Published - Wed, 26-Jun-2024

You cannot set up Facebook Shop in South Africa anymore...

You cannot set up Facebook Shop in South Africa anymore...

Facebook is the most popular social media platform in South Africa. Until November 2023, you could set up a shop on Facebook and Instagram in South Africa. However, now you cannot set up an e-commerce shop on Facebook in South Africa anymore. How does this affect your retail business? Is the platform still doable? Let's find the answers to these questions in this article.

Facebook and its Significance in South Africa

Throughout the years, Facebook has retained its top position amongst other social media platforms in South Africa. South Africans primarily use Facebook and WhatsApp (collectively under Meta) for their daily life entertainment, social activities, and of course, business activities.

You could set up a retail shop on Facebook in South Africa before. This was especially beneficial for small and medium retail businesses led by individual owners. But since December 21, 2023, Facebook has made the shop features unavailable for South Africa. These are the changes as mentioned in the Meta notice.

  • Shops on Facebook and Instagram and associated features are no longer available, including product tagging (in posts, Reels and stories) and creating custom and lookalike audiences derived from people who visited a shop.

  • People can no longer see your shops and associated features if your shop is located in these countries.

  • On Instagram, ads with product tags are still available. Businesses running ads with product tags do not need to take any action and campaigns are not impacted.

While this may seem discouraging for SMEs looking for influential platforms to list their products and earn profits, Facebook and other Meta platforms (Instagram, WhatsApp) are still more than doable for conducting business and advertising or selling your products online.

So, how do we sell via Facebook/Meta in South Africa?

Through your Instagram handle or Facebook page, of course. We have been doing this for ages. The Facebook Shop was not deemed necessary for and by all retail businesses out there.

On Instagram, you can advertise your products with professionally captured pictures or videos. Instagram is a visual platform where each picture is supposed to tell you a story. This opens a lot of opportunities to entice customers with creativity in your advertisements.

On Facebook, there are two ways to go about selling your products in South Africa.

First, via a Facebook Page. Facebook Page gives your brand an identity the other option would not. Apart from displaying your products, you can tell stories about your business, post business updates, or host quizzes to engage with your audience. A personalised business sits better with your target audience. Even though you cannot set up shops anymore, Facebook still allows you to post product images and information on your page. Then, you can advertise these products to garner or appeal to a larger audience, who can redirect to your website to make a decision.

Second, Facebook Marketplace. This is a peer-to-peer selling and buying platform without any seller protection or payment gateway options. While retailers rarely choose to utilise the platform, it can open some unique opportunities for your business. For example, finding buyers for a product that rarely gets sold, such as collectables or antiques.

Bonus - WhatsApp Advertising

South Africa loves using WhatsApp for their primary over-the-internet communication needs. As a South African, you likely have noticed their brand new 'Community' and 'Channel' features. You can use WhatsApp to push updates and products via a personal channel or create a community of loyal customers. Having loyal customer programs often works positively for your business.

Facebook Advertising can make customers contact your business via WhatsApp. You can use this opportunity to build rapport with your customers and provide them with prompt and best possible services.

Conclusion

Setting up an actual retail shop with payment gateways is no longer possible in South Africa. But that has not made Facebook obsolete. The point of this article was to inform you about the changes and the alternatives to selling your products on Facebook/Meta platforms.

Skill Space is developing a course on Meta Advertising for Facebook and Instagram. As a South African entrepreneur, harnessing the power of Meta advertising can empower your business to perform better and generate better revenue.

Meanwhile, if you are looking for a platform to start selling your products, we also have created a Takealot Seller Course. It is available for free for a limited time. Take advantage of the offer today! If you have any questions, you can always reach out to us via the contact page.

