Instagram Shopping: How to Set Up an IG Shop

Instagram Shopping feature includes everything a potential customer might want to know before buying a product, including; the name of the product, product image, description, price, link to view it on an associated website, and similar products as well which work as a marketing tool for brands to increase their sales ROI, creditability, advocacy, awareness and leads eventually.

In fact, many content creators, marketers, influencers & even celebrities buy Instagram followers to increase their reputation and become an authority in their niche.

Instagram Shop – Evolution of the new beneficiary

In the pandemic, many businesses faced the challenges of selling their merchandise, therefore shifted their marketing models & strategies to the digital world of social media. On 19 May 2020, Instagram announced a new shopping experience to keep business going and made it easy for potential customers to shop for the things they want.

In November 2020, Instagram replaced the activity feed tab with a new “Shop” tab, moving the activity feed to the top. The “new post” button was also relocated to the top and replaced with a Reels tab. The company states that “the Shop tab gives you a better way to connect with brands and creators and discover products you love” and the Reels tab “makes it easier for you to discover short, fun videos from creators all over the world and people just like you Instagram marketing is essential to e-commerce companies-the digital marketing world. The platform has 1.074 billion users worldwide in 2021 .

Of which 80% follow a business . The photo-sharing platform expanded IG Shopping to more businesses and creators who wanted to connect with target audience and sell their produce on the platform. 42% of U.S. women who are on Instagram say that shopping is a hobby and 72% of Instagram users report having made a product purchase after seeing it on the app

Image: Percentage of Instagram users taking actions after seeing product details

Hence, if you have products to showcase, it’s an incredible opportunity to set up your virtual storefront now! With shoppable posts on Instagram brands can benefit from a ton of product unearthing & selling opportunities. Also, over 150 million people use Instagram Direct to communicate directly with a business each month.

“Whether you are a candle business making a foray into e-commerce, a musician selling merch or a food blogger expanding into your own cookware line, any eligible business or creator account with at least one eligible product can use shopping tags to drive people to their website to make a purchase.”

“With this new policy, businesses must tag products on Instagram from a single website that they own and sell from, so that people have a consistent and trusted shopping experience,” Instagram said in one of their blog posts. “When businesses sign up for Instagram Shopping, they will be notified as soon as they are approved and ready to start tagging products. If a business is not approved, we offer a clear reason so they can take the necessary action or appeal,” they added.

Instagram also said that new business will go through their updated onboarding flow to start selling on Instagram. The existing businesses will be receiving in-app notification “in the coming weeks” with instructions to help them comply with the new rules. here are over 25 million business profiles on Instagram.

Facebook’s Business Help Centre provide other necessities for the business and creators to set up their shop on Instagram apart from the Merchant Agreement and Commerce Policies. These comprise having an IG Business account, having a connected Facebook page, have their business account linked to a Facebook catalogue, and they must principally sell tangible goods. 73% of marketers no are actively using Instagram.

This data is from the February 2019 Mediakix "Influencer Marketing 2019" survey. 162 marketers at agencies, consumer-facing brands and B2B companies were surveyed during January 15-25, 2019. Over 90% of respondents were US-based.

What is an Instagram shop?

An Instagram Shop helps you to showcase, represent or integrate your digital & shareable product catalogue, a kind of marketing collateral that features vital product details that help buyers make a purchase decision. These minutiae embrace product features, descriptions, dimensions, price, weight, availability, colour, customer reviews, and more which allows customers to shop right from your profile. This intangible store allows you to promote your products directly to your target audience through posts, Stories, in the Explore tab, and in a distinct Shop tab within your profile, adding value to your marketing strategy with a native shopping experience.

Marketers’ page lavished with an IG Shop can also be featured on the IG Shop tab — a new shopping terminus reachable from Instagram’s main navigation menu (A shopping bag sign) This huge marketplace, hidden in a small icon is an enthralling full-screen storefront that enables marketers to build their brand story-increasing its sales ROI, creditability, advocacy, drive product discovery, awareness and leads eventually. Potential customers can visit a brand shop through its Instagram profile or through feed and stories.

After reaching your digital IG shop, they can browse between the range of products, explore listings/assortments and purchase the ones they love without leaving the app. It provides users a destination to experience the satisfaction of shopping versus the chore of buying via customizing the shopping experience and representing categorized products under themes, and each product with a different story. You can also tag Instagram shop products in your posts like you tag a friend. This includes a little shopping bag icon to your image. When a viewer clicks the photo, they can view your product catalogue prices/features and click on the labels to go on the product page to buy. You can tag up to 5 products per image or 20 with each carousel.

Some important features include

Product Detail Pages

Exhibits all of the important product information, including description, price, and photography. It also shows any product-tagged images on Instagram.

Collections

Brands can typically curate their products under category/theme.

Shopping Tag

You can use it to tag products from your catalogue in your Stories or posts, so your audience can click through to know more.

Shop discovery tab

It provides a discovery tool for non-followers.

If you are still wondering why, you must, set up an IG shop and make money through Instagram, here is your answer

Benefits of setting up an Instagram shop:

Makes shopping easier with consumer satisfaction

An IG shop removes the friction from the buying procedure by making it comprehensive for the target customers to explore your catalogue, dig to check prizes and features.

Allows you to promote your branded content

Through an IG shop you can reach more target audience and build seller-costumer relationship. When you expose your products to this group with high purchase intent, you end up getting more sales results as these posts are personalized and based on users ’preferences and previous engagement.

