As of this week (20th March 2018), Instagram Shopping is now available to retailers and merchants of physical products within the UK. The brand new product tagging abilities basically means you can now have a linked tag within your Instagram post that goes to a product that you sell, which we’re pretty confident is going to dramatically increase product discovery and click throughs from platform. This is something Insta has been lacking in terms of business features in comparison to other social media platforms; Facebook, Twitter, etc…

How Does Instagram Shopping Work?

Now, Instagram shopping is available in 9 countries around the globe, including the UK, The USA and Australia as well as some parts of Europe and South America. But how does it actually work? Well all the Instagram brand accounts have to do, in order to get their quality swag online, is publish their product inventory to their verified Facebook accounts, if the Facebook account isn’t properly linked to the Instagram then that would be the first thing to do. After they have published their inventory through Facebook’s shop feature then within 2 weeks (apparently it’s sooner for most) the Instagram shopping toggle should appear in the settings tab, which shows up as “Tag Products”.It’s important to realise that you can only list PHYSICAL PRODUCTS. You can’t list services. You also need an existing ecommerce/online ordering platform as all this set up does is link to a product page on your existing website… But if products is what you want to sell, then follow these steps to get your Instagram shop up and running:

  • Update your Instagram app – You need to be running the latest version of IG to be able to go any further.
  • Link your Facebook page and Instagram accounts via your Facebook settings (You should already have done this – otherwise how are you advertising on Instagram?)
  • Set up your Facebook Shop  (If you haven’t already) – This is the simplest way to feed your products through to Instagram
  • On Instagram, click Options, then click on the Products option – then scroll through the intro screens they make you sit through
  • Select your product catalogue from Facebook – Instagram will prompt you to do this so you’re approving you agree to the feed being pulled through from FB
  • Start posting! You now need to upload a photo as you do on Instagram but you should now have the option to “Tag Product”
  • When you do, simply search for the name of the product and if it’s in your Facebook shop feed, it’ll be simple to click on the product and Instagram will do the rest.
  • DONE – Post up to 9 images with tagged products (up to 5 products tagged in each pic) and you should get the Shop tab added to your Instagram profile in no time!

 

Why use Instagram Shopping for your business?

Instagram is very popular for it’s “visuals first” approach to social media, instead of written statuses and opinions, the main focus of Instagram is imagery. When it comes to shopping, this is obviously a huge selling point (pun very much intended). Instagram’s imagery is already making headway with merchants that sell physical goods, some even reporting around a 2,000% increase in website traffic direct from Instagram! That is an undeniably massive difference and it’s mainly down to a combination of the audience that use Instagram (visually inclined) and the fact that they now have a simple outlet to click through – something that was never easy from Instagram previously. If something looks amazing and it’s even easier to buy through a few clicks of a button, then it’s going to result in a greater user experience and more sales. One trialist in the limited US roll out of Instagram shopping reported a 20% increase in revenue direct from Instagram during the trial.

How can Super Digital help?

Can’t follow the above? Having trouble getting your Instragram shop set up? Why not give us a quick call on 01902 32 66 44  or drop us an email at [email protected] and see how we can help your social media strategy by getting you selling on Instagram.