Have you ever thought about showcasing your products via Instagram Shopping?
Instagram, the visual heavy content platform are upping their game when it comes to business pages selling to a widely engaged audience. In 2021, there was an estimated 30.57 million Instagram users in the UK, that’s nearly half of the population! Even still, the platform continues to grow, there are currently 25 million businesses worldwide using Instagram with more joining every day. Instagram provides a great opportunity for brands to tap into a millennial audience with non-intrusive advertising, aimed to compliment the user behaviour.
Social shopping is on the rise and predictably Instagram have invested heavily into enabling this feature for brands using their platform.
To step-up Instagram Shopping you need to follow these steps…
- Own a business account on Instagram.
- Run an Instagram account that is connected to a Facebook page.
- Primarily sell physical goods.
- Have your business account connected to a Facebook Catalogue.
Products can be shared via Organic posts, Stories, or more recently in the ‘Search & Explore’ section. The ‘shopping bag’ icon is known as a ‘Product Tag’ and when a user taps a product tag in either your post or story, they’ll be taken to a product description page where they will see:
- An image of the product from your post
- A description of the product
- How much the product costs
- A link that takes them directly to your website, where they can purchase the product.
Instagram continues to expand its shopping experience, by adding the ability to effectively save a wishlist of products spotted on either the Feed or Stories. Users can now tap the Product tag on an item, followed by a Save icon – located in the bottom right-hand corner. That will send the item to a new dedicated collection under the title “Shop,” which can then be accessed from their profile.
Not convinced as yet? Well, consider that Instagram Shopping is an extremely user-friendly format and appears like a generic post as users are navigating the platform. Shopping on Instagram provides an opportunity to encourage conversions and quickly complete transactions.
Getting content into the Search and Explore section of Instagram is an enviable position for brands. It can be a powerful sales tool as this spot on a user’s feed generally means that they have been viewing or engaging with similar content in the recent past. For example; if you have searched Ikea couches in the last week, you are more likely to be shown a top performing post from Made. Instagram’s algorithm conclude that you would be more receptive to this similar type of product.
Whilst it is difficult to influence the algorithm within the Search and Explore section, there are a few things you can do, such as; use trending hashtags and increase engagements like comments on your posts.
In our opinion Instagram shopping is great if you are a retail business or have a physical product and want to quickly increase the sales. However, the main drawback is, at the time of writing, they do not offer an eCommerce pay and check-out directly on the platform.
UPDATE 2021: Shops on Instagram;
Shops are an immersive full-screen storefront that enable businesses to raise awareness and drive sales. People can visit a shop from an Instagram profile or through feed and Stories. Once they’re at the shop, people can browse products, explore collections and purchase products without leaving the app.
More than a billion users, which are a near even audience split between female (51%) and Male (49%), make up for the 130 million taps on Instagram shopping each month.
If you are interested in setting up Instagram shopping and would like to find out if it is possible for your business please make sure you fill in the form to get in touch with Amber and the team.