hi there my name's melanie and i'm the
owner of lost and found welcome back
to my youtube channel i'm so glad you
guys are here today
i had a question a couple weeks ago
asking about how to host
a live sale on your facebook page if you
have an antique booth
or maybe you're a furniture painter and
you're looking to start selling some
smalls
or you have any other sort of creative
business where you're selling items
if you haven't done a facebook live sale
it's for sure something
that you need to try and today i'm going
to walk you through exactly how you can
do it
[Music]
before we get started on the details of
how to host a live sale i would love it
if you would take just a minute
and subscribe to our channel if you
haven't already we just recently passed
4 000 subscribers which is amazing and
i'm so
super grateful so we're well on our way
to five and i would love it if you would
join our community
all right so i'm going to walk through
all the basics for how
to actually host and pull off
a live sale i know that it may seem a
little complicated or
what exactly how do you get people to
pay
or how do you actually get people their
stuff so we're going to walk all through
that
all the logistics and then at the end of
the video i'm going to share just some
personal tips for success that i've
learned
from doing live sales over the past year
now facebook live sales first became
really popular
back in 2020 when everybody was stuck at
home
so that was a great time to start them
that was kind of the peak of their
popularity if you missed that no worries
you can still hop on the train right now
and you can start live sales right now
on your page so first off
facebook loves when you do live videos
so if you're hosting an actual
live sale it's going to be great for
your facebook algorithm it's going to be
great engagement for your page
facebook loves it when you do that
second
it's just a really good way to connect
with your customers
if you're not already doing live videos
you need to be doing them anyway even if
you're not doing live sales
but there's there's just something about
getting on the camera
talking letting people hear your voice
actually
see you interact rather than just still
photos
that's just really really engaging
people really enjoy it
they feel like they get to peer into
your world a little bit that they get to
know you a little bit better
and people buy from people that they
know like and trust
so selling your items live is just a
great way to build that connection
with your community and it's great for
your facebook algorithm
[Music]
all right so let's start walking through
exactly how you're going to pull this
off
okay step number one is that you're
going to gather
your items so that's the fun part you're
going to go
shop you're going to find all the great
stuff that you want to sell
maybe you carry a line of something and
you're going to sell those items
maybe you go hunt down vintage decor
or found treasures maybe you're going to
sell those that's what i do in my live
sales
i sell vintage items that i hunt down at
thrift stores estate sales
i also have a couple lines of paint that
i sell and so usually in my live sales
i'll bundle together some of my paint
at a special price every once in a while
i also sell some new home decor
i found that people they like deals
during a live sale so if you're selling
any sort of items that you just
regularly sell on a daily basis it helps
during a live sale to give them a
special
or a deal or bundle a couple items
together that's what has always worked
for me
now one thing that you really need to
make sure that you're doing is recording
your inventory okay so
it doesn't have to be anything
complicated i have just a simple
blank spreadsheet that i printed out
with excel
and i put the item that i bought what i
paid for it
what i'm trying to sell it for and then
if it sells and where it sells
and the reason the reason this is
important is because you have to be able
to track your actual profits you need to
know what you're spending
on the items that you're selling you
need to keep record of what actually
sells and on what sales channel
does it sell if your facebook live sales
are only producing
100 bucks of profit they may not be
worth your time
and you're not going to know that unless
you're keeping track
okay step number two is you're going to
decide
the price for all of your items if you
haven't done that already
and then you're gonna decide what order
you want to sell them
in so i have just a blank notebook
and i just start numbering my items out
and i write them
big and i leave a little bit of extra
space item number one number two
just all the way down the page so that i
can really easily read it and keep track
of where i
am as i'm going through the live sale
this is going to be your
guide this is going to be what you
read off when you're telling the people
that are watching your sale
about your items so you want to organize
them i try to keep them
you know in in some sort of rough group
let's say
you have a bunch of brass items and
usually i put those
all together or let's say you have a
bunch of mid-century
items then i usually sell those together
um i usually in my
sales sell a bit of vintage and then
maybe i sell some new home decor
then maybe i do a few bundles from my
paint lines and then i wrap it up again
with some more
vintage items just put some sort of
thought into the flow
of the items that you're selling maybe
if somebody buys this item the next two
