The Instagram Shopping feature is a real game-changer for brands or businesses that sell online. With Instagram Shopping enabled, anyone who browses your feed can tap on your post and purchase the featured item within seconds.
According to We Are Social’s 2019 Global Digital Report, a staggering 3.5 out of 7.7 billion people globally are engaged with the online world. As more people continue to embrace this digital way of life, it is important to make sure that your brand’s digital presence is the best that it can be.
Your social media marketing strategy should focus not only on creating engaging content, but also on monitoring what is being said about you online. The more that you know and understand your customers, the better you can create ad content that doesn’t feel like an ad.
One of the best ways to achieve this is on Instagram’s Shoppable post feature. It makes promoting your brand and product or services a breeze.
You may already be microblogging on Instagram, but setting up Instagram Shopping is quite easy. Once it is set up, it must be approved by Instagram before you can start creating posts. Before you set it up, there are a few things that you must do, such as:
- Use the latest version of Instagram
- Have an online shop and a product catalog
- Convert your Instagram account into a business account
- Be an admin of a page or a business manager account
The steps to set up Instagram Shopping on your Instagram business account are:
- Turn on Instagram Shopping
- Go to your business profile
- Tap settings
- Click on the “Business” option
- Tap on “Shopping”
- Press “Done”
It sounds pretty simple, but there are a lot of ways to optimize your account and posts to achieve faster, and longer-lasting results. While it is possible to navigate this process on your own, you may want to hire an experienced Instagram marketing agency to do it for you. This will ensure that there are no hiccups in the initial or final marketing phase.
Reasons to use Instagram Shopping posts
There are lots of good reasons to use Instagram Shopping, including getting more clicks and helping to grow your Instagram followers. Here are a few ways that Instagram Shopping posts will improve your customer’s experience on your page, and help make it easier for you to manage.
- The fact that customers will no longer have to ask for prices in the DMs or comments will be much more convenient for your clients. They can view it from the tag or the website.
- It is also handy because it will save a lot of time for you as you will not have the same questions over and over again in comments.
- It will also help your followers as they will not need to scroll through the entire website to find the products they wish to buy.
Everything is available right within the Instagram app. Shoppers will not have to go to your store’s website. All they have to do is tap on your post, add the item to their shopping cart, and enter their payment and shipping methods.
Though this feature was originally available only on particular devices and in the U.S., in 2020 it is expected to become available outside the U.S. This will allow everyone to use this feature in their grid to ensure better and higher engagement.
Tips for converting your posts into sales
You will not only need to create excellent Instagram Shopping posts, but also make sure they convert into sales as well. This will improve the way people shop on the app as well as help them discover new products and make a purchase. You can convert Instagram Shopping posts into sales by following a couple of steps.
First, you will need to make sure that the Shopping posts are well-aligned with your overall brand aesthetic. It must reflect the style and voice of your brand. It must be curated nicely so that it looks cohesive across all your posts. For this you will need to:
- Apply the same tone
- Follow a specific editing style
- Add filters to them
This will ensure that your Shopping posts fit in seamlessly with your Instagram feed and make it more effective.
Next, focus on using a carousel post as that will enable you to tag as many as twenty products with the ten photos that it has. Make sure that you use photoshoot-quality images. This will help you to create a Lookbook with the carousel posts. This will create a vast opportunity, in turn, to show off your products which will help you, especially in a particular campaign launch or for any new collection.
You will also be better off if all your shopping tags link to the right products so that it ensures a speedy purchase. Also, make sure that you space out several products in one single image so that it does not cover the info on the page.
How Instagram Shopping works for consumers
When you add publications to the tagged products or stickers in your stories, it will create a better experience for users. When a user discovers a particular product they are interested in, they will tap the item tag. When they do so, the small box will show the name and price of that particular item.
In addition to that, when the viewers tap the tag, it will load a product page that will contain:
- A bigger picture of the product
- A title with the full name of that product and its price
- A “View on Site” button which directs the customer directly to the product page of the item
- A description button to learn more about the specific product
- A smaller picture of other products if necessary, on the original photo
- A mini-navigation area to allow the viewers to look at all the products in the catalog
Everything will be displayed at the top half of the page, and all info and images can be scrolled down till the bottom of the page.
Summary
Yes, setting up an Instagram Shop may seem to be a tedious task, but in the end, the effort will be useful, proving its worth. This is the most potent way in which you can grow your eCommerce store when you integrate it with Facebook and Instagram.
Instagram Shopping is just one of many features that can be used to improve your customer’s experience interacting with your brand. The more positive, engaging ways you can think of to make your brand stand out will help to make your online reputation stronger, which will make your customers feel more connected to your brand and will lead to more sales.
Instagram Shopping FAQs
How do I set up Instagram Shopping on my business account?
Set up Instagram Shopping by going to your business profile. Tap settings. Click on the Business option. Tap on Shopping. Press Done.
How does Instagram Shopping improve the customer experience?
Instagram Shopping conveniently displays prices for your products, which means that your customers won't have to DM to ask for the price. It streamlines the shopping experience by allowing customers to purchase items directly within Instagram, instead of having to search your website for the product they like.
What is a carousel post on Instagram?
A carousel post enables you to post up to 10 photos, and to tag up to 20 products within those photos. High-quality, professional photos will create a virtual lookbook to show off your products and boost sales.
