According to the stats collected by Hootsuite, 1 billion people use Instagram every month, and around 130 million Instagram users tap on a shopping post. Brands use Instagram shopping posts to showcase their products and drive more sales. An Instagram Shop allows Instagram users to look for the desired product by visiting the brand page. The products are tagged on the images and users are redirected to the website to complete the checkout. In fact, with Instagram’s latest checkout feature, people can now purchase products directly from Instagram without having to close the app or getting redirected to the original store.
With Instagram shopping posts, you can make your followers aware of your products and guide them towards an easy purchase. Ensure you are using the Instagram shopping costs effectively, which means using high-quality product images, attractive captions, proper hashtags, and a perfectly timed sales pitch.
In this article, I will provide you a guide to set up your Instagram shop, brief you on how to add product tags to your Instagram posts and how you can drive more sales with Instagram shopping posts.
What are Instagram Shopping posts?
An Instagram shopping post contains product tags that make it easier for Instagram users to browse those products and make a purchase. They make the shopping path easy for the followers.
Many e-commerce retailers have even integrated their Instagram business account on their website and created a similar kind of Instagram Shop. KnowBand offers an Instagram Shop Gallery extension that fetches your Instagram account images or Instagram hashtags on your eCommerce store and helps you link your store products to the fetched Instagram content. The extension is currently available for OpenCart, Magento and Magento 2. Check them out.
OpenCart Instagram Shop Gallery extension
Magento Instagram Shop Gallery extension
Magento 2 Instagram Shop Gallery extension
How to set up an Instagram shop?
You need to go through a few steps before you can share a shoppable post.
1. Instagram has approved 46 countries to avail the features of Instagram shopping. Hence, your location should be in those 46.
2. You must have a business profile on Instagram that sells physical products.
3. Your Instagram business profile must be associated with a Facebook catalog for your products.
To create a catalog for your products, you need to add a Shop section to your Facebook page. Then go to your business manager account, create a new or add an existing catalog that you would like to use for Instagram shopping.
If you are a PrestaShop or Magento store owner, you can take the help of the PrestaShop FB store addon and Magento FB store extension respectively to open a Facebook shop.
4. Once you have followed all the steps, Instagram will review your account. This can take a couple of days.
5. After your account gets approved, you can start adding product tags to your Instagram posts.
How to add product tags to your Instagram posts?
The process to add product tags to your Instagram posts is pretty simple. You just need to select the picture, write your caption, use suitable hashtags. Just when you are about to finish, you will see the option of “Tag Products”.
Now, search for the product name that you want to tag in your post and add it. You can add up to 5 tags on your post.
Once it is done, you are ready to share your first Instagram shopping post.
How to drive sales with Instagram shopping posts?
1. Use High-quality pictures
The quality of your images decides the interest of the user in the products. No matter how amazing your product is, a bad quality image will not encourage a user to go for the purchase. Get your products photoshoot from a professional photographer for an amazing response from the followers.
2. Use Proper Hashtags
Optimize your Instagram shopping posts by using proper hashtags, which clearly define your products so that when people start searching for that term, your product appears on the search results. This gives a wide organic reach to your Instagram shopping posts. In addition to this, when a user follows a hashtag, your product visibility increases. More visibility creates more chances for sales.
3. Make sure the tags are attached to the right products
Attaching irrelevant tags to the products can mislead your followers and leave a bad impression. It can break the credibility.
4. Use Instagram stories to increase user engagement
Instagram stories are the latest trend. Brands use stories to attract the attention of followers. An Instagram story ensures that your followers do not miss any important announcement if in case they have skipped the post.
Conclusion
Instagram is currently one of the most engaging social media networks for users. Brands should not ignore its popularity. Instagram shopping posts look promising to reach out to potential customers. Such features provide businesses an excellent opportunity to attract Instagram users and convert them into potential buyers.
Create an Instagram Shop section on your e-commerce store as well. This works well to fetch user-generated content by using Hashtags and increases your brand awareness if you are running a marketing campaign.