Facebook Shop sales channel is no longer supported?

[lovica]

If this is no longer supported, can I remove it? or does it serve another purpose?
Thank you.

[Miles · Accepted solution]

Hi, @lovica!

I'm Miles from the Social Care team at Shopify. Thanks for the question.

We'd absolutely recommend switching to the all-new Facebook channel which will integrate Facebook Shop, the Instagram Channel and the Facebook Marketing app all in one channel. Whilst you can still use the Facebook Shop channel, for now, I imagine it will eventually become unsupported in time, so there's never been a better time than now to switch over.

The main benefit of the new Facebook channel is that you have everything under one channel instead of spread over 3 different ones. Simply connect your Facebook account and you're set up for Facebook, Instagram and marketing. To use the Facebook sales channel your store needs to be on the Basic Shopify plan or higher. Before you can start using the Facebook sales channel, you need to set up a Facebook Business Manager that's connected to both your business's Facebook Page and an ad account that has an admin role for the Business Manager.

If you have the Facebook sales channel, the Instagram sales channel, and Facebook Shop installed, here's how you can easily switch across to the new channel:

1. From your Shopify admin, click Facebook > Confirm Facebook account.
2. In the new window, log in to your Facebook account.
3. Under Connect Shopify Marketing to Facebook, click Continue to grant permission.
4. Select your Business Manager, and then click Continue.
5. Select the product catalog that you want to feature on Facebook and Instagram, and click Continue.
6. Confirm all of your settings are correct and click Continue.
7. Select all of the Instagram Business Accounts that you want to use with Shopify Marketing, and click Next.
8. Select all of the Facebook Businesses that you want to use with Shopify Marketing, and click Next.
9. Select all of the Facebook Pages that you want to use with Shopify Marketing, and click Next.
10. Review the permissions granted to Shopify Marketing, and click Next.
11. When Shopify Marketing and Facebook successfully link, click Continue.

When you complete this process, the current Facebook sales channel will be installed in your store and both the Instagram sales channel and Facebook shop can be found within it.

If you already had the Instagram sales channel approved and installed in your store, then the approval status carries over to the current Facebook sales channel. You can learn more about migrating to the new Facebook channel here: https://bit.ly/35E5Mkh.

Did you know your customers can now checkout directly on Facebook and Instagram without using your Shopify checkout? Check out this guide for more: https://bit.ly/3c0sUL0.

[Miles · Accepted solution]

Hi, @lovica!

I'm Miles from the Social Care team at Shopify. Thanks for the question.

We'd absolutely recommend switching to the all-new Facebook channel which will integrate Facebook Shop, the Instagram Channel and the Facebook Marketing app all in one channel. Whilst you can still use the Facebook Shop channel, for now, I imagine it will eventually become unsupported in time, so there's never been a better time than now to switch over.

The main benefit of the new Facebook channel is that you have everything under one channel instead of spread over 3 different ones. Simply connect your Facebook account and you're set up for Facebook, Instagram and marketing. To use the Facebook sales channel your store needs to be on the Basic Shopify plan or higher. Before you can start using the Facebook sales channel, you need to set up a Facebook Business Manager that's connected to both your business's Facebook Page and an ad account that has an admin role for the Business Manager.

If you have the Facebook sales channel, the Instagram sales channel, and Facebook Shop installed, here's how you can easily switch across to the new channel:

1. From your Shopify admin, click Facebook > Confirm Facebook account.
2. In the new window, log in to your Facebook account.
3. Under Connect Shopify Marketing to Facebook, click Continue to grant permission.
4. Select your Business Manager, and then click Continue.
5. Select the product catalog that you want to feature on Facebook and Instagram, and click Continue.
6. Confirm all of your settings are correct and click Continue.
7. Select all of the Instagram Business Accounts that you want to use with Shopify Marketing, and click Next.
8. Select all of the Facebook Businesses that you want to use with Shopify Marketing, and click Next.
9. Select all of the Facebook Pages that you want to use with Shopify Marketing, and click Next.
10. Review the permissions granted to Shopify Marketing, and click Next.
11. When Shopify Marketing and Facebook successfully link, click Continue.

