Facebook - commerce account Not aproved Error with Facebook

[Irreversivel]

Hello, I've been struggling lately trying to link the store to my Facebook page.  

I followed all the procedure in shopify via the "sales channel +". the facebook shop and instagram shopping both show as ACTIVE.

But when i open the "customize Shop" and go to the commerce manager page the store show up as Unpublished. And I get a message from Facebook saying:

"shop updates can't be published because your commerce account didn't pass our standard review", no explanations or any other option to know what is wrong or not in compliance with their policy. Some of my products ( simple tshirt) also just got the " Not approved " stamp don't now why? 

What can one do to get the shop working with Facebook and get then to approve/ allow publishing of the store? 

Any help or advise is welcome as i exhausted all the options i could think of. Thanks! 

Facebook and insta both active on shopifyunpublished error in facebookError/ no option to publish within the mannager commerce account

[JAAS666]

Glad starting from 0 works in your case.

For others it won't work. Facebook locks the business commerce account and won't let you delete it in order to create another one.

I'll say this again... starting from scratch is not a solution. The problem hasn't been fixed.

Either Shopify of Facebook needs to fix it. You shouldn't have to pay anyone to "fix" this and no "expert for hire" can fix it either. Anyone offering to fix this is a scammer.

Of course Shopify promptly marked this as FIXED so it looks like they did something but this is issue is NOT FIXED.

[jle013]

I have to agree that Facebook and Shopify should not consider this a fix! I for one am not willing to have to start a completely new business page. It has taken me a long time to gain followers, plus creating a new business page would require me to change the name of my business on Facebook and it would no longer match my other social media handles. What needs to happen is Facebook needs to allow more than one review before permanently declining a shop!

[Mbial-Business]

no there's actually a way to delete the commerce account and be able to apply again and again and again...

[LBeauty]

thats good are people able to shop at your store now on instagram?

[Aloha7]

Aloha I am facing the same issue and I am very frustrated with this  "not trustworthy" issue. You said you  started a campaign to boost the page and finally it was approved.

How long did it take for you to get an approval and how much did you spend  to promote your page? I have been promoting my page and products to increase the traffic and all the numbers have been  increasing. But I just wonder what is specific minimum number of traffic or followers Facebook wants us to have. Please share your experience if you don't mind.

Mahalo

[Glam2]

Hi JB,

No, i am facing all issues possible on fb. I meant to say that i am unable
to run campaigns or boost or advertise my page.

Facebook has weird rules and assumptions - it believes that long
established businesses and those with more followers/likes are more
reliable. This is generalising things and as untrue as things can get!

[sapphire86]

I was able to get my shop approved and then my instagram shop approved
after getting the initial rejection of not meeting Commerce Eligibility
requirements.

One of the main mistakes I made was applying too soon for Facebook shop and
Instagram shopping. Make sure u have at least 50 followers / likes on
Facebook and 100 followers on Instagram when applying for instsgram
shopping. When I first downloaded the shopify /facebook app I was wrongly
advised by a shopify chat assistant to apply too soon and connect
everything.

And I found out the hard way that there is a shopify /facebook app
integration problem. As when I downloaded the shopify Facebook app and
synced my products, most of them were flagged wrongly and in the wrong
categories. Yet when I uploaded them manually they were fine. ALL these
product rejections I believe caused my Commerce Account to be rejected
quite quickly.

After 3 months of immense stress and emails and chats with shopify and
facebook I finally realised what to do myself.

Do NOT ask for another/second/final review of your account until all your
products are in green and not flagged. And because this was being caused by
the shopify facebook app I finally just decided to delete the app. But
deleting the app and disconnecting all of it is not enough, I finally
realised that you have to delete the shopify datafeed in the Facebook
Business Manager which was in the data sources section I think. I'm not
sure if you have to delete the shopify pixel but I did that as well.
You then manually upload all your products. Make sure your domain is
verified on the Facebook Business Manager and have an adequate following of
at least 50 people on Facebook and your Commerce Account should be approved.

I hope this information helps someone out there as I went through alot of
mental stress with inadequate help. If you have already applied for a
second review and got rejected again I think the only other option is to
make another facebook business page and do not connect it the shopify app
at all just manually upload the products and you should be fine.

Best of luck. And remember nothing is worth losing your mental health over.

[Ktwalters11]

Who did you get in touch with on Facebook to get another approval?

[Glam2]

Thank you so so much for this insightful info! I am in the same soup as am sure some more of us here.

@sapphire86 How does one manually upload over a 100 products that one is trying to sell?! That is a jagernaut task. Any other ideas /advices? 

