Instagram is now the largest social media channel after Facebook, with over 500 million posts uploaded daily. It has evolved over the years from a simple photo and video sharing tool to a powerful marketing tool and has a significant impact on its users' buying behaviour.
According to Facebook, 90% of users follow a brand on Instagram, 83% have discovered a product/service from Instagram. And 80% have made a purchase based on a product or service they discovered on the platform.
If you are a small business owner and want to keep up with the competition, you should be on Instagram. Instagram Shop offers excellent shopping features to help you showcase your products and business while engaging with your customers.
This article will cover what Instagram shopping features are and how to make the best use of them. You'll also get to see examples of brands that have mastered the Instagram shop and how they do it.
Contents
Instagram Shop allows your customers shop your photos/videos anywhere in the app.
How?
With the shopping features, you can promote your product directly to your customers through your posts, stories, the explore tabs, and special shop tab.
When a product attracts a user's attention through any of these, they only need to click on the product tag included in the post. That tag will take them directly to the product description or your Instagram shop.
Instagram shopping features include:
Instagram Shop: Instagram shop is an in-app destination where users can discover products and brands across Instagram.
Collection: With the collection feature, you can customise your shop by creating themes of products that are similar.
Product Tags: Products tags direct your audience directly to your product page or shop when they click on the tag.
Product Detail Page: The product details page lets you add all relevant information about your products. You can include media, product description and pricing.
Ads with Product Tags: Ads with product tags allow you to maximise your product ads reach. Your ads with product tags can direct your audience directly to your check page or product detail page
Live Shopping: The live shopping feature allows your audience to shop your products directly from your live videos.
Checkout on Instagram: The checkout features allow your customers to purchase your Product directly on Instagram. However, this feature is only available for US-based businesses for now.
Product Launches: The Product launches feature allows you to announce your upcoming product launch on Instagram. That way, your customers can preview products and set reminders to buy when it is available.
Before you can start setting up your Instagram Shop, you must meet all these conditions.
After you meet all these conditions, you can start the process. The following steps will help you set up your Instagram shopping features.
If you already have a business account, you don't need this step. If you don't have one yet, it is pretty straightforward.
For you to set up an Instagram shop, you need a Facebook account. You can't run your Instagram shopping without linking to your Facebook account.
If you have one already, you must link your Instagram profile to your Facebook account. To do that on Instagram;
To start using features like product tags and shopping posts, you must create your product catalog.
How to do that?
There are 2 options; you can manually input all your products into the Facebook business manager. Or you can integrate your pre-existing product database from a certified eCommerce platform like Shopify.
If you decide to input manually through the Facebook business manager, follow the following steps.
1. Go to your Commerce Manager on your Facebook Business account.
2. Tap on "Get Started."
3. Select Create a Catalog and click on Ecommerce (Products)
4. From there, you can select how you want to add your catalog. Click on Upload Product Info.
5. Then click on" Assign this Catalog to your business account."
6. Enter your catalog name and Click on Create
7. After that, go back to your Commerce Manager and Open Your Catalog Tab.
8. Click on Add Item and select "Add Manually."
9. Then you can upload an image of Your product.
10. Enter the name, price, and description
11. Select the Item Category
12. You can decide to add different sizes and colors of the project in the Create Variant.
13. When you are satisfied with your Upload, click Finish. Repeat step 7 to upload all your products.
If you already have an E-commerce database from an E-commerce Platform like Shopify or WooCommerce, you only need to integrate it into your account.
You can do that in your Facebook Business Manager's Commerce Manager.
That will link you to the partner's account. Follow the steps there to connect your eCommerce account.
When you are done with uploading all your products to your Facebook Business Manager account, you can move on to the next step.
After you're done creating your catalog, you'll need to submit your account for review and approval. That may take a while.
The review process usually takes a few days. It might take a little longer to get approved. But not to worry, if you followed all the instructions, you'd get your approval.
To submit your account for review:
Once your account is approved, you're set to start using your Instagram shopping. However, there is one simple step left.
After your account review is completed and your account is approved. It is time to connect your product catalog and turn on your shopping features.
You can do this through your Profile setting on Instagram.
That's the process for creating an Instagram shopping for your business. After this, you are ready to start creating your Instagram shopping posts.
Instagram shopping features make life easier for both you and your customers. The product details page gives your customers all the information they need to know about your products— no need to message you before they know about that.
The checkout page also makes it possible for them to buy your products without leaving Instagram (this is only available for US-based business for now), speeding up your buyer's journey.
With Instagram stories with a tagged post, they can find your product directly from your stories. They don't have to go through the swipe-up to send a message process. They only need to tap on the product tag, and they are directed to product details and checkout page.
The same applies to your shopping feed posts and Carousel posts. With the Instagram Shopping carousel posts, you can show similar products together in a post, making it easier for your customers to view a product range.
With the Instagram Shop and Product Catalog features, you can create a virtual space for your business. You can go further and design your shop as you want – colors, style, and general aesthetics.
With other Instagram shopping features like product tags, you don't have to disturb your page's aesthetics to create a shoppable post. You can create a shoppable post from any video and image.
With the power of impulse buying, you can increase your sales multiple folds. This is where product tags and tagged posts come into play.
