Instagram offers brands a wide range of options to capture the interest of customers. The Instagram Shop is of particular interest. That’s why we want to explain to you how best to start selling your products through Instagram.
As announced by Mark Zuckerberg in May 2020, you will have the opportunity to create a personalized and configurable microsite for your Instagram Shop.
With categories, a header image, text and small graphical customizations, you can set up your online store via Facebook and Instagram – completely free of charge.
For example, if you sell products specifically for women and for men, you can play the products by gender. Facebook places great emphasis on “Mobile First”, a negligible loading time and a direct purchase option via the platform.
All these features have already been and will be rolled out successively in the individual countries. German shop operators are also gradually taking advantage of these features. Therefore we want to explain to you how to set up your Instagram Shop.
In 4 steps to your own Instagram Shop with products
1. Create a business account
Facebook helps you with a checklist to find out if you can use the shopping features. The first requirement is that your company’s location is supported by Instagram. Also, only products and not services may be offered.
The next step is to connect your activated Instagram Business account with your Facebook page. To do this, click on “Settings” at Instagram and select the item “Accounts”. The “Linked Accounts” area follows. Here you simply log in.
Usually the “Shop” tab should be created here for your now active Instagram Business account.
2. Create products and product catalog
The next step is to link your profile to a catalogue on Facebook. This catalog will then play out the names and prices of the products on your Instagram images. Select the “E-commerce” option to have the shopping tags appear on your images.
If this step is successful, Instagram will set up the shopping feature for you. Now open the app and go to your profile settings. Click on “Business” here. Then select “Instagram Shopping”. At this point, you can now submit your account for verification.
3. Bring time and be patient
Actually, this is not an active step when starting Instagram Shopping. But unfortunately experience has shown that the review can take between a few days and a few weeks.
Usually after this time you will receive a notification that your shop is now unlocked. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for Facebook not to send a notification at all.
Therefore, you should check regularly whether your shop is now also integrated on Instagram. You can recognize this by the menu item “Shopping” in your account. Here you can select the catalog that was previously integrated into Facebook. Optionally, you can also create multiple catalogs.
4. Upload and post article pictures
If the setup was successful, you can now use a new function to mark products on your photos in the feed. However, you can only mark a single product in the stories.
So when you upload a new post, you can select the “Tag Products” option and choose a single product from your catalog. You can also mark multiple products by attaching the product sticker. Your followers can then click on the product.
The product in the Instagram Story must have the same information and properties as the product in the feed post. The customer will be directed to the same shopping page via both ways.
The product sticker in the story can be selected just like any other sticker. You can recognize it by the small icon in the form of a shopping bag.
The user gets the information that he can buy the marked article directly. If he touches the icon, he is taken to an App-internal landing page. There he can take a closer look at the product and then purchase it on your website.
Conclusion: A shopping function that you should invest time in
The good news is that setting up an Instagram Shop costs nothing to start with. Money is only due when you place ads for your products through Instagram or Facebook, or when the purchase is made directly through the platform. But this option is not yet available for all operators.
But you should keep an eye on the time you invest. Because an Instagram Shop has to be set up first and should be constantly maintained.
Lucky are those who already run a shop system such as Woo Commerce, Magento or Shopify. Because these can be connected very smartly with the Facebook shop.
