It is imperative to know that Instagram marketing and Instagram works for e-commerce and it is essential for business growth. With over 500 million Instagram users of Instagram daily and about 50% of them following a business, it will be a reasonable decision for online sellers to explore the advantages of Instagram marketing and how Instagram works for e-commerce.
Facts About Instagram That You Might Need to Know
Instagram has rapidly gained influence after its launch in 2010, with one million users registered in two months, 10 million in a year. Over 40 billion photos had been uploaded daily as of October 2015. As of June 2018, 1 billion users. Facebook acquired Instagram service for approximately US$1 billion in cash and stock. As of January 2019, 500 million users use the Instagram stories feature daily. The picture of an egg is the most liked photo on IG as of January 2019. The most followed person is footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, with over 253 million followers as of January 2021.
What Is an Instagram Shop?
The Instagram Shop allows you to link your product catalog with your Instagram profile. This offers you the opportunity to directly promote your products to Instagram users through posts, stories, explore tabs, and a "Shop" tab on your profile. The Instagram shop tab allows Instagram users to check their profiles to view products without going off the Instagram app. As an image is tagged with your products, the content will show an exclusive shopping feed on the Instagram business profile.
In Instagram shopping, Instagram shop product pages reveal everything a customer needs to know before buying any product, which includes:
·Product name
·Product images
·Product description
·Product price
·Link to view products on the website
·Related products
To start an Instagram business, one needs to know how to set up an Instagram shop. Setting up Instagram shopping will require you to have a Facebook shop. A Facebook shop can be created either by creating a standalone Facebook shop or synchronizing your E-commerce website to your Facebook page.
Benefits of Setting up Instagram Shopping
Instagram, with its considerable growth potential, is growing fast to become an E-commerce giant. Hence, there are attendant benefits to it.
1. It reduces friction and offers customers easy shopping.
It is often challenging to distract customers from what they are doing on social media to visit your store. The best way is to take your store to them. The Instagram shop takes the friction from the purchasing process. This allows customers to view your catalog easily, check the prices, and know more about the products.
2. It allows you to promote your products directly.
Instagram has always been an excellent platform. It helps to connect with the targeted customer base and to improve customer relations. Another Instagram shopping feature is the ability to link all your Instagram content with your store, which is a great benefit.
3. It exposes your products to Instagram users with a high interest in purchasing.
When a product is tagged in a post, such a position will be included in Instagram's new shopping explore tab. Increasing Instagram activities following practices like optimizing your hashtags will place your products on the shopping explore tab.
How to Set up Instagram Shopping Step by Step?
To set up Instagram shopping, some steps will have to be followed.
1. Meet the eligibility requirements and lay the template.
All Instagram's requirements and policies must be met. You should ensure to check the list of the required criteria and stay on the right side of the Instagram user policies.
2. In your Facebook Shop, add your product catalog.
This will enhance you to promote your products directly on Facebook. Your catalog is the compendium of your products. Let it be added to get your products easily found and known.
3. Set up Instagram as a sales channel.
You aim to make sales and setting up your Instagram account as a sales channel will help with making sales.
4. Wait for the account approval.
To get approved for Instagram shopping, upon completion of the required tasks, Instagram will review your account before allowing you to an Instagram shop. The review process may take some days, and once the account has been approved, Instagram will send a notification.
5. Confirm the Facebook Shop to Add to Instagram upon receiving approval notification.
Noteworthy is for you to do this. It allows for unified marketing and sales on both platforms.
6. Ensure Your Products Are Tagged in Your Instagram Posts and Stories.
These posts should include the shopping bag icon and shopping tags for the products to be featured in your post. Hashtags will be really helpful to you, so make sure to use them wherever possible.
3 Best Ways to Promote Your Instagram Shop
After setting up an Instagram shop, you have to strategically position it so that the target customer base can see your products.
·Use Instagram Hashtags to gain exposure as they are an effective tool in boosting the visibility of your products.
·Leverage the Product Sticker Feature that is available on Instagram Stories. This app lets you choose 4 various stickers: the one with the product name in Grey or Rainbow, translucent text, shopping bag icon.
·Run Instagram Shopping Ads. Shoppers who click on these ads are taken to an item description page on Instagram, where they can go ahead to buy from your Instagram shop. To set up an Instagram Shopping Ad, open your Facebook Ads Manager and follow the steps. It is recommended that the ads should carry high-quality images, popular and accurate hashtags, nice descriptions, so a large number of customers will find your products appealing.
Final Words
Although setting up Instagram shopping can be stressful, the enormous benefits for business are worth considering. It is a promising decision in boosting your E-commerce store. Instagram marketing and Instagram work for e-commerce.
