How to Set Up Instagram Shop To Grow Online Sales

Instagram began as a simple way for people to instantly share photos with their friends. Since its launch in 2010, it has evolved into a major player in the social media landscape. In addition to users sharing their lives through Stories and Reels, businesses can also utilise the platform to showcase and market their products. With Instagram Shopping, businesses can feature their products directly on their profiles, making it easy for users to browse and purchase items through the app. This comprehensive guide will walk you through the steps to set up an Instagram Shop and increase your online sales.

What is Instagram Shopping?

Instagram Shopping is a feature that enables businesses to create an immersive storefront for people to explore, browse, and purchase products directly from Instagram. By using features like product tags in posts and stories, businesses can transform their Instagram profiles into sales channels. When users click on a product tag, they are taken to a product detail page within Instagram that provides pricing, description, and a link to purchase on the business's website.

Did you know that around 72 per cent of Instagram users make purchase decisions based on what they see on the platform? Utilising Instagram Shopping can make it easier for customers to buy your products, ultimately increasing your business conversions.

The benefits of Instagram Shopping for your dropshipping business

Instagram has 2.4 billion active users, providing a vast audience for your products. Setting up Instagram Shopping allows you to reach potential customers that you may not have before. This increased exposure can significantly boost your brand visibility and attract new customers to your dropshipping store.

Instagram Shopping can also help reduce the chances of cart abandonment and increase the likelihood of impulse purchases. When you offer a seamless shopping experience by allowing users to browse, learn about, and purchase products using Instagram, you can drive higher conversion rates for your dropshipping business. 

Instagram is a highly engaging platform where users interact with content through likes, comments, shares, and saves. By integrating shopping features, you can leverage this engagement to boost sales for your dropshipping store. Interactive features like shoppable posts and stories encourage users to explore your products more deeply. Additionally, Instagram's algorithm favours content that generates high engagement, so your shoppable posts are more likely to be shown to a broader audience, further increasing your reach and potential sales.

Trust is essential in ecommerce, particularly for dropshipping businesses where customers may be cautious about shipping times and product quality. Instagram Shopping helps establish trust by enabling you to create a professional and cohesive storefront. Features like product tags and the Shop tab give your profile a polished, legitimate appearance. Instagram's stringent policies also ensure that only compliant businesses can set up shops, providing an additional layer of trust for consumers.

Instagram also provides valuable insights and analytics for business accounts, helping you understand your audience and optimise your strategy. With Instagram Shopping, you gain access to specific metrics related to your products, such as views, clicks, and purchases. These insights allow you to track the performance of your products, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions to enhance your marketing efforts and improve your product offerings.

Because Instagram Shopping is integrated with Facebook, you can seamlessly manage your product catalogue and sales across both platforms. This integration offers several advantages, including easier catalogue management through Commerce Manager and the ability to run synchronised ad campaigns on both Facebook and Instagram. This cross-platform approach ensures that your marketing efforts are cohesive and reach a wider audience, maximising your return on investment.

When compared to traditional advertising channels, Instagram Shopping provides a cost-effective method for marketing your products. Organic posts and stories with product tags can significantly increase traffic and sales without requiring a large advertising budget. Instagram's targeted advertising options also enable you to reach specific demographics and interests, making your marketing efforts more efficient and effective.

Steps to start selling on Instagram Shopping today

Getting approval

Before you can start selling on Instagram, you need to meet Instagram’s commerce eligibility requirements and be approved for Instagram Shopping. This helps keep the platform free from illegitimate businesses or products. Your online business simply needs to tick the following boxes:

• Your business must be found in a market supported by Instagram. You can get a full list of the approved countries here.

• Your business must sell physical products.

• You must comply with Instagram’s merchant agreement and commerce policies.

• Your business must own your online website.

• Your Instagram profile must be set up as a business account. If you have a personal account, you can easily switch it to business in your settings. We’ll go through how to do this in the next step.