or three items that you have they may
also
want to buy that's going to help your
sales be better
in your sale then you want to organize
your items
where you're going to sell them so i do
my live sales in my kitchen
and i lay everything out on the kitchen
table
and i put them in a rough order that
i've put on my sheet
it doesn't have to be exact but
basically so that you're not just
running around trying to find whatever
goes next you just want to keep your
sail
organized so that it moves quickly and
smoothly so people don't get bored while
they're watching
so i just lay everything out and get an
idea of where it all
is so that as i move from item to item i
can quickly reach and grab
the next item all right number three
you're actually going to host the sale
so
pick a time that works for you i usually
do
in the evenings on wednesday nights 6 30
p.m uh weekends is a good time
i wouldn't try doing them during the day
typically the ones i've done during the
day
bust but you're going to pick a time and
it needs to be a regular
time the same time when you do them all
the time
we'll talk a little bit more about that
later you're going to
title your post live sale put some you
know stars some emojis out there get
people excited
let them know a little bit preview of
what you have and then you're gonna
click that live button
set up the camera on your phone make
sure that it shows everything well
click that live button and get started
okay
now what you need to do when the sale
starts is you need to explain to the
people that are watching
how it's going to work you're going to
have some people that have shopped a
live sale before and then you're going
to have some people that have never
shopped a live sale
so at the start of every video give them
very
clear concise instructions
for how it's going to work okay so i
tell people i have 30 items
we're going to walk through each item
i'm going to give each item a number
and then i'm going to describe the item
and then i'm going to give the items
price if you want the item
in the comment section all you need to
do is type the word
sold and then the number item that you
want
so if for example you really want item
number five
the brass candlesticks then you need to
write sold
number five okay so clearly explain that
to your customers that they you're gonna
give each item a number
and to buy that item they just need to
type sold that number
if there's other rules that you want to
put out there that's great
i try to keep it really really simple
i've never had issues in a sale with
people fighting over anything the rule
is just
the first person to comment is the
person that gets the items
you also need to decide again are you
going to do just local pickup
or are you going to ship so i ship
just about everything that goes into a
live sale every once in a while
i have an item that is only local pickup
i highly highly encourage you
to try shipping your items you're going
to broaden
your audience so much and if you've
never shipped anything before
i know it can be really really scary but
there's no way to
start it figuring it out perfectly
except to just start doing it
you have to just start doing it okay so
when we get the payment portion
i'll talk a little bit more about
shipping but right now
this is what works for me here's what i
do i have
flat rate shipping for my live sales and
i tell people this
at the start of the sale you can shop
for local pickup
or you can have your items shipped
anywhere throughout the us
and we have a flat rate price your first
item is going to cost
nine dollars to ship if you buy a second
item
it'll be an extra two dollars and if you
buy a third
and fourth and so on it'll be an
additional dollar per item
the max that we will ever charge is 14
for shipping
that is my flat rate shipping for my
live sales if you haven't shipped before
i'm gonna tell you that it's really hard
to ship anything for
under eight or nine dollars any item
that weighs over one pound
has to ship priority mail and it's going
to be at least
eight or nine dollars that's why i start
at that price
but if you can add on to that one pound
up to two pounds three four five six
seven eight and after that point the
price doesn't change a whole lot
so that's how i run my pricing and i'll
tell you
those numbers have worked really well
for me i almost
always have enough money paid in live
sales to cover the full shipping cost
of my items i rarely lose money
shipping with those prices during my
live sales
now i have commercial rates that i can
access
um through my online store i'm also
going to let you know how you can access
commercial shipping rates
when we get a little bit later in the
video but um
you're going to have to play with your
numbers some again that's just what
works for me
and i tell people that at the start of
the sale
so that they know what i don't want
happening is somebody claiming an item
and then saying
oh that's too expensive to have it
shipped i even put that in the item
description so they know
what the shipping is and by bundling the
shipping rates like that
it encourages people you know once they
buy one item it doesn't cost a whole lot
more
to toss a second item in or a third item
in so usually people wind up buying more
than one thing
okay then you're just gonna work through
your sale you're gonna go through your
items
until you get to the end wrap it up and
then we're gonna move on to number four
which is following up and collecting
payment so
i host my sales like i said wednesday
nights at 6 30.
