure to comment if you liked it and if you have any questions, drop them below and I’ll do my best to respond. Check out some of our other posts as well.

Much love❤️,

Corbitt

Attending the 2018 KultureBall with our wives (who we apparently asked to not be in the picture. lol).

The Greatest Marketing Flaw

I hear these two little potentially damning words all the time from clients sizes no matter the company's size or specific industry. In corporate America where I spent over a decade, these two words were more than commonplace from the executive staff. 

These words are not just isolated to marketing campaigns. It can really form in any ideation process and the reality is unless you're talking about your flavor of ice cream, style of clothing, etc. they shouldn't be used. Certainly, not as Gospel...

The sentence always starts or ends or has somewhere in between two words that can be damning to any ad campaign and those two words are, “I like.” 

“I like this color on this section of the page.”

“I like the way this (insert whatever here) looks.”

“THIS is what I like.”

I guess from the outset it doesn’t sound like such a bad thing, right? The client should be able to express to you their preferences and to that I would say, "you're absolutely correct!" But, often times when “I like” or whatever that really subjective personal preference is trumps what matters, that's where we get into trouble. 

So, what is it that truly matters over our client's preferences or our own? What is it that truly matters when creating your campaign? It seems like in many situations almost the antithesis of “I like” is “what works.” What works is objective because it’s based on data and historical evidence of key learnings. Specifically, key learnings that are proven, time tested and drive campaign results.

These tactics and methodologies drive results not because, we at Apex or any marketer worth their salt wants it a certain way, but because it’s tested based on the marketplace. Those many rounds of testing lead to refinement that create these key learnings. 

You see we live in a free market economy here in the US (as well as any many other countries today) and that free market votes with their hard-earned dollars. 

As the marketplace makes certain decisions they, in essence, vote by either saying "yes" and taking the action or completing the goal you've set for your campaign (leads, sales, app installs, downloads, etc.) or saying "no" not completing the goal. As they vote up or down we iterate each campaign and it is improved upon to find what works. 

This is not some sort of blanket-type where one refined campaign for product/service-type A will translate over to product/service-type B. Each one is certainly unique as the offer, product/service and/or marketplace changes.

Dan Kennedy's marketing triangle displays this idea quite perfectly. Changing one of these three factors creates a new iteration process. But, you can take those historical key learnings and refined processes to the table which overtime lead to better decision making processes out the gates.

The emotional attachment to what a client likes based on their arbitrary preferences doesn’t matter at the end of the day and can prove detrimental to any campaign... Especially if those likes or preferences are not allowed to be iterated upon properly. 

As marketers and specifically on the performance-driven side of things where Apex lives, we have the responsibility to steer our clients to whatever has been seen to produce results as quickly as possible.

If not, a few different scenarios will play out:

1. The client’s campaign performance will suffer...

2. The client's campaign results will likely not be as positive as they could have been...

3. At the very worst, the client will be lost and 9 times out of 10 the blame will fall on the agency's shoulders. Even though, at the end of the day, you were just trying to serve them by implementing their preferences. It truly is a lose-lose situation.

Now, sometimes, though rare, your client’s personal preferences will perform well or the client understands this landscape enough that those preferences come from a place of proven data. 

But, again, even those situations are few and far between. The first situation would be similar to hitting a home run your first at bat. The latter is probably not likely going to be the case given they hired you because whatever they’re doing hasn’t been working.

It is our responsibility to guide our clients sometimes even more firmly than we would like to the best decisions possible even IF they feel strongly one way or another.

Join Us in Welcoming A New "Player" to the Team!

We are PUMPED to welcome Lars (pictured above) to the Apex Current team! Originally from the Netherlands, he’s about as well-rounded as they come. He graduated from UAB with a marketing degree while on a full soccer scholarship and is currently completing his MBA at Samford while playing professional soccer in Birmingham. Not only that, he’s an accomplished digital marketing consultant and Google Ads ninja.

Corbitt Chandler, Founder & CEO of Apex Current, casts the vision for growth and serving some of the biggest brands in Birmingham and the nation.

Lars is a stud and we were impressed with him from day one! This tall drink of water just walked right into our offices, said he saw what were doing and just straight up asked to board the Apex crazy train. Completely EPIC boldness and initiative if you ask us and we absolutely LOVE it! Please join us in welcoming Lars to the team! No doubt he’s going to CRUSH it for our clients!

Apex Current Welcomes EDPA and MotionMobs as New Client Partners

BIRMINGHAM, ALA. —  Performance-driven digital ad agency, Apex Current, continues to grow with the addition of its newest clients including the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama (EDPA) and MotionMobs. Apex Current’s unique approach of running ads that drive trackable sales is what attracted both organizations to become new clients.

The EDPA (Economic Development Partnership of Alabama) is a private, non-profit organization funded by more than 60 Alabama companies that works to attract, retain and grow jobs in Alabama, while encouraging innovation. In association with Alabama Launchpad, Apex has been hired to drive ticket sales for their annual imerge celebration event.

In addition to the EDPA, Apex signed MotionMobs this week, a local software consulting and development firm. MotionMobs provides business clients with a full suite of technical services to help them launch a new software product to achieve specified results for their new or established business. Apex will partner with MotionMobs to run highly granular ads targeting business owners who are in need of MotionMobs’ services.