How to Set Up an Instagram Shop

1. Become eligible

Prior to set up Instagram Shopping, you need to guarantee your commercial meets the following eligibility requirements:

• Your business must be located in a supported market where IG Shopping is accessible. Check this list to confirm
• You trade a tangible & eligible product.
• Your business complies with Instagram’s merchant agreement and trade policies.
• Your business owns your website domain/eCommerce website.
• You must own a business account on Instagram.

Also read: Leverage IGTV for Promoting your business on Instagram

2. Switch your personal account to a business/creator account

• To switch to a business profile on Instagram, your business must have an active Facebook Page. Fortunately, you can set up a Facebook business Page in a few moments! If you already have a Facebook Page, you can skip to the next step
• Now open Facebook and click on “Create Page” from the dropdown menu.
• Then, pick your business category and give a name to your business Page. Your Page name can be your business name or any other name that your target audience may search for to find your business.
• Upload a profile photo and a cover photo that represents your business. You can also use your logo as your profile photo, or photos of your store or products. Voila, your business’s Facebook Page is live now!
• You must add a description and call-to-action that guides visitors to take action, like visiting your website
• Now connect your Facebook page to Instagram. First of all, log into your Instagram account and navigate to your profile.
• Tap the “gear” icon in the top right corner to go to your account settings.
• Then, tap “Switch to Business Profile,” and then “Continue” to connect to Facebook.
• Set your profile to Public. If your profile is set to Private on Instagram, you can’t switch to a business profile. You must also know how to write an action-oriented Instagram business bio .
• Hit “Continue as” to connect the Facebook Page. If you don’t see your business’s Facebook Page as a choice, ensure that you’re listed as an admin in the settings menu.
• Once you see the right Facebook Page, select it and hit “Next.”
• Now, add your contact information, including a phone number, physical store address (If any), and email with the purpose that customers can reach you.
• Now tap, “Done”. Congratulations, now you have a business profile on Instagram, you can get access to a ton of new features, including an IG shop, the ability to view your Instagram Insights and promote your Instagram posts.

If you have not yet linked your account with a Facebook page, you can also follow these simple steps.

3. Connect to a Facebook Page

• Open Instagram, go to Edit Profile.
• Underneath Public Business Information, select Page.
• Now, choose your Facebook Business Page to connect.

4. Upload your catalogue

You can either input every product manually into Facebook Business Manager, or integrate a pre-existing product database from a certified eCommerce platform (like Shopify or BigCommerce.) We will talk in detail, each catalogue creation option:

Decision A: Facebook Business Catalogue Manager

• Log into your Facebook Business account, go to Commerce manager
• Click Get Started and select Create a Catalogue.
• Select E-commerce (products) and click next.
• Now choose how you’d like to include products in your catalogue, and select Upload Product Info.
• Allocate this catalogue to your Business Manager account.
• give a name to your catalogue.
• hit Create.
• Go back to Commerce Manager and select your catalogue.
• Open up the Catalogue tab and direct to Items.
• Click on Add Items, then Add Manually, and click next.
• Upload an image of your item —of 500 x 500 pixels.
• Enter a name, description, and other details.
• From the Item Category section, choose your specific category.
• In Create Variants, include different sizes or colours, if you want.
• Hit Finish or Add Another Item

Decision B: Integrate an Ecommerce Database

• Go to Commerce Manager
• Head to the Catalogue tab and go to Data Sources.
• Now select Add Items, then Use a Partner Platform, then click next.
• You can use; Shopify, BigCommerce, ChannelAdvisor, CommerceHub, Feedonomics, CedCommerce, adMixt, DataCaciques, Quipt, or Zentail.
• Follow the link to the partner platform website and the steps there to connect your account with Facebook.

5. Submit your account for review

• Now you have to submit your account for review. These reviews can take up to 2 days, but occasionally it might take longer.
• Head to your IG profile settings.
• Click Sign Up for Instagram Shopping.
• Follow the steps to submit your account for review.
• You can track the status of your application by visiting Shopping in your Settings.

Some businesses may be notified that additional information is needed to verify ownership of your website domain. If you receive this notification, follow these steps to complete a domain verification process to submit your account for review.

6. Turn on Instagram Shopping

After getting approval of your account, you can now connect your product catalogue with your IG Shop.

• Go to your Instagram profile settings.
• Select Business, then Shopping.
• Choose the product catalogue you’d like to attach.
• Hit Done.

If you have a Business or Creator account and you are a citizen of the U.S., you are also eligible for Instagram Checkout, which allows users to complete their procurements directly through Instagram.

Also read: Instagram Stories for business

How to Sell merchandise via Instagram Shop

After creating an Instagram Shop, a new “View Shop” button will appear on your business’s Instagram profile page. From here, users will be able to explore your products, click to find out more, and buy.

How to create Instagram shopping posts

Your digital IG store is sparkling and appealing. Your stock inventory is overflowing at the purchase chore. Now reach you can reach your target audience with your shoppable Instagram posts.

• Upload a photo just like a consistent post, include a caption, effects, and filters as you like.
• Click on Tag Products, then on the photo where you’d like the tag to appear.
• Type the name of the products you want to tag.
• Choose your product and click Done.
• Click Share to post your IG shoppable post to your feed.
• You can tag up to five products per post.

Shoppable Instagram posts will feature a shopping bag icon in the bottom left corner. All the products your account has tagged will appear on your profile in the Shopping tab. I hope you found this a useful guide to know about Instagram shop feature and how to set them to grow your business.

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