i usually don't do much for the rest of
the night i just kind of let it run
some people hop in after the video is
live and they usually continue to buy
through the night and even somewhat the
next morning
so starting the next morning i open up
i pull up all of the comments from that
video
and i start just organizing who bought
what i read the customer's name and then
i
write the items that they purchased by
item
number that's my first step
my next step is i go to the comment feed
on the actual
live video and i send each customer
a message directly from below their
comment and in that message i confirm
their purchase
i ask them if they want to pick up
locally or if they want their items
shipped
and if they need their items shipped i
ask them to please
send me their shipping address i'm going
to need
to collect payment from each of these
customers now
i have an online store through my online
store
i can send an email invoice to customers
you may have that option already if you
don't if you've never done anything like
this before
the easiest thing for you to do is to
have a business
paypal account you need to set that up
it's free
it's not hard to do but it needs to be a
business paypal account
then you can go into your paypal account
and you can create
an invoice this is where you're going to
put the items that they bought
the price of the items and the
customer's name and
their address at the top once you have
it all filled out head up to the top
click the button that says share link to
invoice and it'll give you a link
that you can copy and paste into a
message to the customer
and then after i message them i usually
leave them a reply
and tell them that i've sent them a
message sometimes people just don't see
their messages okay that all gets done
the next day and i do ask that people
pay
within the first 24 hours very rarely do
i have any issues with anybody
paying people are excited about what
they bought they want to pay
pretty much as soon as people get that
link to pay on paypal
it's usually paid within five to ten
minutes
so all throughout the next day you start
seeing those chings and seeing those
payments coming in it's super fun
it's great you guys are gonna love doing
it alright so now that everything's paid
for
you're gonna move up to step number five
which is your pack it up
to be picked up or to be shipped
okay remember those commercial shipping
rates i told you about
well here is where you're going to go
find them this website right here
pirateship.com you're going to need to
create an account it's free to start
once you have an account you can log in
there's lots of things to play around
with in here but
while you're starting out don't make it
more complicated than it has to be
click right here create a single label
and you can type in
the customer that you're ready to ship
for so
right here it auto filled someone for me
here's their box that i'm using the
package dimensions
you want to put the weight and then you
just click right here get
rates and it's going to pop up
a discounted shipping rate look at that
so if you took this box to the post
office you'd be paying ten dollars and
sixty cents
here on pirate ship you're only paying
eight fourteen
you're gonna buy the label which i'm not
gonna do because
it would actually charge me but um
buy the label and then you can print it
right here okay
so pirate ship is one place that you can
get access to commercial shipping labels
if you don't have an online store it's a
great place to start i definitely
recommend that you create a free account
and start looking around getting
familiar
with the system so when it's time for
you to start shipping out orders
you can do that if you haven't ever
shipped anything before
a couple tips for that you can get free
boxes
free priority mailboxes that is from the
post office
you need to create an account at
usps.com
which is free name email your address
and then they've got
all of these priority mail boxes that
you can buy for free
and they'll deliver them to your house
so before your first sale
go on there start looking through the
boxes that they have
they have some at the post office but
very limited selection
typically you have to order them online
you also want to have some bubble wrap
on hand and some packing peanuts
office depot amazon are great places to
get those
you know keep packing paper if you order
stuff from online keep the stuff that
you get
from your orders and recycle it and use
it again
so the more you ship the better you're
gonna get at the process of shipping
you won't have it figured out perfectly
the first time you just have to start
and give it a go and i promise the more
you do it you'll figure out what works
and you'll figure out your system
now if you're not shipping your items
and you're doing local pickup then you
need to get all that organized
now remember that we're not just selling
stuff
we're also trying to build a business if
you don't know what i'm talking about
