The future of e-commerce is here. Welcome to the era of Social Media Commerce, now available to all businesses through the Instagram Shopping experience.

If you think that social media is just a channel for sharing your holiday snaps and photos of the banana bread, think again. Nowadays, 81% of people use Instagram to research products and services and 50% are more interested in a brand when they see ads for it on Instagram.

Why Instagram Shopping?

First and foremost, it enables brands to tag products in posts, Stories and the Explore tab. The in-app checkout feature allows users to buy your products without leaving the app. In other words, your IG profile has become a virtual storefront that replaces an e-commerce website for all intents and purposes.
Secondly, by combining the discoverability of new content with the interactive nature of social media to comment, share and recommend, you get the secret recipe for virality. Add a seamless user experience to shortcut the shopping customer journey and you get the recipe for success!

Given all of that, what are you waiting to allow your audience to buy products directly from your Instagram profile? Setting up an Instagram store requires a few quick steps that you can check below.

How to set up Instagram Shopping to Sell Directly on Social Media

Step 1: Confirm your Business eligibility

Before starting to set your shop, make sure you meet Instagram’s eligibility requirements:

• Is your business located in a supported market?
• Does your business sell physical goods?
• Does it comply with IG’s merchant agreement and commerce policies?
• Do you have a website domain from where you sell your products?

If you ticked all the boxes, go ahead to the next step. Remember to convert your account into a Business/Creator account (if you haven’t done so yet).

Step 2: Connect your business account to a Facebook page

1. 1. Open your Facebook Page.
   2. Select “Settings” from the left menu.
   3. Select “Instagram”.
   4. To add an Instagram account to your Page, select “Connect Account”. Enter your Instagram account’s Username and Password, and select “Log in”.

Step 3: Connect a Product Catalogue

A product catalogue is a container that holds information about the items that you want to advertise or sell across Facebook and Instagram. You can create catalogues for different types of inventory, such as products (e-commerce), hotels, flights, destinations, home listings or vehicles.

You Instagram shop will pick up the products you tag from your Product Catalogue. There are two ways you can connect it to your account:

• Through catalogue manager, using a form, data feed (similar to Google Shopping), or Facebook Pixel.
• Through your e-commerce platform, like Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento and similar.

Catalogue Manager

1. