Instagram Shopping, or “Shopping on Instagram” is a feature which was created to enable ecommerce brands to create an “immersive storefront for people to explore your best products with a single tap.”
The core functionality of this new feature allows brands to highlight specific posts from their Instagram feeds and then tag the products that are present.
And why is this so great for ecommerce brands?
Well, it makes it so much easier for brands to underline any products that they’ve incorporated into their Instagram content.
Without the Instagram Shopping feature, the user journey would unravel like this:
- An Instagram user follows a branded account.
- Said Instagram users notice a post from the branded account, enjoys the content, and they may leave an image or comment to express interest in a product.
- Said Instagram user would need to visit the branded account’s website and see if they can locate the product that was featured in the Instagram post.
In that flow, there’s no guarantee that the user will find the product and purchase it. This just makes the difficult task of converting customers even harder, especially if they’re moving between channels.
Now let’s take a look at how Instagram Shopping transforms this flow in favor of eCommerce brands:
- An Instagram user follows a branded account.
- Said Instagram user notices a product on their feed from the branded account that they’re interested in. All they need to do is tap on the content and check if the product has been tagged.
- If the product has been tagged, they can click on the product once more and they’ll be directed straight to the product page on the brand’s website.
If you compare the two flows, it’s clear to see that Instagram Shopping makes it a lot easier for eCommerce brands to convert their customers from their Instagram efforts.
Here’s How to Get Approved to Sell on Instagram
After your Instagram business account is connected to a Facebook page, you’ll be ready to ask for approval. You can do this through Facebook’s catalog manager.
You can upload all of your products manually into the catalog manager if social media is going to be your main commerce platform or you’re just starting out. But, if you already have an online store, integrate your existing catalog automatically. Just follow the prompts.
Facebook’s catalog manager currently connects to these popular e-commerce platforms:
Shopify
Big Commerce
3dCart
Magento
OpenCart
Storeden
WooCommerce
