What Is An Instagram Shop?

As an Instagram marketing agency, we have seen first-hand how incredibly useful the Instagram shop feature is for business owners. Simply put, the “shop” acts like an interactive product catalogue/lookbook. It enables customers to be directed to specific products in your e-commerce store from posts on Instagram (posts that feature your products).

Essentially, there is a shopping bag logo to differentiate products from generic feed posts. Your “shop” and its products can also be categorised, like a catalogue. This catalogue space is distinguished from your main feed and can be accessed in the bar above the feed alongside reels, IGTV and tagged photos.

When customers click on the photo of your product, they are shown the price with the option to purchase. This makes shopping from your business extremely easy for new and existing customers.

Why Should You Set Up An Instagram Shop?

An Instagram shop offers huge opportunities for your business. Not only will you be able to showcase your products with an ability for customers to buy goods with the click of a button, but it will increase your engagement significantly.

How often are you just scrolling on Instagram and you stumble across new content from new creators? Almost every day. People will find your content, maybe through looking at similar products. This will lead them to your page, where they will discover more of your content. From there people may like your posts, comment and tag a friend, save your shop posts (to buy later) or even share some of your content.

All of these actions will considerably boost the engagement with your business and eventually cause it to reach a wider audience.

Another benefit is that, providing you have an online shop set up, it is free to sell your products on Instagram. No fees, no fuss, it is the perfect platform to promote your business.

How To Set Up An Instagram Shop

So, you’ve decided to set up your own shop. Great, now you need to know how to actually set it up.

Before you get started, there are few requirements you need to ensure your business meets:

• Your business must be located in one of 46 approved countries.
• Ensure the goods to be sold are physical, tangible goods.
• Have a business profile on Instagram and that page should be linked to a Facebook Business Page, which should contain a catalogue for the products to be sold.
• Agree to all terms, conditions and policies that Instagram sets out.

Once your business complies with the above requisites, you are able to start setting up your shop.

5 Steps To Set Up Your Shop

1. You will need to have an online e-commerce shop. For example, Shopify is a popular choice.
2. Once you have done this you need to upload a product catalogue in order to showcase your products.
3. Then you can send your account for review by clicking “shopping” in the “settings” tab. This can take up to a couple of days to get approved. Occasionally additional information may be needed from your business.
4. When you have been approved you are only seconds away from having an Instagram shop! All you need to do then is visit “settings” click “shopping” and select the desired “product catalogue” you wish to offer for sale.
5. Now that you have the shop set up, you can tag your posts which will provide a link to the product. All you need to do is select the tag feature on the post in question and tag the product, in the same way you would if you were tagging another account. This will automatically link the product and share the price with the customer.

Additionally, you can now use the “shop” sticker on stories in order to give a link to any of your products on your story. This is done easily. You just need to choose the shop sticker from the sticker tray, which can be accessed via the button in the top right corner while editing your story.

Conclusion

In short, setting up an Instagram shop is easy and will attract additional custom and engagement to your business. If you follow the simple steps above, you can be sure to have an Instagram shop in a matter of clicks. Future enhancements will see users being able to checkout fully on Instagram without being directed to your e-commerce store.

If you are a business owner and are looking for ways for it to grow,  get in touch using the form below. One of the team will happily discuss whether our digital marketing services could help you generate more business.