[sapphire86]

Yes I only had 20 so it was okay for me. If you have alot of products then
I believe what worked for me of course isn't the ideal solution. But what I
do know with certainty is that the shopify Facebook app is going to fail on
most people- there are too many issues with it, it's an automated system
that will flag your products incorrectly and even into illegal categories.
For example I am selling lashes and the shopify Facebook app kept flagging
it as Smoking or medicinal products. You can ask for a second review of the
product but if it fails twice you can no longer sell that item on the
platform or ask for another review of that product! And you can't upload it
again either because that would be recreating it completely on your
website.

[Glam2]

Thanks so very much for your help and advice, Sapphire. It is appreciated and well taken. 

Wishing you all the very best for your brand and always!

Patisaa

[here4comments]

So I finally find a solution to this problem. I contact facebook and they manually fix it after few hours. 

[rme_wyf]

And how did you contact them?

[here4comments]

Watch this one-minute video it was really helpful that's how I fix it share it with everyone.

https://youtu.be/zsgGHpfIRGY

[LBeauty]

I had the same issue with lashes. 5 came up as animal and ik corrected them to the right category and it was approved. after, I tried to get approval for my store and was still denied. this is a stressful issue that Shopify needs to fix as well as FB as most customers come from both social media.  @ sapphire86 may I ask how did you get to the pixel to delete it as well as the Shopify data?

[Ktwalters11]

My shop was approved this morning after 6 months of headaches.  I attempted to approve it before our site went live (my mistake) so they denied me because I had not verified the domain, and I hit request approval again right away.  I didn't realize you only had two approval requests.  For the past 6 months when I logged into Facebook Business Suite it said "Were reviewing the status of your shop". FOR 6 MONTHS.  Over the past month I began to hammer the "support team" daily until I got an answer. I used this link: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/support/get-help and I explained to them that my shop violated no policies and that I have spoken with multiple "support folks" and nothing was being done to help me.  I demanded to speak to a supervisor who could better assist me.  They kept saying a supervisor would get in contact with me within 48 hours, which they never did. So with my morning coffee I would send another kind support ticket.  Well here we are and my shop somehow got approved, on a Sunday morning.  Wish I had a better answer on how this worked but I don't.  I feel like they got tired of seeing my tickets and just approved it.  Hope this helps some of you as I know how frustrating it is.

[Aloha7]

Hi Ktwalters11

Congrats! You made it! Thank you very much for sharing your story. But I
don't think I have that kind of patience.

They did not give me specific reasons or what needed to be done in a plain
language.
I kept sending a review request and emails to find out the real reasons.
They just kept saying to follow the requirement, not saying a
specific reason.
But after speaking to numerous FB people and waiting for over a month,
one honest guy told me I do not have enough followers and
likes. My products and shop are fine. So he suggested that I keep promoting
the products and shop.
So I guess waiting for a month was not bad at all after hearing your story.
But he said that some people got an approval with only 250 likes. He was
not sure about specific numbers.
I guess it's all up to the person who looks at each case.
After all of this, I was just frustrated.

I can use FB ads but not shop. I can set the SHOP button on FB ads but not
on instagram ads.
People can see all my products on Instagram but Instagram would not let me
put a shop button or automatic
products transfer from my shopify store products list. I really don't
understand their point of doing this.

Shopify sounded like we could connect the shopify store with FB and
Instagram shops instantly. But it is just not ture.
They should have mentioned these potential problems from the beginning.

But for now as long as the prospects can land on my shopify store through
FB ads, that is all that matters.
and eventually it will create enough followers and likes to qualify for FB
and Instagram shops.

Thanks again and good luck!!

[Chefallen]

Can you still run ads even if your shop store wasnt approved? Or am I screwed still darn. I wish i read this before I requested a review.

[Aloha7]

Yes, you should be able to use Facebook ad. They want you to spend money .
When you get enough likes and followers they will approve Facebook and
Instagram shop. But I do not know what the specific number of them is
needed to be qualified.

[Chefallen]

Okay awesome i meet with a marketing manager monday. hopefully they can help . I had half my items reversed but still some of the same exact items still rejected lol .  I went ahead and deactivated the items that where rejected maybe that will help. Thank you for your help

[Chefallen]

Do you know if I simply delete my items from my catalog will  that get my commerce account approved. I have plenty of other products.

[Aloha7]

Why don’t you try? It might work. Did they give you specific reasons? In my
case, they just gave a general reason saying I have to meet FD
requirements…There are so many of them. After I sent 10 emails then one
guy was nice enough to tell me the reasons. Did you know the fact if your
page was created within 30 days, they wouldn’t approve your page.

I know that is FB rules but Shopify people should know but they never said
that. Start Shopify and link it to FB or Instagram. Sounded so easy but it
is not that simple…..