"MotionMobs focuses on producing high quality content targeted at companies and organizations considering new technologies, and Apex is the perfect partner for us to make sure that our original content gets in front of the people who need it the most,” stated Emily Hart the Director of Marketing for MotionMobs.

On the heels of announcing Apex’s latest additions, Apex Current Founder and CEO Corbitt Chandler said these new clients will only add to the company’s value, which is based in the salient effort of delivering results for clients.

“The EDPA and Motion Mobs are literally two dream organizations to partner with,” said Chandler, who started Apex less than a year ago from the basement of his Hoover home, and is now building out a 1,600+ square foot office space at The Tower building in Birmingham.

By working to optimize digital ad placements on platforms like Facebook, Google Adwords, Linkedin and more, Chandler and his team aim to target and acquire new buyers, bridging the gap between the companies and their ideal customers.

“Being trusted with both the EDPA and MotionMobs’ advertising efforts is something I do not take lightly,” Chandler said. “It truly is an honor to partner with the EDPA for their illustrious annual imerge event that takes place during Birmingham’s Tech Week and MotionMobs is the best in town at what they do. Taylor Wyatt who founded MotionMobs is also someone I look up to and it’s an honor to now collaborate on helping grow her business through what we do at Apex Current."

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About Apex Current:
Apex Current, LLC, was founded by former Iron Tribe Fitness Vice President of Marketing, Corbitt Chandler in 2017. They have partnered with clients in industries that include; fitness, nutrition/supplements, direct-selling, luxury travel, financial investing, orthodontics, dermatologists, undergraduate studies and more. With Clients nationally and locally, Apex’s Birmingham-based client work includes names like; Birmingham Orthodontics, Breakout Games, Iron Tribe Fitness, Dermatology and Laser of Alabama and Medjet. Apex Current’s mission is to connect brands with their audiences through powerful, results-driven digital marketing.  

Click here to watch Chandler talk about his Facebook marketing journey.

Apex Signs Medjet and Breakout Games as Client Partners!

We LOVE what we do here at Apex! ❤️❤️❤️... We literally can't press copy and paste enough to show our enthusiasm in heart emoji's for how much we love what we do!

Now, we have the honor to do what we love for two new Apex Current family members Medjet and Breakout Games!! These are going to be two very awesome client partners and we're absolutely stoked to help drive online sales for both through our performance-driven ads.

A little about each client...

Medjet (formerly Medjet Assist) is the premier medical transport membership program for travelers. If you are hospitalized more than 150 miles from home, Medjet will arrange medical transport all the way back to your hospital of choice in your home country.

Breakout Games is an escape room with twist and turns that you and your group must figure out to escape in under an hour. Each room has varying difficulties and themes. Breakout Games has 47 locations nationwide. Currently, Apex will be partnered with locations in Alabama, Tennessee and North Carolina.

While these clients are drastically different in their offerings, their goal is the same - to drive online sales utilizing Apex Current's Facebook ads.

"Medjet and Breakout are going to be amazing partners with tons of potential." said Corbitt Chandler, Founder and CEO of Apex Current. "We'll be able to optimize the Facebook algorithm starting with the solid foundation of data both already have to learn, achieve goals and find more buyers." 

Each client will kick things off with a full day deep dive into their business hosted by Chandler. The goal with these deep dives will be for Apex to become an expert in each partner's business model and begin moving quickly to execute ads that find a steady return for their businesses.

"Both Medjet and Breakout are the premier providers in their space and our plans are to help them absolutely dominate their respective industries," said Chandler. "We're incredibly excited to have them as part of the Apex Current family and honored they're trusting us to take their digital advertising to the next level."

Please join us in welcoming Medjet and Breakout Games to the Apex Current family!

Apex Current Selected As Part of Facebook's Marketing Expert Program!

BIG DAY here at Apex Current! We have been selected to take part in Facebook's Marketing Expert Program! This is a MASSIVE WIN for our business and ultimately our amazing clients!

Apex has been aligned with Facebook's support staff through client accounts that qualified in the past, BUT for Apex Current's account to be included as part of this program is a huge honor. It puts Apex on the map as an Advertiser that is moving up the ranks and getting noticed by Facebook, Inc's paid advertising expert team.

What exactly does this mean? We're glad you asked!

As part of the Marketing Expert Program, Apex Current will have a dedicated support rep allocated to their account. This Marketing Expert will be Apex's "inside man" so to say in running successful paid advertising campaigns for any ads within Apex Current's account.

"I literally cried when I got the call." said Corbitt Chandler, Founder and CEO. "I kept getting calls from a Palo Alto area code so I assumed it was them, but I just figured we were in trouble for something! Ultimately, it turns out, we were one of our Facebook Rep's key accounts and he was desperate to get in touch with me."

In addition to a dedicated Facebook Account Rep, Apex will receive weekly strategy sessions to go through goals and improve ad performance. They will also gain access to features that are in beta mode before other advertisers and key detailed analytics that are typically unavailable to most advertisers on the platform.

"This is such a giant coup for us and our clients!" said Chandler. "We'll be able to take what we're doing to a whole new level and get even better results for our client partners. At the end of the day, that's what it's all about. We only win if our partner's ads work and this is a surefire path to their success and our continued growth."

Apex Current is pumped to begin improving their already high-performing ads and truly honored to be considered as part of the program. We'd like to thank all of our amazing clients, vendors and supporters for helping us receive this notable achievement.