More than 130 million Instagram users engage with the social channel’s shoppable posts every month. Make sure your business is getting in on those sales.
More people are shopping than ever before. The global social commerce market is estimated to be worth US$90 billion. It’s expected to grow to more than $600 billion by 2027. Instagram shoppable posts and its suite of features take followers through the complete buyer’s journey without having to leave the app.
Fast fact: More than 130 million Instagram users engage with shoppable posts each month. Seventy per cent of keen shoppers go to the platform to discover new products.
By streamlining the buying process, Instagram Shopping has become of the most powerful and easiest ways for brands to sell products online, converting followers into customers and driving revenues.
With Instagram shoppable posts, you can build brand awareness, tell your unique story and seamlessly highlight products so your followers can buy your products as soon as they discover them. You can tag products listed in your Instagram Shop catalog, as well as on Instagram’s stories, videos, reels, guides, in-feed posts and live broadcasts. People can buy directly from these photos and videos across Instagram.
Fast fact: Nearly half of Instagram active users shop weekly.
How to create Instagram shoppable posts
- Gain approval
- Integrate your product catalog
- Add shoppable tags to your product images
- Optimize your shoppable posts
What is Instagram Shopping?
Instagram Shopping is a set of features that allows you to set up a storefront on the platform. It syncs all the products on your e-commerce site to your Instagram business account. This allows you to create shoppable posts. Customers can browse your products and view collections. If they want to make a purchase, they are taken straight to your e-commerce site.
Fast facts: Ninety per cent of people on Instagram follow a business. Two-thirds of Instagram users say they interact with brands on the platform. And 81 per cent say Instagram helps them research products and services.
Instagram Shopping best practice: Boost reach and cut cost per acquisition by 20 per cent by amplifying your Instagram storefront using paid ads with product tags.
Benefits of Instagram Shopping
- It creates a seamless, easy shopping experience.
- You can promote products directly to shoppers.
- Instagram shoppers have high purchase intent.
A few key terms to know
Product tags
These tags allow you to highlight items from your catalog on your feed, stories, reels and Instagram Live. Shoppers tap on these tags to learn more about products and view product pages.
Collections
This feature allows you to recommend and curate products into themes and categories, such as new arrivals or seasonal trends.
Tip: Tag collections in your feed posts and stories to increase visibility.
Product detail pages
This is where shoppers can find pricing, descriptions and the key information they need about items from your catalog. The pages also include any product-tagged images on Instagram and help direct people to your e-commerce site.
Getting started with Instagram Shopping
Gain approval
To be eligible for Instagram Shopping, you must:
- create an Instagram business or creator account (it’s free and gives you access to analytics);
- have an e-commerce presence and sell products that meet Instagram’s merchant agreement and commerce policies; and
- connect your Instagram account to a Facebook Business Page.
Integrate your product catalog with Instagram
Here’s a quick walk-through of the steps you’ll have to take:
- Open your Instagram account, go to settings, tap “business” or “creator,” click on the “set up Instagram shopping” button and tap the “get started” button on the bottom.
- Connect your Facebook account. This is important: you must have a Facebook page to use Instagram Shopping.
- Once that’s done, you’ll be asked to set up your Accounts Center. Then you’ll see a catalog connection page. Here, Instagram lists the partners it works with for e-commerce products. For example, if the back end of your shop is Shopify, you can click that. If you aren’t on an e-commerce marketplace, you can integrate your product catalog by tapping “new catalog.”
- That will take you to the next page, where your shop has been submitted for review.
- Instagram will take some time – up to one week – to review your account and, hopefully, approve your shop.
Add shoppable tags to your product images
Go to your Instagram Business Profile, upload your image, click on “tag products.” You can tag up to five products per image or 20 products per carousel post. Select the product(s) and hit “done.” All Shoppable Instagram posts feature a shopping bag icon.
Optimize your shoppable posts
Instagram recommends several best practices to convert users to shoppers. These include:
- Create a story to let your customers know your Instagram business account is shoppable.
- Tag multiple items in a post. This will help customers quickly browse what you have to offer. Tip: Make sure each tag touches the right product.
- Test different post formats. You can tag photos, videos, multiple photos and images. You can also use product stickers to tag your stories.
- Build excitement for new product launches. Use partial images of a product leading up to the big reveal. Use countdown stickers on stories, use the live feature to answer questions and create a hashtag for the launch.
- Measure performance. Look at page views to see which products are capturing customers’ attention. Create more posts for these products in your feed and stories pages.
- Add a compelling call to action in your caption. For example, “Tap to shop” will encourage people to make a purchase.
- Create Instagram-only sales and promotions.
- Keep your products top of mind. Regularly feature them in your posts.
- Highlight influencers using your products by tagging them in your photos and videos.
- Repost what influencers are saying about you. This will help build credibility and interest.
Instagram is fast becoming a revenue driver for e-commerce. If you aren’t using Instagram Shopping, you risk being left behind.
