Pros and Cons of Selling Your Food Truck on Facebook

food truck customer receiving ice cream from a food truck server

Lots of planning. Hard work. Capital investment. All these are essential elements in setting up your mobile kitchen business. But will you be assured of good financial returns? Well, there are still other important factors to take into consideration to achieve a successful business.

Then again, if for any reason you are selling your business, do you have any idea how to dispose of your food truck easily and where? One very convenient method is to use social media which is among the excellent ways to build your presence in the lives of users. There are various social media platforms today that both individuals and businesses of all types patronize for buying and selling practically anything.

Using any social media platform to sell your goods effectively entails learning how to develop your own social media strategy that fits your brand. There are digital marketing tools available so might as well take advantage of any of them for a much wider reach. If you think you’re not confident enough to do the work yourself, try getting the services of a professional.

Why Sell your Food Truck on Facebook?


Of all the social media tools people use today, Facebook is perhaps the most popular of them all. Here’s why. With the launching of its Marketplace, you can find anything under the sun to buy and sell, from vehicles, housing, electronics, clothing and accessories, to musical instruments, auto parts, arts and crafts and so much more.

Being a new independent catalog of all products for sale with the inclusion of tools for placement and buying, Marketplace is a service provided free of charge by Facebook – no shipping and payment processing obligations whatsoever. 

So, take advantage of the service now while it’s still not imposing charges because experts are envisioning that eventually, Facebook is going to look for ways to make money out of it. And why not? It has its most precious resource – its audience! However, there are some advantages as there are also disadvantages to selling your mobile vending business on Facebook.

The Pros of Selling Your Food Truck on Facebook

Direct connection to buyers


Through Messenger, your interested buyers can easily contact you in a direct manner. This is a good way of building rapport and relationships between buyers and sellers and in turn, creates a trust factor. When trust has been established, closing a deal comes easy.

Ease of use


Selling using Marketplace is very easy with its availability on iOS and Android Facebook apps as well as desktop browsers. What you need are superior quality photos of your food truck, select an appropriate category, create a catchy description and then post on Marketplace. Likewise, Marketplace is based on location so if a buyer is searching for a merchandise within say, 5 kilometers of his residence, the tool will give results based on location, distance and requirement.

Customized experience


Promoting your item for sale is a breeze with just a click. Buyers are shown the products they are willing to purchase, like in this case, your food truck. If they want a particular product for sale that’s available in the local area, they can easily add filters. The items available near them are automatically shown upon clicking and therefore, that makes the buying process quick and easy.

No added fees


Facebook does not charge you any fee when you add a listing on Marketplace, in contrast to other e-commerce sites that impose fees for selling products.

Appropriate shipping


When your buyer is from the local area, he can just come and pick up the item you’ve sold which is very convenient for both parties. But being the seller, you have the right to decide when it comes to shipping appropriate for a food truck.

The Cons of Selling Your Food Truck on Facebook

Not a lot of buyers


Let’s face it – people don’t really use Facebook for buying. They use the platform mainly for social networking and entertainment purposes. And maybe that’s the reason why Facebook doesn’t charge anything for selling on the Marketplace. Since it’s still new, it would take some time for Marketplace to really establish itself as more of a business site.

Better services from competitors


Again, it’s a fact that at the moment, e-commerce giants like Alibaba and Amazon are making a killing on the Internet in terms of online selling or business to business in contrast to Facebook. It’s because experts say those two provide better services. Then again, Facebook is doing its best to promote Marketplace so that other large companies like Shopify, eBay, Olx (now Carousell) and Quickr should now be wary.

No buyer protection


Marketplace doesn’t have a mechanism to protect consumers unlike eBay. There’s supposed to be a law that regulates all e-commerce activities and transactions to protect certain aspects of consumer activity online. For its part, eBay has instituted specific buyer protection for highly priced items such as vehicles and major equipment.

Takes a long time


Yes, for all sellers, time is gold. And if you listen to each and every concern of all your prospective customers, it might take a long time for you to close a deal. Pretty sure, you must have some other equally important matters to attend to than just listen and respond to all customer inquiries online.

Admittedly, selling online is effective and sales are quick, if you know the technique. However, if you really want to sell your food truck minus the troubles, let UsedVending help you. Click this link to get started.