Well, the days are gone in oblivion when people used to purchase products only from offline stores. Now, almost every young and experienced business owner is selling products and services through Instagram Shop.
And why not? After all, there are more than 500 million people who use Instagram on a daily basis. Instagram is getting deeper into ecommerce and it gives businesses all the right reasons to set up their Instagram Shop in 2024.
As per the social commerce stats, retail and social e-commerce sales in the United States are expected to soar to nearly $80 billion by 2025.
The stats represent a happy picture, and it shows a positive path for entrepreneurs to actively come forward and exhibit their inventory in a more professional and appealing way than ever before.
To be able to sell on Instagram, stick to your Instagram account and set up an Instagram Shop. This blog will assist you in understanding the process about how to set up an Instagram Shop storefront, benefits, and its features. But before that, let us first see the blog overview.
- What Is An Instagram Shop?
- Instagram Shop Launch
- Advantages Of Setting Up An Instagram Shop
- Features Of Instagram Shop
- Steps To Set Up Instagram Shop
- Sum Up!
- FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
You can scroll down or jump to a section of your choice.
What Is An Instagram Shop?
It is an online shop or a storefront on Instagram wherein business owners can present their products and services for customers to browse and purchase. It allows you to promote your brand through reels, stories, and regular posts. You can use different Instagram Shop features to further enhance the sales prospects, reach wider audience, and promote quick buying process. But all these business activities can be carried out only by setting up an Instagram Shop.
Instagram Shop Launch
To provide full benefits to the enthusiasm shown by the users so far for commerce on Instagram, the application first started testing its shopping feature in November 2016.
Voila! The Instagram Shop was launched in 2020 and received its tab shortly after.
Since its inception, the Instagram Shop has allowed users to set up digital stores on their Instagram business profiles. Through the shopping tab, users can browse, save the products they find useful for themselves, and purchase them as mentioned by businesses or tagged by influencers.
Advantages Of Setting Up An Instagram Shop
Owning a shop online will benefit you immensely. Let us see how!
- Instagram Shops make it easy for customers and viewers to find the right product quickly. Through shoppable product tags, users can know the product description and prices and make purchasing decisions immediately.
- You can enhance sales by running real-time advertisements on Instagram by using product tags. Consumers like to see products that are authentic and can be relied upon.
- You get a chance to conduct visual marketing, hence increasing the chances of creating brand awareness and ROI. Visual merchandising is amazing for new-age marketing. It increases user engagement and invites more eyeballs.
- Business owners get to leverage influencer marketing by linking the Instagram Shop with influencer marketing content. This practice can significantly enhance the customer base.
- Through the Instagram Shop, the buying journey gets shortened. The customers can finalize and purchase a product in a few clicks.
Features Of Instagram Shop
There are multiple features of Instagram Shop that make the process of buying and selling easy, smooth, and quick. These are as follows.
Collections
It allows you to customize your Instagram Shop by creating interesting themes around the products. For instance, you can segregate your collection by giving them names such as new collections, special additions, everyday essentials, etc.
You can also play around with the words and give your collection exciting names to make it more appealing and inviting for your customers.
Product Detail Pages
Also known as PDPs, these pages give all the information, such as prices and product descriptions about your inventory from the catalog. The product detail pages also gather the content from wherever your product gets tagged on Instagram. Also, it drives people to your business website to complete the sales funnel.
Product Tags
This feature has made it quite easy for customers to understand the product. By adding tags to your products, you can easily tap on the items and get to know the product information. You can directly highlight five items from your Instagram catalog in your stories, feed, or reels.
Advertisement With Product Tags
This feature will help you enhance your sales quotient because you can reduce cost per acquisition by 20% through ads and product tags. To do so, you can set the products related posts in the ads manager or boost existing posts through Instagram.
You can do a lot with the feature, but before you make the best use of it, you will have to set up your Instagram Shop. But before setting up your shop, let us see the benefits.
Steps To Set Up Instagram Shop
Suppose you are already there on Instagram; congratulations! You are just a few steps away from setting up your online shop.
Before That, Check Your Eligibility
There are some boxes you need to tick off before setting up the shop. Let’s see what the eligibility factor entails.
-
Check the suitable market: You will first have to see if your niche is in the platform’s supported market categories. To know if your business falls into the categories referred by Instagram, reach out to the application’s help center.
