What Is Facebook Pay?

• Facebook Pay is a payment method available to all customers who use Facebook, potentially making it highly valuable for your business.
• Facebook Pay is free for both consumers and businesses.
• Facebook Pay can help you attract new customers and avoid pesky transaction fees, but it can't yet integrate with every small business website.
• This article is for small business owners interested in adding Facebook Pay to their payment processing options.

Sometimes, it feels like every few months, there's a new way for customers to pay you online. These methods are rarely the result of some new genius technology. They often stem from big tech companies creating their own versions of tools that other big names have already developed. Case in point: Just as Google Pay followed Apple Pay, now Facebook Pay is an option. This new service can be a huge benefit to your business. Here's what you need to know about Facebook Pay.

What is Facebook Pay?

Facebook Pay is a payment method customers can use to buy your products. Facebook users who want to use Facebook Pay start by adding their payment, shipping and personal information to the Facebook app. Then, when they buy your products on social media or your business website, they can choose Facebook Pay at checkout. To get started, you'll need to add the Facebook Pay option to your company's website.

How does Facebook Pay work?

Any customers who use Facebook can automatically use Facebook Pay while on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger or Portal. The process is seamless as long as users have their debit card, credit card or another payment option stored in their Facebook account. 

To use Facebook Pay, customers check out, indicate they want to use Facebook Pay, and enter their PIN to complete the transaction. Users can also opt for biometric identification methods in place of PINs. Either way, with Facebook Pay, customers don't have to enter their payment card number for every transaction.

For small business owners, Facebook Pay works just as simply. It integrates seamlessly with most payment processing and e-commerce platforms. Since customers only need to be logged in to their Facebook profiles to use Facebook Pay, online payments become much more efficient. No more entering payment information and addresses – a click or two is all it takes. Customers can use Facebook Pay to buy almost all types of goods and services.

What does Facebook Pay cost?

Facebook Pay is free. Both you and your customers can implement it without paying any money if you already accept credit cards. Your current credit card payment processor will handle all your Facebook Pay needs. Facebook Pay costs are baked into your credit card processing expenses. 

Tip: To find the right credit card processing company for your needs, visit our credit card processing best picks page.

Facebook Pay vs. PayPal

Although Facebook has billions of users, its business payment processing platform has yet to become as ubiquitous as PayPal. That's because virtually any customer can use PayPal, whereas Facebook Pay's audience is limited to Facebook and Instagram users. 

That said, Facebook Pay has one significant advantage over PayPal. All of its transactions are fee-free, whereas PayPal is notorious for its fees. So while PayPal is accessible to all, Facebook Pay is a great PayPal alternative for a tech-savvy customer base that regularly uses social media. In fact, many social media users might already be set up with Facebook Pay.

How secure is Facebook Pay?

In the realm of payment processing, credit card security risks and other security perils abound. Most payment processing companies have trustworthy safeguards in place. Facebook, on the other hand, has been through several highly publicized data scandals. This raises an important question: Is Facebook Pay secure?

The answer is yes. Facebook Pay boasts top-tier security. It encrypts all debit card and credit card data when it is added to the Facebook app. Similarly, Facebook Pay will never share a user's payment information with other parties without permission. Additionally, all Facebook account data is stored in a separate location from payment information.

Key takeaway: Although Facebook has gone through its fair share of data scandals, Facebook Pay is fully secure.

Pros and cons of using Facebook Pay for a business

As with any payment processing method, Facebook Pay has its pros and cons. (The same could be said of using Facebook for business as a whole.) Here are some great reasons to use Facebook Pay for your business:

• A greater number of potential customers. Data shows that 46% of customers view mobile wallet use as highly important when they shop. With Facebook Pay in your arsenal, your business may appeal more strongly to these customers. After all, since the Facebook App stores a user's credit and debit cards, it's essentially a digital wallet. 
  
  
• Faster checkout for customers. When you optimize your online checkout process, you can increase conversions by nearly 36%. Facebook Pay is a great way to do that. It's more user-friendly and less tedious than entering payment information and addresses into a form. If your checkout process is especially user-friendly, your reputation might become stronger, leading to increased brand awareness.
  
  
• The ability for customers to buy from you on social media sites. The above conversion statistic suggests that you should do whatever you can to speed up the checkout process. That could include making checkout available the moment customers see your products on your social media pages. With Facebook Pay, you can do precisely this. You'll be able to turn your social media pages into rapid payment services.
  
  
• The ability to add another payment option to your website. If you run the backend of your website through Shopify, you can integrate Facebook Pay with your website. (Facebook Pay rolled out its integrations with third-party websites in July 2021.)
  
  
• No-fee transactions. Facebook Pay is free to use. PayPal, on the other hand, will charge you pesky fees that quickly add up. The two platforms' business models are roughly the same, so the free option has a clear advantage.

These are some drawbacks of using Facebook Pay for your business:

• Not all customers can use it. Although billions of people are on Facebook, there are people who don't use the network. These people can't use Facebook Pay. Plus, some people with Facebook accounts prefer to avoid using the platform if they don't need to. As such, if you were to invest in promoting your Facebook Pay option, you might see a lower ROI than expected.
  
  
• It can't integrate with all websites. If you used a platform other than Shopify to build your website, Facebook Pay isn't yet available to you. Facebook does intend to roll out Facebook Pay availability for websites that other services host, but until then, many businesses are out of luck here.
  
  
• It's not yet as comprehensive as PayPal. Almost every customer has a PayPal account. The barriers to access are low, and the company has dominated the digital wallet world for decades. Unless your business interacts with customers primarily through Facebook or Instagram, you shouldn't replace PayPal with Facebook Pay.

Did you know? Even very small businesses can process credit cards with PayPal. Read our PayPal credit card processing review if you're a freelancer or solopreneur who needs pay-as-you-go pricing.

What you need to start using Facebook Pay

Accepting payments on Facebook Pay is easy, and so is setting up a Facebook Pay business account. All you need to do is sign up via Facebook. Before you do, you should probably have a Facebook shop, a PayPal account, an active presence on Messenger, and a credit card processing account.

With all these pieces in place, you can link Facebook Pay to your Facebook shop, and to your website if applicable. Your customers will see the option to use Facebook Pay during their checkout process and can complete their purchase with just a few clicks.