Converting to a business or creator account

To use Instagram Shopping, you need to ensure your account is set to either an Instagram business profile or a creator account. Here’s how to convert your personal account:

1. Go to your profile and tap the three horizontal lines in the top right corner.

2. Scroll down to the “For professionals” section and click “Account type and tools”.

3. Click "Switch to professional account" and choose the category that best describes you.

Use commerce manager within Meta

Commerce Manager is a tool within Meta (formerly Facebook) that helps you manage your product catalogue and sales. Here's how to get started:

1. Go to Commerce Manager: You can access this through your Facebook Business Manager or directly via Facebook.

2. Set up your commerce account by following the on-screen instructions.

3. Choose your checkout method. You can use checkout on Instagram or direct users to your website to complete the purchase.

4. Choose the Instagram business account you want to set up with Instagram Shopping.

Connect to your Facebook business page

Since Instagram Shopping is integrated with Facebook, you need to connect your Instagram account to a Facebook Page. Here’s how:

1. Go to your Instagram profile and tap "Edit Profile."

2. Under "Public Business Information," tap "Page."

3. Select the Facebook Page you want to connect to.

Upload product catalogue

After creating your Instagram and Facebook pages, you can upload your product catalogue. You can manually upload the products using Commerce Manager or integrate your catalogue through your preferred ecommerce platform. Once integrated, you can upload your product catalogue to Instagram directly through Commerce Manager or by connecting to an ecommerce database.

Via Commerce Manager

1. First, log in to your Commerce Manager account.

2. Select "Catalogues”.

3. Click "Add Products”.

4. Select “Add Manually”.

5. From there, you can add your product name, image, description, and SKU if applicable.

6. Add a link to your website so your customers can purchase the product.

7. Choose the availability of your product, and add any categorisation details.

8. Add shipping and return policy information.

9. If your product comes in different variations like colours or sizes, you can also add this.

10. When you’re happy with the product and the specification, click “Add Product”.

Via ecommerce platform

Managing a large product range can be time-consuming, but there's a solution. Many popular ecommerce platforms, including Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce, offer seamless integration with Facebook and Instagram. This integration streamlines the process of adding and managing products, saving you valuable time. By showcasing your products on social media, you can enhance the shopping experience for your customers and reach a wider audience.

1. First, go to your Commerce Manager account.

2. Navigate to the Catalogue tab and click “Data Sources”.

3. Click “Add Items”, then “Use a Partner Platform”, then click “Next”.

4. From there, you can select your chosen ecommerce platform from the list.

5. You will then be taken to your ecommerce platform website where you can follow the steps to link your Facebook and Instagram accounts.

Submit for review

Once you’ve completed the previous steps, you’ll need to submit your account to Instagram for review:

1. Go to "Settings”.

2. Click “Sign Up for Instagram Shopping”.

3. Submit your account for review by following the steps.

4. You can check your review status by clicking the “Shopping” tab in “Settings”. The review process can take a few days.

Turn on Instagram Shopping

Once your account is approved by Instagram, you can turn on the Shopping feature and sync your product catalogue by following these steps:

1. Go to “Settings.”

2. Click “Business”, then “Shopping”.

3. Next, Select the product catalogue you want to connect to your Instagram account.

4. Click “Done”.

Setting up organic posts & stories with Product Tags

You’re officially ready to start converting your Instagram followers into actual customers. One way to achieve this is by leveraging the Product Tag feature on Instagram. Originally available only for a limited time, this feature is now accessible to any user with an enabled Instagram Shop, and to those who wish to tag your products in their own posts (don’t worry, you have control over who can tag your products). Product tags allow you to directly tag products in your posts and stories, making it convenient for your followers to shop. In fact, they can lead to a whopping  37 per cent increase in sales. 

