Connecting Unify to Meta lets your in-store products sync automatically to a Meta catalog, so you can tag them in your Facebook and Instagram posts. Enabling the channel in Unify is just the first step — Meta then needs a few setup steps that only you can complete. This guide walks you through the whole thing.
Unify creates and continuously syncs your product catalog to Meta. The remaining steps — creating your Shop, connecting the catalog to your Page and Instagram, and granting your team access — happen inside Meta and can only be done by you, because Unify doesn't have permission to do them on your behalf.
Before you start
Make sure you have these ready. If anything is missing, set it up first — Business Verification in particular can take a few days.
- A Meta Business Portfolio (Business Manager account), with admin access
- A Facebook Page for each location you want to sell from
- An Instagram Business account (not a Creator account) linked to your Page, if you want to tag products on Instagram
- Access to your business website domain (to add a verification record)
- Meta Business Verification completed
- Domain verification completed for your website
Step 1 — Enable Meta Commerce in Unify
- In your Unify dashboard, go to Channels → Meta Commerce → Enable.
- Connect your Meta Business Account. Log in with Facebook and grant the requested permissions. Unify will create a product catalog called “Products from NearSt — [Your Shop Name]”.
- Verify your domain. Unify generates a verification code — paste it into Meta as a DNS TXT record, then click Verify.
- Create your Shop. This opens Meta's Commerce Manager in a new tab, with your catalog already attached.
Don't skip the “Create your shop” step. This is the most common reason setup doesn't work. In Unify, click “Done — go to Manage” only after you've finished the Meta wizard in the Commerce Manager tab. This step only appears once and disappears afterwards — if you click Done too early, you'll need to go back in through Meta Commerce Manager directly at business.facebook.com/commerce_manager. Your dashboard may say “enabled,” but until the Meta wizard is finished, no Shop exists on Meta's side and nothing can be tagged.
Step 2 — Finish your Shop in Meta Commerce Manager
- In the Commerce Manager tab, work through the entire Shop creation wizard.
- When asked which catalog to use, select “Products from NearSt — [Your Shop Name]” (it should already be selected).
- When asked about checkout:
- UK retailers should choose “Checkout on another website.” This is supported for the UK and 20 other markets.
- US retailers must use Meta-native checkout (checkout on another website is no longer available in the US).
- Submit your Shop for review. Approval usually takes a few days, occasionally up to two weeks.
📄 Meta guide: Set up a shop on Facebook and Instagram
Step 3 — Connect the catalog to your Facebook Page
Once your Shop is approved, make sure your Page is using the Unify catalog for tagging. Meta only allows one catalog per Page Shop at a time, so if another catalog is connected, the product tag picker will look at that one instead.
- Open Commerce Manager → your shop → Settings → Business Assets.
- Check the connected catalog on the shop's overview tile.
- If it's anything other than “Products from NearSt — [Your Shop Name]”, switch it: select the correct catalog and Submit, then go to Shop Builder → Publish Shop.
Product tags on past posts won't carry over when you swap catalogs — you'll need to re-add them to older posts. New posts will tag normally.
📄 Meta guides:
Step 4 — Connect the catalog to Instagram
If you tag products on Instagram too, link the catalog to your Instagram account separately:
- Go to Business Settings → Data Sources → Catalogs and select “Products from NearSt — [Your Shop Name]”.
- Open the Instagram Business Profiles tab → Add → choose your Instagram account.
- If your Instagram account isn't approved for Shopping yet, in the Instagram app go to Settings → Business → Shopping → submit for review. Approval usually takes 1–3 business days.
📄 Meta guide: Ways to Connect a Catalog to Instagram
Step 5 — Give your team access
Anyone who tags products in posts needs permission on all four of these: the Business Portfolio, the catalog, the Page, and the Instagram account. Page access alone isn't enough — the tag picker only shows catalogs the person has access to.
- Business Portfolio: Business Settings → People → Add → invite by email → assign the right assets.
- Catalog: Business Settings → Data Sources → Catalogs → People tab → Add → grant “Manage catalog” or “Full control.”
- Page: Business Settings → Accounts → Pages → People → Add → grant at least “Create content.”
- Instagram: Business Settings → Accounts → Instagram accounts → People → Add → grant at least “Create content.”
Step 6 — Check that it's working
- Commerce Manager → your shop shows Shop status: Approved.
- Commerce Manager → Catalogue → Products shows your products, mostly Active and In stock, with thumbnails.
- Try tagging a product on a test post — pick something you know is in stock and search by name. Results should appear within seconds.
Multiple locations?
Each location is enabled separately in Unify and has its own catalog (for example, “Products from NearSt — Bristol Branch” and “Products from NearSt — Manchester Branch”). Steps 2–5 need to be done for each location, linking each to its own Page, Instagram account, and catalog.
Troubleshooting: products synced but the tag picker is empty
This is the most common issue after setup, and it usually means the wrong catalog is connected to your Page or Instagram account. Work through these in order:
- Which catalog is your Page using? Commerce Manager → Settings → Business Assets. If it's not the Unify one, switch it (Step 3).
- Which catalog is your Instagram using? Business Settings → Data Sources → Catalogs → check the Instagram Business Profiles tab. Same fix (Step 4).
- Is the test product actually in stock? Meta hides out-of-stock items from the tag picker. If a tagged product sells out, the tag is removed and won't come back automatically when restocked.
- Did you recently switch catalogs? Give Meta about an hour to update its tag search after a change.
- Is your Instagram account Business (not Creator) and public? Shopping requires both.
- Does the person tagging have catalog permissions? Page access alone isn't enough (Step 5).
📄 Meta troubleshooting guides:
Turning Meta Commerce off
To stop syncing products from Unify to Meta:
- Go to Channels → Meta Commerce → Manage.
- Click Disable channel.
What this does:
- Stops sending product updates from Unify to your Meta catalog.
- Marks every product in your Meta catalog as archived, so they no longer show as in stock.
What this does not do:
- It doesn't delete your Meta product catalog — it stays in your Business Portfolio.
- It doesn't take down any Meta Shop you set up — the Shop will simply show all products as out of stock.
If you want to fully remove the catalog and disconnect on Meta's side, you can do that yourself in Business Settings → Data Sources → Catalogs (remove or reassign the catalog) and under System Users (remove the connected partner). If you set up a Shop using this catalog, take it down or switch its catalog in Commerce Manager.
Quick summary — what Unify does vs. what you do
Step | Unify | You |
Create the Meta catalog | ✅ | |
Sync products live (continuously) | ✅ | |
Generate domain verification code | ✅ | |
Paste verification code into Meta | ✅ | |
Complete the Shop wizard | ✅ | |
Choose checkout option | ✅ | |
Connect catalog → Page | ✅ | |
Connect catalog → Instagram | ✅ | |
Add team member permissions | ✅ | |
Submit Shop for review | ✅ | |
Verify products appear in the tag picker | ✅ |
If you've enabled Meta Commerce in Unify but products aren't showing in the tag picker, the issue is almost always in Steps 2–4 — not the Unify sync. Check which catalog your Page is connected to first.