Search
Popular categories
Latest blogs
Revolutionize Your Takealot Marketing Strategy with AI
Revolutionize Your Takealot Marketing Strategy with AI
People often turn away from a product page on Takealot because there is simply not enough information about the product. This also makes the product look suspicious or 'fake' to a potential customer. We get it! Writing lucrative, enticing content for your product is not exactly an easy task. However, fret no more as an AI software program like ChatGPT can help you out easily. In this article, I talk about how you can revolutionize your Takealot marketing strategy with AI—specifically ChatGPT.How do I revolutionize my Takealot Marketing Strategy with AI?Marketing is often a 'discombobulating' practice for many businesses. You often find yourself in a sea of various marketing strategies; you may even consider investing in some of them, yet they yield little to no results. Now that's frustrating! What could be going wrong?One of the things that most businesses go wrong with are product titles, descriptions, and lack of proper keywords.Now, why would you use AI for that?What's best about using AI to revolutionize your Takealot marketing strategy is that it would be largely free for your business. This also means that you will have more wiggle room for experimentation without spending a dime on a 'potentially' effective marketing strategy.How do I use ChatGPT for my Takealot Marketing Strategy?There are two ways to go about it. While the results lead to the same destinations, it is about how effective and accurate the results will be.One. You simply just ask ChatGPT to generate product titles and descriptions based on the keywords you provide. These keywords can fit in a line or two and ChatGPT will produce a response accordingly.However, a neat thing about ChatGPT is that the more information you provide, the better the bot will be at procuring accurate results.Keeping that in mind, we now arrive at an effective prompt that will feed ChatGPT with all the necessary information.The PromptI have created a detailed outline that will help ChatGPT create accurate responses for your product's titles and descriptions. This is a simple no-brainer. All you have to do is go to this link and download my prompt.Once you have the prompt, you simply copy and paste it into ChatGPT.Upon providing the prompt to ChatGPT, the bot will ask you a few questions to get clarity about your products. Answer as accurately as possible to get the best results from ChatGPT.Once you receive your final results, it is time to implement them in your Takealot shop. Simply copy and paste the titles and descriptions in their respective fields and you're done.The whole process takes about 10 minutes or less and is astoundingly simple to follow. Watch my demonstration video to see how it is done!ConclusionAnd that is how you can use an AI tool like ChatGPT to revolutionize your Takealot marketing strategy in South Africa. The goal of using the prompt is to make AI inquisitive to receive further input from you so that it can generate better results.Remember that AI can make mistakes, so we highly recommend proofreading before using the results professionally.If you are new to Takealot, we have an insightful course on how you can become a Takealot Seller in South Africa. The best part about it? It is a free course. So, if you are interested, hurry to the page link provided and sign up today!Contact us if you have any questions.

Wed, 26-Feb-2025

Coming Soon Page for a WordPress Website in South Africa
Coming Soon Page for a WordPress Website in South Africa
As a regular internet user in South Africa, you must have seen the Coming Soon pages on a few websites. These pages usually give us a general idea of what's coming... of course! Do they really make an impact though? A well-designed, stunning Coming Soon Page definitely does. In this article, we will discuss how you can create a Stunning Coming Soon Page in WordPress for your website in South Africa.What is a Coming Soon Page?By definition, a Coming Soon page is a temporary landing page that provides information about a new product, service, or website that is not yet ready to be launched. You may or may not see a countdown timer on these pages, but that is beside the point for now.The real idea behind a Coming Soon page is to collect customer information for marketing purposes. In this sense, the page will likely offer you a chance to stay informed by providing your name and email. However, most Coming Soon pages are not predatory. Predatory in the sense that they will demand your data right off the bat. If they do demand your data, usually in the form of name and email, then they will offer some 'exclusivity' in return. For example, they will offer a useful PDF booklet or some behind-the-scene peeks and whatnot. It differs from website to website.So, yes. You can see all the content on a Coming Soon page without providing your name and email. However, if you want to stay informed, consider providing them with your details. Remember, you can unsubscribe from mail lists at any time.Creating a Coming Soon Page for your WordPress website in South AfricaThe process is quite simple.First, log in to your WordPress dashboard. Once you see the Dashboard, go to Plugins and click on 'Add New Plugin'. The plugin we prefer is 'CMP Coming Soon'. It is a free plugin designed by NiteoThemes.Click on 'Install Now' and wait for the process. Once it is done, activate it. To do so, just click on the blue 'Activate' button that replaces the install button.Now you are set.Let's talk about the customisation part.To make a stunning, captivating Coming Soon Page on your WordPress website in South Africa, you need some freedom of customisation, don't you?The CMP Coming Soon plugin allows customisations via its content and customization tab. To access, go to your WordPress dashboard and access CMP Settings from the left-hand side menu.Here's what you can customise on your Coming Soon page.Logo Setup (text or image);Heading and Body text;Graphic Background of various forms; andContent customisation such as font, text size, text alignment, and more.We highly recommend watching this video for a full demonstration of the CMP Coming Soon plugin. In this video, we have extensively explained the step-by-step process of setting up and customising the plugin.ConclusionCreating a Stunning Coming Soon Page in WordPress is a creative process. That means we cannot exactly show you the way of creating one from scratch. However, understanding the tool itself will help you put your wonderful ideas on a canvas and create mini-masterpieces your website would call a 'Coming Soon' page.We are also currently developing a WordPress Web Building course for beginners. If you are interested, sign up on our website today and stay informed about these courses as they go live.If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us today.

