Everything you Need to Know About Instagram’s new Shopping Features.
With over 130 million users, Instagram is quickly becoming THE platform for social media marketing and now, social commerce with the ability to sell on Instagram. Instagram allows brands to strengthen their brand identity, engage with their audiences, and fits paid ads seamlessly into their consumers feeds by only showing products that are of interest to the user. Instagram has changed the way brands advertise and allows them to reach consumers without any of the traditional pushy and aggressive advertising tactics.
Now, more than ever before, consumers want to connect with the brands they love through social media by following them and interacting with the content the brands’ post. Instagram is an advertisers paradise, and now it’s even better with shopping features built directly into the app. Instagrams shopping features began with ‘store’ links in business profile biographies and call to action buttons like, ‘Shop Now’ or ‘Learn More’ which lead the consumer right to the businesses website.
Today, Instagram is quickly advancing in the online shopping industry with features like Instagram Checkout. Instagram Checkout will redefine the app and social media marketing as we know it in order to improve the ability to sell on Instagram.
However, not everyone can access these exciting shopping features. Instagram began with a trial in the United States, and now the features are available in Australia, the UK, Canada, Brazil, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. In order to access the shopping features and sell on Instagram, you must have your Instagram account set-up as a business profile and your business must meet certain requirements.
One thing to consider is that Instagram developed these shopping features for businesses selling physical goods rather than services. Since Instagram is owned by Facebook your company must also have a Facebook page connected to your Instagram account so you can create a Facebook product catalog.
To become eligible for these business features, your brand must:
- Be located in a supported market.
- Sell physical goods.
- Comply with the commerce policies
- Have a business profile Instagram account
- Have the account connected to a Facebook Page
Step 1
The first step in setting up Instagrams shopping features is to connect your Instagram business profile to a Facebook catalog. A Facebook catalog is where you can input information about your product information which can be used to create ads for your business. You can create a catalog on your own using the Catalog Manager or by using a Facebook Partner.
Step 2
Next you will need to wait for Instagram to automatically review the account and approve it for shopping features which can take up to several days. After being approved, you can enable business settings for Shopping on Instagram.
Step 3
Now that you’ve enabled shopping features, you can create posts featuring up to five products per post and up to 20 products on multi-image posts. You can also add one product sticker per story and and a adjust the colour and text of the stickers. You’ll also be able to add shopping tags to previous posts on your business profile.
Step 4
The final step in using shopping features is monitoring the shopping insights. The insights tab in your profile will provide information on how your shopping posts are performing and insight into your target consumers. Now you are ready to sell on Instagram!
Product Stickers
Have you been noticing those little shopping bag icons that pop up on big brands posts lately?
These are just another one of Instagram’s shopping features called product stickers. These product tags can be placed in photos, videos and stories to show that the content features products that are available for purchase.
These tags pop up when tapped to provide information on the product, the price and a link to the businesses storefront. This feature helps to streamline the social commerce experience and limit users from leaving the app to try to reach the brands’ online store.
Explore Page Shopping Story
Consumers are interacting with brands more than ever before with over 300 million users using instagram stories every day. Featuring shopping tags in stories is the perfect way to sell on Instagram by showcasing products and leading potential customers right to your store.
With the Instagram explore page, posts with shopping tags can be featured on the ‘Shopping’ story. Instagram’s explore page features content that is liked by people whose posts you’ve liked, posts from accounts similar to those that you follow, and posts with high engagement.
Instagram’s explore page helps users find new content to like and follow. If your brand has a limited following or engagement, featuring products on the explore page can help you reach a broader audience.
Shopping Collection
We all know what it’s like to have an online shopping cart full of items you want, but never actually buying any of them.
As online shopping and shopping apps become more popular, having the ability to bookmark or save products is crucial for those savvy online shoppers who are constantly adding to their virtual carts. Instagrams shopping collection feature allows you to do exactly that, by creating a shopping list where you can store products you’re interested in.
Modern consumers are influenced by social media more than any other age group. According to Web Marketing Pros 47% of millennial’s are influenced in their purchases by social media.
Instagrams shopping features are perfect for tying together social media shopping and influencer marketing.
Consumers can now see the descriptions for the products influencers wear or use and then save these products to potentially purchase later. Perfect for Christmas shopping!
Instagram Checkout
If you’ve ever bought something after seeing it on Instagram, you’ll love the new shopping feature. Now you can shop directly in the app without ever having to leave Instagram.
This exciting option that launched in March is predicted to be a lucrative move for the Facebook-owned platform. Barron’s Financial and Investment News has predicted that this service will allow them to increase their ad prices by 5% to 15%. However, not just any company can capitalize on this feature yet. Instagram is currently only offering this service to U.S. residents and an exclusive list of U.S. businesses.
Some of the current businesses providing this feature include:
- Adidas @adidaswomen & @adidasoriginals
- Anastasia Beverly Hills @anastasiabeverlyhills
- Balmain @balmain
- ColourPop @colourpopcosmetics
- Dior @dior
- H&M @hm
- Huda Beauty @hudabeautyshop
- KKW @kkwbeauty
- Kylie Cosmetics @kyliecosmetics
- MAC Cosmetics @maccosmetics
- Michael Kors @michaelkors
- NARS @narsissist
- Nike @niketraining & @nikewomen
- NYX Cosmetics @nyxcosmetics
- Zara @zara
The introductory launch of this service will give insight into how this feature will improve shopping and advertising on Instagram. As Instagram measures the success of the checkout element, they plan to expand the list of brands that can access this feature and potentially broaden the geographical availability. An Instagram spokesperson told TechCrunch that they are testing out a selling fee of an undisclosed amount for merchants which will help them to offset transactional costs and fund products and programs for Instagram shopping.
Although Instagrams shopping features are limited as of now, it is never too late to start planning for when you can access these elements!
If you want to learn how to enable Instagrams shopping features click here.
Sticky Buttons
Now that you know all the shopping features Instagram has to offer, you can also link social media accounts to your website to lead consumers to more content from your brand. The best way to feature social media accounts, promotions and email marketing is to include a sticky button on your website. A sticky button is a button for a website that stays with the user as they scroll through pages. These buttons can feature social media links, email marketing sign-ups, and chat bubbles for customer service.
Sticky buttons can also be used to bring users back to the top of the web page or lead the viewer to a particular social media platform.
SIVA Creative uses sticky buttons to make it easy for their website users to contact them through Facebook messenger and get more information on their services.
Not sure how to get this feature on your website?
Contact SIVA Creative about our April sticky button promotion and find out how this feature could improve your e-commerce site.
If your still feeling overwhelmed or confused by how to sell on Instagram and market using digital media, send us an email at info@sivacreative.com or leave a comment below and we’ll get back to you.
Will you be shopping on Instagram once checkout is available