If your account does not fall into the eligibility criterion, you may not be able to tag your items. So, it is essential to look into the commerce policy set by Instagram Shop.
-
Product eligibility: Your inventory should be eligible to be kept in the shop to sell.
-
Business website: Your business has a website from where you wish to sell.
-
Follow merchant agreement policy: You strictly follow the guidelines in the merchant agreement of Instagram.
After completing the eligibility process, you will be ready to leap into setting up your own online Instagram Shop.
Here are the steps to do so.
Step 1: Create A Business Account
If you do not own a business account yet, then create one. You can simply convert your own Instagram account into a business. The steps are as follows.
Step 1: Open your Instagram account.
Step 2: Click on the three horizontal lines on the upper right corner.
Step 3: Click on Settings > Account
Step 4: Switch the account type.
You can access exclusive content insights to grow your business by converting your account into a business account. You get to enhance your brand's presence on social media in an authentic way.
An Important Step: After switching your account, link your Facebook page to your Instagram business account. If you don’t have a Facebook page yet, you will also have to create one. The steps are as follows.
Step 1: Go to your business Instagram profile.
Step 2: Tap on Edit profile.
Step 3: Click on Page, Connect or create.
Step 4: ‘Connect your Facebook Page’ will pop up.
Step 5: Click on ‘Create Facebook Page’ if you do not have a Facebook page yet.
Step 6: Click on ‘Connect an existing Page’ if you already have one.
A Pro Tip: Remember, if you are linking the pages, ensure that you are the admin of the Facebook page that you want to link; else, the page will not show up.
Step 2: Add Your Product And Services Catalog
To start your Instagram Shop, you would need a well-maintained product catalog. All the items you wish to sell should be added to that catalog. Following are the steps to create a catalog.
Step 1: Log in to the ‘Meta Commerce Manager’. Through the Meta Commerce Manager, you can set up your Facebook shop.
Step 2: Click ‘Add catalog'.
Step 3: Select your catalog type from the options, i.e., E-commerce,Travel, Real estate, Auto, Entertainment, and media.
Step 4: Upload the inventory manually or use a partner.
Step 3: Review Your Instagram Business Account
After creating your Instagram Catalog for products, the business account will be reviewed by Instagram. Follow the steps below to send it for review.
Step 1: Click Settings > Sign up for Shopping
Step 2: Agree to the Seller Agreement guidelines > Finish setup
Once you send your account for review, you may have to wait a few days to get your account authorized. After your account gets official approval, your Instagram Shop will be ready.
Now, it is time to feel good about your Instagram Shop. The space is all yours! You can maintain, manage, and customize your shop's look the way you want.
Now, if you do not own a business website, the good news is that you can still sell on Instagram without a website.
Sum Up!
How wonderful would it be to have a dedicated shop online, especially on Instagram? You no longer have to sell your inventory by sending product details to individual customers. Whether you are active on Instagram or not, your shop will always be available to your customers. Moreover, you will be able to edit and manage the content of your shop whenever and wherever you want.
Your shop will go along with you wherever you go. So, to keep the business running and to let the cash flow come, businesses need to set up an Instagram Shop.
If you are a business owner and have multiple business accounts on Instagram, then reach out to Statusbrew, the top-notch social media management platform for effective management.
Through Statusbrew, you can manage all your Instagram comments on posts, assign tags, generate performance reports for keywords, track the progress of your posts, and manage multiple Instagram accounts all at a unified inbox.
Besides this, you can also create and publish posts spot-on without the requirement of push notifications.
So, connect your Instagram with Statusbrew in just a few minutes and experience the easy workflow.
Statusbrew integrates your Instagram, WhatsApp and supports Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and even Google My Business.
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
Here are some commonly asked questions and answers about Instagram Shop.
Do you need a website to sell on Instagram?
No, you do not need a website to sell your products and services on Instagram. You just need an Instagram profile. However, to set up a shop on Instagram, you need to convert your account into a business one.
How long does it take for the shop to get official approval?
It usually takes one to two days. Exceptions are always there, so, in rare instances, it may take more than two days for Instagram to give shopping approval.
How much does it cost to set up an Instagram Shop?
Setting up an Instagram Shop is free. All you need is a Facebook page and an Instagram business account. These two are also free to create. So, you do not have to make any extra expenditure.
Explore the Statusbrew range of social media tools
Cancel anytime!