Fri, 15-Nov-2024

What are Replenishment Shipments on Takealot in South Africa?
What are Replenishment Shipments on Takealot in South Africa?
Takealot Distribution Centres (Takealot DCs) significantly reduce the time between order placement and order delivery. If you are a regular seller on Takealot, you may want to store your in-stock items in a Takealot DC to improve delivery times. However, your in-stock items are not infinite and you must replenish them occasionally. In this article, let's understand what replenishment shipments are on Takealot and how you can restock your inventory at a Takealot DC in South Africa.What are Replenishment Shipments on Takealot in South Africa?Replenishment Shipment on Takealot in South Africa is a process of stocking your inventory in advance in a Takealot DC. These 'in-stock items' remain at Takealot DC until they are sold to customers.Takealot Distribution Centres, commonly known as Takealot DCs, are one of the many reasons South Africans choose to sell on Takealot. These centres focus on streamlining the packaging and delivery process by significantly cutting down the delivery time and costs. This system is ideal for businesses that frequently make sales on Takealot.How does a Takealot DC improve delivery times?In a nutshell, you stock the products you are selling through your Takealot account in a Takealot DC in advance. Even though there are no active orders for that specific product, you can still choose to stock your products in a Takealot DC.Let's understand this with an example.You are a Cape Town-based business selling your products to customers in Johannesburg. To streamline the delivery process, you may choose to stock your products in the Johannesburg Takealot DC in advance. So, if any customer residing in Johanessburg orders your products, they may receive their product within 1-2 days.These 'in-stock' products are highly preferred by customers due to their enticing delivery times.How do I replenish my 'In-Stock Items' on Takealot?Step 1: Choosing the Items to Replenish a ShipmentTo do so, log in to your Takealot Seller Account. You will be seeing your Seller Dashboard by default.On this window, select the 'Shipments' option from the left-hand menu and click on New Replenishment Shipment. This should open a page that displays all the products that you sell on Takealot.Now, find the products in the list that you want to restock at a Takealot DC. Sort out these products with the help of filters available in each column's header.Did you find the product you want to replenish? Perfect! Now go to the end of that product's row. Under 'Qty Sending', you will see the initials for Johannesburg and Cape Town Takealot DCs. By default, their values will be zero.Now, to which Takealot DCs do you want to send the replenishment shipments? And how many? Input respective values in the boxes, and then select the 'Create Shipment' button on the bottom right corner.Step 2: Crafting a Draft ShipmentNow, depending on the locations you have chosen, Takealot may create draft shipments accordingly. If you have selected both Johannesburg and Cape Town, you will see two draft shipments.Once you are happy with the information, select 'Create Draft Shipments'This will take you to the next tab, which will be for Draft Shipments. If everything seems good to go, click on 'Process Shipment' to view your draft shipment.Now, you will see all the products you will be shipping. You can change the quantity for sending or remove any items if necessary. Once done, click on 'Mark Shipment as Confirmed' in the bottom right corner.After this, Takealot will ask you whether you want to decrease your stock at hand. This depends on how you are managing your inventory.Once done, click on 'Confirm Shipment'.Step 3: Confirmed Shipment StageNow that you have confirmed your shipment, you can print shipping labels and shipping notes, and book your delivery with Takealot. Furthermore, you can download Product Labels and a Picking List, Rename your Shipment, or Cancel the Shipment altogether.There are two important steps to do here.Printing the Product Labels. This will contain the Product Name and their Barcodes.Booking your delivery with Takealot. You can either deliver it by yourself, select your own courier, or deliver it with Takealot's preferred courier partner. We prefer Collivery as our delivery partner.This process must be understood practically. For such, we have an in-depth video covering every minute detail of the shipping aspect on our YouTube Channel. Please take a look.ConclusionOnce you have completed all the steps, you can go back to the seller portal and mark the shipment as complete. You may check this order in the shipped shipment tab on Takealot until it is delivered to Takealot. Once the replenishment shipments are delivered to the Takealot DC, those products will be ready to be sold as 'in-stock items' in South Africa.Remember, storing your 'Stock on Hand (SoH)' at a Takealot DC will incur extra charges after 30 days. While Takealot DCs significantly cut down on long delivery times, we highly advise you to keep a regular tab on these fees as they can quickly eat into your profits. We have a FREE Takealot Seller Course on Skill Space for a limited time where we explore the nooks and crannies of being a Seller on Takealot. Make sure you take advantage of the offer if you are interested.For any questions, please feel free to reach out to us.

Thu, 24-Oct-2024

All blogs