Good luck,man

[Madison444]

Hello

[Chefallen]

I deleted the items they said that will help. I know what the issue is now its a brand new page. I have another business page I had for years that is good to use I believe. I'm not using it . I'm thinking of just taking it and changing the name and use that page instead. Hopefully I can remove that other page on shopify side and just start over. I messed up and already asked for another review. Is that only one review rule set in stone? im not stressing pinterest approved me for a shop and is running fine. Also gave $100 in free ad credits lol. Thanks for your help

[Aloha7]

That is good. At least you have another page. I am not quite sure if you
can change page name once it created. But you can try. I have been a little
over 2 months since I joined Shopify but 14 days trial is too short for me.
Now I know how FB ad works and all requirements.

I am about to try Pinterest. When the company got so big, they try to
control people. That is crazy.

[Leap4artnc]

Yes. I paid for ads for almost a year before I was approved. Tommy B. McDonell, Leap4artnc LLC

[Aloha7]

One year?!! Would you tell me more details ? Like how many followers or
likes did you get to be approved? FB people gave you specific numbers?

Thanks

[Madison444]

hello …how’re you doing 

[chedderchris123]

I am going through the same ordeal for a week now trying to figure out what is wrong with my commerce account and why my shop can't be published. I already went through every button of my page, commerce manager, Facebook suites etc and I can't find any issues. I was able to email support and they have a bunch of steps for me to take and one is the creator studio for monetization. It was yellowed which mean had some issues but they wanted my page to have at least 10,000 followers and post a lot on the page and engage in comments. It really does not make sense when they said we need more followers or likes or engagement posts on our page. We are just starters and how can we do that without the published shop? If they approve the shop and people see our products they like they will eventually follow and like the page and that is how we grow on following. So frustrated already this is the most complicated set up I encountered. We just simply want to sync our Shopify products to Facebook shop and it looks like we are going through a dungeon maze.

[MagicMoonGarden]

I know exactly what you mean. And I’m still having problems. They make it so difficult it shouldn’t be this hard. Good luck. Can you tell me who you emailed? Thanks 

[chedderchris123]

Here is the link..

https://www.facebook.com/commerce_manager/onboarding/support/?ref=cm_onsite_onboarding_channel_selec...

You can either chat or email with your issues. I was able to chat today (daytime only) but was not resolve and he just outlined in order what I need to do. Basically the same stuff I got from the email and its on the monetization side. I don't know how should I do that. I probably will just abandon this shopify integration, create a brand new facebook account and just upload manually my products.

I wish shopify would lobby to facebook that those who already have a premium account on shopify need not go through a review process for the "trustworthiness" part. 

[woodenbelieveit]

You don't need to set up another Facebook account to do that. I can still tag products adding them manually. share products, post links to my site where people can buy products on my page and in other Facebook groups, can sell on Marketplace and put links in the descriptions etc. The only thing I can't do is open a shop which does the same thing as all the other stuff I've mentioned except less work, it makes no sense. I've given up with the integration.

[JAAS666]

Dont waste your time.. they'll ask you to check a lot of things and won't
be able to do anything in the end.. whoever you are emailing with will
disappear and you'll have to start over.

Both Facebook and Shopify support are pathetic.

[woodenbelieveit]

Totally agree, they don't assign the same person to deal with your query and you end up banging your head against a brick wall with them. They didn't answer a single question I asked them.

[woodenbelieveit]

They asked me to check the monetization stuff as well. I don't think it applies to me as it's mainly to do with having paid content on my page and I'd rather customers pay for the items I make rather than for adverts and other add on costs. Their eligibility criteria is open to interpretation and depends on who is reviewing the shop whether you get approved or not I think. I even sent them this full list of their eligibility criteria and answered every single point 

1. Comply with our policies - I have complied with all of your policies
2. Represent your business and your domain - my Facebook page and Instagram professional account both contain product listings that are available for direct purchase from my website. I have provided you with the domain from which I sell. My Facebook and Instagram accounts both represent my store or website with the domain provided
3. Be located in a supported market - I am located in the United Kingdom which is a supported market
4.  Demonstrate trustworthiness - My Facebook page OR my Instagram page must have demonstrated trustworthiness. I have an authentic established presence on Instagram and my Facebook is getting there with am established presence but it does state here that it can be either, it doesn't have to be both. This MAY include maintaining a sufficient follower base". I have 136 Followers on Facebook and 244 followers on Instagram. Two things, in the last sentence of "demonstrate trustworthiness" A) it says MAY, so really that says to me that it depends who is doing the review  whether they may use that as a criteria or may not and B) it doesn't say what a sufficient follower base is. I mean Jesus had 12 disciples, that was sufficient for him.
5.  Provide accurate information and follow best practices - There is nothing misleading about my prices or availability information. My refund and return policies are for all to see in the footer of each web page on my website

That was a complete waste of time as they don't assign one person to deal with your query. The reply I received after I sent that completely ignored everything and was just the bog standard reply as if I had just asked them "why is my ecommerce account not approved". I spent over a week going around in circles with them.