take a minute and go watch the video
that's down at the bottom right now
so even though customers are picking up
their items from my front porch i want
them to have a really professional
experience so i purchase white
craft shopping bags and i put their
items i
package them neatly in those shopping
bags
i put their invoice my business card
any other information that maybe i think
they might need and then i tie it up
with a nice little pretty ribbon
so rather than sticking their stuff in a
used walmart sack
like have a nice little shopping bag for
them that's not a huge investment for
you you can purchase
boxes of those from amazon then i put a
sticky note
with their first name and last initial
and those sit outside on my porch you
can also send your customers just an
extra message
hey your items ready for pickup here's
my address
i've never had any problems y'all with
people picking stuff up from my porch
it's just never been an issue um so if
you're concerned about that
you know that's just a common thing that
people are doing these days if you don't
have a store where people can come pick
up their stuff
it's always worked fine for me just to
have it outside and they come pick up on
my porch
all right so you've sold your stuff
you've collected payment
and you've either shipped or the items
have been picked up and you're done
right so you can do this this is
something that you
can do now let me give you some tips for
just how to make these a little bit more
successful okay
your first one may not be amazing
and that's okay it takes a while to
build an audience
the biggest thing that you need to do is
be very very
consistent you need to pick the same
time
and do that time over and over and over
again
now i don't have the bandwidth to pull
off a live sale
every single week i wish i did because i
think they would go even better
mine are every other week but they're
always at wednesday nights at 6 30
whatever time you pick however often you
pick
commit to them and do them regularly and
you'll start to see the same people
show up because they know it's coming
and they're excited about it
all right number two you want to have a
really good price range of items
again i usually shoot to have between 30
and 40 items which gives me about a 45
minute
to an hour live sale that seems to be a
great time
i know that may sound crazy that someone
would stay on your page for an hour and
watch but people do
they have fun they enjoy it so that's
about the number of items that i have i
have some items at five dollars i have
some items at 50 or 60 dollars
you want to have a range for people so
you can really attract a range of
customers
and if you're shipping items keep in
mind
try to find things that you can easily
pack
things that aren't really really
delicate things that you're going to be
able to ship easily
all right my third tip and i think
second to being consistent this is the
most important
is to have fun so for a while i did
live sales in my studio just me
they were poorly attended they typically
didn't go too well
i started doing them at home i would
bring stuff at home
i got my husband to help i'd have my
kids come in i was just doing them in my
kitchen
i was just a lot more relaxed and i
would joke around with my husband and
sometimes my kids would do something
weird or a cat would wander through
and they started doing so much better
and people would laugh
and we would crack jokes and oh you guys
are so cute it's so much
fun doing this with you people just love
having fun
they just love feeling like you know
they're getting to shop
and they're being entertained a little
bit at the same time so
it's hard to pull that off when it's
just you so ask a friend to come
help ask your spouse or a partner or
your kids or
just bring somebody else in with you and
that just adds a little bit of life
to the sale you don't have to worry
about
keeping it you know super strict and
professional
obviously you want to explain your items
well you want to be clear
with your price but it's okay to just
have a little bit of fun
i think that people who are shopping
live sales that's what they're looking
for
they're wanting to shop but they're also
wanting a little bit of entertainment so
give it to them
[Music]
all right i hope you guys are ready to
give it a go
if you have an antique booth or again
any other creative business a live sale
is a great thing to try it can be a
fantastic
additional revenue stream and it's just
a great boost for your social media
a great boost for your marketing my live
sale customers are some of my best
customers they come back over and over
and over again and i love going and
hunting down fun stuff to sell
it's just it's a win-win for me if
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we've got more business tips coming up
more antique booth tips
lots more that i want to share with you
guys so that's it for today
thanks so much you guys enjoy the rest
of your day