What Is Facebook Pay, and Should Your Company Use It?

10 min read

These days, it may seem like new payment methods are appearing every week. Apple introduced Apple Pay in 2014, allowing users to make purchases directly through their Apple accounts. A few years later, Google followed through with a nearly identical service for Google account holders. Now, a third tech giant has followed in their footsteps. Facebook Pay, or Meta Pay, is a payment method facilitated by Facebook.

While Facebook Pay is not quite as established as the former two payment options, it is gaining traction. It also has the potential to be extremely useful to ecommerce businesses that utilize social media for product marketing. Here is everything you should know about Facebook Pay, and how it works for both businesses and customers.

What is Facebook Pay?

If you are familiar with Apple Pay and Google Pay, then Facebook Pay is exactly what it sounds like. With Facebook Pay, Facebook users can make purchases online using their Facebook account information. Anyone who wishes to use Facebook Pay can enter their credit or debit card information, along with a shipping address, in their Facebook account. That information is stored and saved, and is ready to use any time they use their Facebook Pay account.

For users that already have a Facebook account, signing up is fast, simple, and convenient. Users can use Facebook Pay anytime they are on Facebook, Instagram, or any other Facebook-owned applications. All they need to do is click to make a purchase, enter their PIN, and wait for the item to be shipped to their address.

How Does Facebook Pay Work for Businesses?

For businesses looking to use Facebook Pay, the process is similarly very simple. This is especially true if your company has an active Facebook or Instagram page. You simply need to set up Facebook Pay to work with your website, and customers can begin using it. Facebook Pay works with most major payment processors, so there are very few headaches involved.

This gives businesses and customers alike a very easy method for processing transactions through social media. Many businesses already use Facebook and Instagram to market their products. Implementing Facebook Pay provides a more direct route to converting sales from marketing posts on these social media platforms.

How to Set Up Facebook Pay For Your Business

Setting up Facebook Pay for your company is extremely easy. All you need to do is sign up for Facebook Pay through Facebook. If your business already has a Facebook page (as most businesses do!), there is nothing complicated about the process. Simply activate Facebook Pay and you can start accepting payments immediately.

Read Ecwid’s in-depth guide to receiving payments through Facebook to learn more about how to use Facebook Pay.

How to receive money on Facebook Pay

To start receiving money on Facebook Pay, the process is also relatively straightforward. All you need to do is enter your Business settings, select the “Payments” option and click “Add.” Then you simply enter your payment information in the provided field. Once saved, payments sent to your business through Facebook Pay will go directly to the account you provided.

Is there a Facebook Pay limit for spending?

Messenger users are not allowed to send more than $9999 in any single transaction. However, this spending limit is highly unlikely to be a hindrance to any businesses looking to use Facebook Pay. For all intents and purposes, there is no Facebook Pay limit. Businesses should feel completely free to use Facebook Pay without restrictions wherever it is available.

Is Facebook Pay safe?

The final crucial question to answer about setting up Facebook pay is whether or not it is safe. While a few horror stories may circulate about a Facebook Pay scam or two, these are almost always perpetrated by malicious fake accounts. From the perspective of a business and its customers, the answer to, “Is Facebook Pay safe?” is a firm “Yes.”

Facebook Pay encrypts all credit and debit card information entered into the site. Facebook also offers world-class security and safeguards to keep its users’ financial information protected. Facebook Pay does not share user financial information with any third parties. It is as safe as any other payment processing method. For businesses, Facebook Pay is trustworthy and reliable, in addition to being convenient.

Pros and Cons of Using Facebook Pay for Your Business

Pro: Extremely wide customer base

One of the most obvious benefits of adding Facebook Pro to your available payment options is Facebook’s massive popularity. There are over 200 million Facebook users in the U.S. alone. Everybody who has a Facebook account has access to Facebook Pay. If you integrate Facebook Pay into your ecommerce platform, millions of potential customers have access to a convenient, single-click payment option.

Pro: Make sales directly from your Facebook and Instagram pages

Social media is already an extremely powerful marketing tool. Imagine how much more powerful it would be if users didn’t have to leave your business page to make a purchase. According to Statista, more than 70% of online shoppers abandon their shopping carts. That figure jumps up above 80% for shoppers on mobile devices. Complicated or untrustworthy checkout methods are a leading culprit of shopping cart abandonment online.

Facebook Pay completely streamlines the checkout process for customers who wish to buy products they find on your social media pages. And if they have already signed up for Facebook Pay, it means they trust it as a payment method, too. Adding Facebook Pay to your social media pages can be one of the most effective ways to convert more sales for your business. For that alone, it is highly valuable to small and large businesses alike.

Pro: No fees

Facebook Pay is completely free to use for both businesses and customers. Unlike a service like PayPal, which charges fees on most transactions, Facebook Pay does no such thing. It simply facilitates payments between its users and businesses who advertise on its platform.

Pro: Stand out from competitors

Adding extra payment methods for your customers to use can be a good way to stand out from your competition. Suppose you have a direct competitor in your area. You might offer comparable products, so that customers might choose either one of you over the other. What can you do to get an edge? One thing you can do is offer more convenient payment methods.

Not every customer will use Facebook Pay. But for those who do, having it available for your business could potentially make a difference in your favor.

Con: Only Facebook users can use it

Yes, it is true that hundreds of millions of people use Facebook. But there are still many millions of people who don’t use the ubiquitous social media platform. Those individuals, obviously, can’t use Facebook Pay.

Of course, we are not advocating that you convert to using Facebook Pay exclusively. If you use Facebook Pay, it should be integrated as one of the multiple payment options for your customers. When used in the right spot, it is an extremely safe and secure option that millions of users have access to.

Facebook Pay: Final Thoughts

As more and more digital payment methods become available to ecommerce businesses, customers might expect a greater range of options. While balancing all of these options might seem overly complicated, this is rarely the reality. In most cases, payment methods like Facebook Pay are convenient for both customers and businesses.

Facebook Pat does not need to become your primary method of handling transactions. However, the convenience of being able to sell directly to an audience on social media is extremely valuable. There is little to no downside to incorporating Facebook Pay if your business is able to.

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Nov 17, 2022

About the author

Max has been working in the ecommerce industry for the last six years helping brands to establish and level-up content marketing and SEO. Despite that, he has experience with entrepreneurship. He is a fiction writer in his free time.