Coincidentally, a couple of days after I gave up I received a violation on Facebook for spamming. I had been talking to someone about a book we had both read and he asked if there was an updated version of the book and I posted a link and he said thanks. The following day I received another violation for harassment, someone made a sarcastic derogatory comment towards me so I replied politely but sarcastically and I received another violation. On both occasions I wasn't given the chance to appeal the decision or explain my side of the story. Facebook are so corrupt that I've given up on using them for anything. 

[MagicMoonGarden]

How did you contact someone in facebook to help fix the issue? My problem was when I first started my business I didn’t realize I was using copyright pics and descriptions. When I would do a search all the same pics and definitions would show up in basically every shop, so I just thought it was universal descriptions.  The company that I was using some stuff from started reporting som posts and Facebook locked me out for a week and was unable to delete or fix anything. Finally when I was allowed back on I deleted everything but while I was  in fb jail they kept reporting my posts. So once I was allowed in I deleted everything and there were a few posts that just wouldn’t delete and I had to try deleting it like 5 times before it would delete.  And meanwhile there was one I knew I deleted but showed back up. And that was the last and final post they reported and facebook disabled my whole account that I had since 2008.  Meanwhile I have tried to get a hold of a person at Facebook to try and explain what happened. I have an email from the company that reported me and she understanding that it wasn’t done on purpose and knew I was genuine. But she said since there is no live person for her to speak to, there was nothing she can do to drop the charges.  The truth is I honestly thought it was just music you couldn’t copy. Ooh boy did I learn my lesson. I’m the type of person that would have never done this is I knew I wasnt allowed.  So I ended up creating a new account for FB and the made a new shop page. Thinking I can start all over.  But do you know they combined my first shop and new shop on the business commerce page they must have flagged my account cause nothing I can do go connect my Facebook or Instagram to Shopify.  It’s been almost a year trying to get it back.  I deleted the first shop off the commerce page but it keeps on saying my shop goes against policy standards. Does anyone know how I can fix this. Or who I can contact to resolve this issue.  It’s funny cause facebook will take my money to run ads but won’t allow me to download the catalog.  Please help!! 

[Aloha7]

Oh boy. Your case is much tougher than my case. Yes, I have same situation.
I can run FB ads but not shop. You can manually post your products on your
FB page but you can not transfer your products automatically nor installed
shop buttons until FB approves it. I totally understand It doesn’t make
any sense but A big company like FB doesn’t care about our small
businesses. They want our money but not shop.

[MelanyMontero]

I am a similar problem. I have appealed it through commerce support. All of my products are home decor and it complies with all the requirements. It was also not allowing me to connect with Instagram due to the commerce manager not approving the shop. Someone, please help with this.

[woodenbelieveit]

I don't think anyone on here can help you. It's a Facebook issue and they are a nightmare to deal with. I think you've just got to keep on at them. They gave me a few suggestions like engage with my followers, get more followers etc. You can only engage with people if they comment which most of my followers don't do. I've been trying since March to get mine reviewed even though they approved me for Instagram 

[woodenbelieveit]

Ok so here is an update. Over two weeks ago I was sent an email and I was told that if I hadn't had the chance to appeal within two weeks I was to get in touch and they will review the situation. So today I got in touch and was told that I shouldn't have been told that and I was given the same generic responses. So you have to demonstrate trustworthiness to them but they can go about their business lying to people. Yeah that makes sense. I'm just giving up on it now, it's a complete waste of time and it's exhausting repeating myself over and over and getting no where with it. They should have some way of contacting the review team directly. The people in the support team don't know what they are doing and they just tell people what they've been trained to say. The one I spoke to today said that he hopes my commerce account will be reviewed soon. I can see this being in their handbook "If all generic responses fail, tell them you have hope"

[Mbial-Business]

I would be happy to help you with this if you want

[Frekkle]

I have too given up!!! I am going to focus my efforts on the website, Facebook marketplace, Facebook page, Instagram, and then once everything is well established, with followers, and hopefully with aging of the established pages, I will try again and it will work out… I hope!!!. It would be nice to have a FB Shop working in conjunction with my Shopify store like it should, but I agree with you, it is not worth the aggravation, the stress, and the absolute worm hole of customer service. Everyone, just put your effort into building your business, making money and hopefully with time the rest will fall into place and if not Eff Facebook! Lol 

[sajjadahmad300]

get my service 

facebook.com/sajjad.ahamd0

[legyjp11]

I did manage to resolve this after what seemed like 2 years. If you search my posts there is a concierge service that someone else posted up. It worked for me. Assuming you don't actually have any issues, they can get you out of the stuck automation that seems to be causing it. Good luck, I feel your pain. John