A Complete Guide to Opening an Instagram Store

When it comes to building your eCommerce business Instagram marketing should be your top priority. Today if you do not use Instagram for marketing it’s like a carpenter who is deciding on wood saws but that is of no use. You are missing a big chance to become successful in this field because you are not interacting with the millions of users on Instagram. That’s surely a huge number and you shouldn’t miss it, also Instagram is going deeper into the field of eCommerce. New features are being created including checkout buttons, shop now, and Instagram shop updates. You have to keep up your eCommerce stores otherwise you would be left behind with risk. If you are not having an idea what is an Instagram Store or Shop and you want to grow your business with just one setup. This article is for you, keep reading to know more details:

Instagram Shop

Instagram Shop is an interactive platform that let you buy and sell products directly from the platform. You can integrate your product catalog with your profile. This would help promote your products to Instagram users. You can show your products with the help of posts, Instagram stories, a shop tab on your profile, and Explore tab. To understand the whole scenario of the Instagram shop, you have to go through some examples.

You might have seen a Shop button on the account of the brand’s profile. From there you can directly shop for products and you wouldn’t have to leave the Instagram app. There is another way through which you can showcase products. Simply you can tag your products in your posts like you tag your friends in your posts. That way a shopping bag icon will automatically add to your post and this shows the presence of products in it. Whenever a user clicks on that photos, you’ll be able to view the prices of the products that are attached. Then click on product labels to view product pages. You’ll be able to tag five products in a single image. Whenever you order your products in an image this will show up in the shopping feed of your business account.

Promote Your Products

Just like traditional marketing, you can promote your products with Instagram marketing also and that’s an easy process. Some people buy Instagram followers in the UK from Digital Aimz, a reliable source to fulfill their followers’ quest. Also to promote your products you can add an Instagram story from where users can tap on a shopping sticker or product sticker for further information. Then you can decide easily whether you have to make a purchase or not. Although product stickers are not available everywhere, it depends on your country. Some countries allow you to use stickers, images, highlights, videos, and swipe-up options on stories. The Instagram shop will let you know all the details that you need at the time of purchasing items, including:

·         Product images

·         Related products

·         Price of the product

·         Product Description

·         Name of product

·         Link of product to website

Benefits of Having an Instagram Store

Instagram has become the most powerful eCommerce platform where several brands have noticed massive increases in traffic and ultimately in revenue. Below are the benefits that you can get after setting up an Instagram store:

·         You would have to deal with customers physically and this reduces friction and make your shopping experience delightful. It will be easy for customers to browse through your catalog and check price tags and know about products more. They can visit the products again and again.

·         There is already enough traffic on Instagram you can connect with your targeted audience easily and have good customer relationships.

·         Promote your products using different strategies based on your targeted audience, users’ interests, and engagement on posts. Use related hashtags, promote them on stories, use influencer marketing or share how-to tutorials.

Guide to Start an Instagram Shop

If you want to create Instagram Shop you first have to make Facebook Shop, as Instagram will fetch your product information from Facebook Shop. There are a few more steps that you need to follow and get your Instagram account approved. But it would be worth the hassle, so let’s create a Facebook Shop first:

1.       Standalone Facebook Shop

With the standalone Facebook shop, you must manage your store and take payments directly on Facebook. That’s quite risky and we wouldn’t recommend you this method because if you are having a website. You’ll have to manage both separately and that would be quite complicated for you.

2.       Syncing Ecommerce Website to Facebook Page

Syncing your eCommerce website with a Facebook shop will make your work easy and you wouldn’t have to manage any manual transactions or create product listings. It makes your work easy and less time-consuming.

Steps to Set Up Instagram Shop

1.       Meet All Instagram Requirements

You have to fulfill all the requirements to set up an Instagram shop, your business must follow the commerce policies of Instagram. Also, it depends on your country and which features you can have access to. Don’t forget to have the latest version of the Instagram app. Make sure to have Instagram Shop tags on your posts when you are using them. Build an Instagram business profile and that takes less than a minute.

2.       Add Complete Product Information on Facebook Shop

As described earlier the Instagram shop fetches all the information from the Facebook shop, so you have to add complete details of your catalog on the Facebook shop. Through this, you will also be able to promote your product on Facebook also. For that create a Shopify store and connect it to your Facebook page then click the icon next to ‘Sales Channel’. After connecting both accounts add your product catalog to Facebook. Then go to product manager in Shopify dashboard, select your products and then select ‘Make Products Available’ from the dropdown menu and then select Facebook.

3.       Set Up Instagram Sales Channel

In the same way, you have to add an Instagram sales channel and then add Instagram

4.       Wait For Approval

After all, the process waits for the approval of your store and after getting reviewed by Instagram it’ll send you a notification. You have to wait patiently for this.

5.       Confirm Facebook Shop

After the approval notification, you have to select the Facebook Shop that you want to connect with your Instagram account.

6.       Tag Your Products

After your Instagram shop is all set up, you can now promote your products by tagging them in your posts and stories. Just like you tag several people or your followers in your posts or stories.

Final Thoughts

Although setting up an Instagram store is not a difficult process, you just have to invest your time and wait with patience. But results will surely be fruitful and your efforts will be well worth it. Also integrating your Facebook with the Instagram store is a powerful method to get more traffic and grow your eCommerce store.