When you complete this process, the current Facebook sales channel will be installed in your store and both the Instagram sales channel and Facebook shop can be found within it.

If you already had the Instagram sales channel approved and installed in your store, then the approval status carries over to the current Facebook sales channel. You can learn more about migrating to the new Facebook channel here: https://bit.ly/35E5Mkh.

Did you know your customers can now checkout directly on Facebook and Instagram without using your Shopify checkout? Check out this guide for more: https://bit.ly/3c0sUL0.

[lovica · Accepted solution]

Hi Miles,

Thank you for your help and recommendation. Okay, I'll go and follow the instructions. Doing this sounds like a wonderful idea to me. I'll let you know how it goes. 
Much appreciated.  

[tyleraqua]

Hi @Miles, I've been trying for at least an hour to complete this process - but Shopify won't recognize that business ad account that I manage! Despite me having admin permissions and it recognizing the business PAGE that I manage, Shopify only shows my "personal" (which I don't use). It's so incredibly frustrating - I've unlinked and re-linked over 20 times now.

[Unico]

@Miles I also have the same problem as @tyleraqua 

Could you please help us?

Also, I have another question; I want to follow all the steps that you wrote before, but many questions come to my mind:

1. I use Shopify since 2010, and my FB account was linked in the Facebook Shop App by Shopify since 2015. All my products are in FB Shop but suddenly got disconnected, and then after searching and reading all blogs, I found that the Facebook Shop sales channel is no longer supported, and my account got kicked out (just like happened with @tyleraqua). 
2. I´m scared if I migrate to the new Facebook Channel, they erase/replace all the products that I already have on my Facebook Online Page (and especially because I have all the interactions with my clients). How can I switch over to the New Channel without losing all?
3. Also, I already have a Commerce Account and the Options to link in the new Facebook Channel. They do not allow me to integrate that Commerce Account, so what should I do?? all my history is there! HELP!
   
   You can only have one Commerce Account per Facebook Page. We will delete your old Commerce Account and create a new one.

[Miles]

Hi, @tyleraqua and @Unico!

In regards to the first question around the ad accounts, you just need to set up an ad account on your Facebook business page (business.facebook.com) on the corresponding account in your admin. When you load your Facebook Business account, you'll see your store and then an option to add the ad account into it. Once you've done that, the error should disappear. If this doesn't work, my suggestion would be to contact our live support team for assistance, as they'll be able to access your account to work out what the issue might be. You can contact the live support team here: https://bit.ly/3i52f21.

To answer your specific questions around disconnecting the Facebook Shop and moving across to the Facebook channel, the advice we've been given is that this is not something that will affect your data at all. The Facebook Channel came about after Facebook announced the new Facebook and Instagram Shop feature earlier this year and was a changed instigated by them. If you have specific concerns around losing data, I would highly recommend reaching out directly to Facebook to ease any concerns.

Your final point around the commerce account not appearing in the new Facebook channel can be resolved by going to your Facebook Business account directly and removing the Shopify link. Once you've done that, you'll be able to connect it to the new Facebook channel. Again, I would recommend speaking to our live support and Facebook Support to get this done if you have further concerns. We'll be able to view your account and authenticate you so we can take a look at your specific example.

[Carlos222]

I have completed set up and Facebook Shop shows active but my catalog is no longer on my Facebook.  Now is telling me that ill be able to publish once my Commerce acct is approved. Is that normal? And how long does it take?

[Miles]

Hi, @Carlos222!

Thanks for your question! This is the expected behaviour as you're moving your catalog into the new Facebook catalog, but it should have no impact on the Facebook store itself once the review is completed. This should only take a few hours, but it can take up to 48 hours to be fully reviewed and available on your Facebook page. If it's taking longer than 48 hours, there may be an issue that we would need to assist with.

If you're unsure about anything, it's a good idea to check the basic requirements and eligibility of your products to be approved by Facebook. As I mentioned above, if anything is not working as expected, our live support team will only be too happy to help out. Please visit https://bit.ly/3cJkx8V and log in to your account to create a support request. Thanks!