Using Volusion with Facebook

Important Note

This article has been superceded by the Volusion Social Store article for V11 merchants.

The following article and the Social Store Builder app can still be used by V5 and W09 merchants with a Gold plan or higher.

V11 merchants who want to upgrade to the new Social Store app should read the Upgrading to the new Social Store article.

For information on adding Facebook's Like button to your store, see Adding a Facebook Like button to a Product.

SSL Certification

From October 1st 2011 Facebook will require that all domain names use an SSL certificate for Facebook Page Applications. If you do not already have an SSL Certificate and want to continue using your Facebook store, please see this page.

Contents

Getting Started

Volusion's Facebook integration gives you the ability to broadcast your products to a vast number of users directly from one of the most popular social networking systems on the Web using Volusion's easy-to-configure Social Store Builder app.

Note that in order to gain access to this powerful tool, you need access to the Volusion API.  This is provided with any Volusion Gold plan or above. You will also require access to a Facebook account to publish your store information to.

The following describes how to publish your store products to Facebook using the Social Store Builder application.

Part I - The Volusion Featured Products Export

The first step to exporting product information to Facebook requires you to activate a special setting within the Volusion API so that it will send product data to the Volusion Social Store Builder application.

  1. Log into the Volusion store's Administration Page.
  2. Click on Inventory > Import / Export. Show
  3. On the next page, click the Volusion API button. Show
  4. If this is the first time visiting the Volusion API page, check the Enable option under the Generic Exports section. (This is required to display the following option.)  
  5. Check the Enable public XML for Featured Products option and click the Save button. Show

 

Once this is complete, Volusion will now be ready to export featured product information to Facebook. (See Part IV below if you don't know how to assign Products as  Featured Products) .

 

Part II - Installing the Social Store Builder

Important Note: Facebook's user interface is subject to change without notice. The following installation instructions are based on the Facebook interface as of July 2011.

  1. Log into Facebook, find the Social Store Builder app page by entering "Social Store Builder" into Facebook's search field, and click on it to load the Social Store Builder page. Show
  2. Click the Go to App button.  Show
  3. On the Request for Permission page, click the Allow button. Show
  4. On the following page, enter your store's domain name (e.g. www.mystore.com - do not enter the "http://" protocol into this field). 
  5. Enter the currency symbol applicable to your store in the field provided.
  6. If you are experienced with CSS, you can enter custom CSS code in the next field, otherwise leave blank.
  7. Click Save. Show

Part III - Adding the Social Store Builder to a Page

Once you've applied the Social Store Builder to your Facebook account as described in the previous steps you can apply it to your store page.

  1. Log in to your primary account if not already logged in.
  2. If you haven't already done so, create your business page on which you want to display your Volusion products. To do this, click on Create a Page in the page footer. If you already have a business page, skip to step 9. Show
  3. Click on the appropriate button for the page type.  Show
  4. Enter the information about your store in the fields that appear. Remember to check the Facebook Pages agreement, then click Get Started.  Show
  5. The first setup step for your page will be displayed. Here you can upload or import a picture for your business page. Click Continue. Show
  6. The second setup page enables you to invite friends and import contacts. Click Continue. Show
  7. The third setup step enables you add add basic information. Click Continue. Show
  8. Your business page is now displayed. Click Edit Page in the upper right corner to change permission settings, etc. Show
  9. Once you have created your page, enter "Social Store Builder" in the searchbox at the top of the Facebook page and click on it.Show
  10. Click on the Social Store Builder link at the bottom of the page.  Show
  11. The Social Store Builder page is redisplayed. Click on Add to My Page in the left column. Show
  12. The Add Social Store Builder to your Page popup appears. Click the Add to Page button for the page you want to add the Social Store Builder to.  Show
  13. Click Close.

 

You have now created the bare bones of a Facebook page for your store with the Volusion Social Store icon in the left column. You should test this out by logging out or searching for the page in a new browser.  Show

When a visitor clicks on this, they should see the featured products from your store as described below.  Show

Part IV - Using Volusion with Facebook

Once these steps are complete, the Volusion application will automatically retrieve a list of products within the Volusion store that are members of the Home_Featured group.

To define a product as being Featured:

  1. Go to Design > Product Display Settings.
  2. Click on the Home Page: Featured tab.
  3. Check Enable Featured Products.
  4. Click Save.
  5. Go to Inventory > Products.
  6. Click on the required Product ID.
  7. Go to the Advanced Settings | Product Display tab.
  8. Select Home_Featured from the Feature This Product on the Home Page Section drop-down menu.
  9. Click Save and repeat for all products to be featured.  Show

 

Each product retrieved from the export will be displayed within portions of the Facebook account and will include details such as the product image, price, sale price and an add to cart link for each product displayed here. Clicking on this link will take visitors to your store's shopping cart with the selected product added. Note that if the product has options, the product page will be displayed instead so the visitor can select the necessary options before adding it to the cart.

You can set an unlimited number of products to be members of the Home Featured group. However. it's recommended to only set 15-20 products in the Home Featured group and regularly update this group to best market your products. This prevents your Facebook profile from being "overloaded" with product data, and also helps keeps your Volusion store bandwidth usage to a minimum.

Part V - Not seeing your featured products on your page?

If you have reached this point and are not seeing your featured products appearing on your Facebook page, this could be due to a known problem with the app. To remedy this:

  1. Log in to your Facebook page.
  2. Click on the Social Store Builder link in the left column. Show
  3. If the Domain Name field on this page is blank, this may be the cause of the problem. Please enter your domain name again. Sometimes the app clears this field, which can make it seem as if the app is broken. This is a temporary problem that we hope will be remedied in the near future. Show

 

You also may not be seeing your featured products because you may need to reset your Featured Products Export. To do this:

  1. Go to Inventory > Import/Export.
  2. Click Volusion API.
  3. At the top of the page, you'll see text that states Enable public XML for Featured Products. Generated once a day. To the right of this, click the Reset button. Resetting your Featured Products Export on your Volusion store should also force your products to appear.

Part VI - Changing the order in which products are displayed

By default, products are displayed in product code order in your Facebook Social Store. If, however, you want to move a particular product or products to the top of the list you can do this as follows:

  • Change the product code of the product or products to appear at the top. Add "0-" to the front, for example, so that WX123 will be 0-WX123.
  • If you cannot change the product code, create a child product for it. To do this:
    1. Create a new product with the same details except the product code, which should be low enough to place it at the top of the product table. Do not assign a category to this child product.
    2. Set it as a child product by entering the original product code in the Is Child of Product Code field on the Advanced Settings | Misc tab.
    3. Make sure the original is not set to be featured on the home page but the child product is.

 

The child product should appear at the top of the Facebook Social Store page. When clicked upon, the visitor will be taken to the Volusion store page for the original product.

Tips and Special Settings

You should read the Facebook help and other information about Facebook Pages for information on advertising your Facebook store and making it visible to more potential customers. 

You may also find the Volusion Ecommerce Extras video, How to Leverage Facebook's New Business Pages, useful.

Summary

You can now easily wield the power of social networking to reach a wider customer base. With these tools and more, merchants have even more reason to sell online with Volusion.

Please note that as Facebook continues to update its user interface and the steps required to install the Volusion Social Store Builder app for the service may change at any time.

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