With such a significant impact on your sales, you are probably eager to learn how to set up and use Product Tags effectively. Here's a step-by-step guide to get you started:

Create a new Instagram post

1. Select the photo or video you want to post and write your caption.

2. Tap "Tag Products" and select the product you wish to tag in the photo or video.

3. Search for the products in your catalogue and select them.

4. Tap the tick button and your post will go live with your shopping tags.

To tag products in Instagram Stories

1. Create your story, and tap the sticker icon.

2. Tap the product link sticker and choose the product you want to tag from your catalogue.

3. Publish your story.

To tag products in Instagram Reels

1. Record and edit your reel.

2. Tap “Tag Products”.

3. Add the products from your catalogue you want to feature in your reel.

4. Tap “Done” and upload your reel.

Setting up Instagram Shopping ads with Product Tags

Utilising advertising on Instagram provides an excellent opportunity to expand your customer base and enhance your sales. Integrating ads with Product Tags can significantly improve the chances of new customers purchasing your products. Ads on Instagram are a paid promotional method that enables you to target specific audiences, and they can be shown in users' Stories, explore pages, and feeds, even if the users don't follow your account. The exciting part is that ads offer more features compared to organic posts, including likes, call-to-action buttons, and product tags.

To set up ads with Product Tags on Instagram, you can either use Instagram Boost or Ads Manager. We will go through both methods below.

Using Instagram Boost

The easiest way to advertise your posts and products on Instagram is by promoting your existing posts. If you post on Instagram and it performs well, you can improve the success of the post even more by boosting it to users who don’t follow your account.

1. First, click “Boost post” on the post you wish to create an ad for.

2. Next, you can choose a goal for the post. The options are “More profile visits”, “More website visits”, and “More messages”. Choose the goal that best reflects your business goals.

3. Next, you can define your audience. For this step you have two options: either let Instagram choose your audience based on your follower data, or you can manually enter the audience you want to target.

4. You can now choose your budget and the duration you want the ad to run. Again, ensure this reflects your business goals and budget.

5. Once you are happy with your ad specifications, click “Boost post”.

6. Once your ad has been approved, you can see your ad’s insights in the “Promotions” tab of your Instagram profile.

Using Ads Manager

Ads Manager allows you to create more targeted ads and offers more detailed insights and reporting compared to boosting your posts. It does require more work, but in the long run, this method is worth it.

1. To set up your first ad, head to Meta Ads Manager and log in.

2. To create a new ad campaign, click “Create”.

3. Next, choose the objective you want the ad to focus on. You can choose from the following:

• Awareness: This reaches the largest number of people and targets those most likely to remember the ad.

• Traffic: This will help send people directly to your website or Instagram Shop.

• Engagement: This increases likes, views, comments, and shares on your posts.

• Leads: This helps collect leads for your online store.

• App promotion: If you have an app, this promotes app engagement and installs.

• Sales: This objective targets audiences who are most likely to purchase your products, ultimately driving sales.

  

4. Once you’ve chosen an objective that matches your business goals, click “Continue”.

5. The next step is to name your campaign. Make sure it’s something specific so you can easily find the campaign in future.

6. Once you’ve decided on a name, you can choose your budget and schedule.

7. The next step is to identify the ad audience. If you’ve created a campaign before, you can choose to either target the same audience or create a new audience. If you create a new one, you can define the location, age, gender, demographics, interests, behaviours, and languages of your audience.

8. You can now choose where your ads will appear. You can choose between Advantage+ Placements, which automatically place your ads based on where they are likely to perform well, or Manual Placements, where you can manually select where your ads are placed.

9. If you choose Manual Placements, you can choose the platform where the ad will appear, as well as the format of the ad, such as feeds, Stories, and Reels.

10. Now that you have a new campaign, you can create your Instagram ad, and click “Publish”.

11. Once published, you can check your Instagram Analytics to see how your campaigns are performing.

Summary

With over 2.4 billion active users, the Instagram app stands as one of the most effective platforms for increasing your online sales. One highly recommended method for achieving this is by establishing an Instagram Shop. This process involves a series of steps, all of which have been detailed in our guide. By following these steps, you can create a seamless shopping experience for your customer base. These steps include tagging your products in Instagram posts, Stories, and Reels, harnessing the power of Instagram to promote your content, and utilising Ads Manager to create impactful campaigns. By setting up an Instagram Shop, you can elevate your business profile to new heights. Don't wait any longer - start setting up your Instagram Shop today to leverage this powerful ecommerce tool, enhance your online presence, and ultimately increase your revenue.