Instagram content has a way of making users want to buy. That's the power Instagram influencers leverage. Their followers see a public figure using/wearing a product; they instantly want to get it. With product tags and tagged products, you can tap into that impulse immediately.
Direct them to your product page and checkout page, so the customer buys impulsively before they get cold feet.
Similarly, allowing your customers to tag your brand may turn your product into a trendy product. When 2 or more influencers tag your brand, their followers want to get your product because it is trendy.
When a user follows your business page, that means they are already interested in your products. Tap into that engagement by making it easier for them to shop your products directly.
When your followers see your shoppable feed posts or carousel posts in their feed, they only have to tap on the image to see more prices and details. And from there, they can check out to buy directly or get directed to your website.
Similarly, with the product launches feature, you are getting them interested in your product before its release. So, you can make them anticipate and get them ready to buy as soon your product launches.
Soludos is a shoe and clothing brand. A look through the brand's page shows you the systematic way they have adapted the Instagram shopping feature.
Instagram Shop with product catalog: The brand has a detailed catalog of its products with prices and details. Each product has a product detail page.
Instagram shopping feed post: The brand use cute and captivating photos for their shoppable feed post like this:
Tagged post: Their customers' posts appear on their tagged post page.
Instagram Stories with Tagged Post: Their season's collection is saved as shoppable posts to their Instagram Stories Highlights. That way, their customer can easily click on any product they like and check out.
The Summer Friday have integrated their Instagram shoppable post seamlessly into their page. Their shopping posts and reels are crafted to maintain a balance of shoppable posts in their feed.
The brand's instagram shop is complete with its product catalog which contains the price and product details of each product.
Instagram shop: Summer Fridays has an integrated Instagram shop front with all the inventory of their product. Each product also has a product detail page
Instagram Shoppable Feed Post: Summer Friday uses captivating posts for their shoppable feed posts. The feed posts are designed to blend in with the page’s aesthetics.
Shoppable Reels: The brand also uses reels to show how to use its products. These reels are shoppable to make it easier for their followers to get the products.
Tagged Posts: Posts from their followers that tag their brand/products appears on their page.
Artifacts Uprising is a high-quality photo printing brand. The brand uses shoppable feed posts to make it easy for customers to shop its products.
The brand also utilises the Collection features to showcase its range of products.
Instagram shop with Product catalog: The shop is designed to make it easy for customers to browse through and check for products. Each product has a product detail page with its price and description.
Collection: The brand’s Instagram shop also offers you a collection feature that showcases a range of products that are grouped together. The collection feature helps their audience to go through a product range.
Shoppable Feed Post: The brand also uses cute and captivating photos to display their products. And the shopping features make it easy for anyone to get directed to the product details page.
Anthropologie uses all the Shopping features efficiently to create an engaging and attractive business page.
The brand maximises its potential of tapping into the power of its engaged audience with shoppable posts, stories, reels, and videos. Anthropologie's Instagram shop uses the Collection feature to showcase ranges of products. The product catalog and product detail pages are also used to showcase each product.
Instagram Shop: The instagram shop contains the product catalog and collections. The shop creates a virtual shop front to showcase all the brand’s products.
Collection: The brand also uses the collection feature to display a range of similar products. That makes it easy for customers to go through a range of similar products.
Shoppable Feed Posts: The shoppable feed posts showcase the brand’s product and travel lifestyle. The shoppable feed feature makes it easier for their audience to shop from their feed post.
Shoppable Reels and Videos: Anthropologie also uses shoppable video and reels. The videos are usually around an activity like cooking or exercising. The brand makes them shoppable to make it easy for their audience to shop directly from the post.
Instagram Stories with Tagged Product: The brand also makes use of shoppable Instagram stories with tagged products. That way, users can easily get directed to their shop or a product detail page from their stories. It is much easier for new customers that find them through Instagram stories to get their products.
Victoria’s secret creates a fun and sexy virtual shop on Instagram. They use shoppable reels, videos and posts to make shopping easier for their customers.
They also use the Collection features to showcase ranges of products. Their tagged posts also allow tags from audience shows on the brand’s page.
Instagram Shop and Product Catalog: The Instagram shop acts like a virtual shop front for the brand complete with a detailed product catalog. You can also sort and filter to find the best product for you. Each product has a detailed product detail page with description and price.
Collection: The brand also uses the Collection feature to categorise a range of products. For example, one of its collections is for swimwear. Suppose you were looking for swimwear, you can check this collection to see the different styles available.
Instagram Shopping Feed Posts: The brand uses sexy and bright photos to showcase their products. And of course, these posts are shoppable to make it easier for their followers to get the products.
Tagged Posts: Their followers and customers can tag them in posts - videos, reels, and photos. It helps to increase their reach.
Instagram shopping helps you tap into the power of impulse buying and increase your sales. If you own an eCommerce brand, you should take advantage of it.
The best part is that you can set it up easily without help.
Using your product tag and stickers to create shoppable posts is also a straightforward process. Besides, Instagram shopping can help you create shoppable posts without offsetting your page’s aesthetic.
Interested in building your Instagram Shop? Heroes of Digital is a top Singapore social media agency. With more than 600 clients under our belt and half a decade of experience, we are the go-to Singapore social media marketing agency.
Get your free social media marketing consultation with us today!
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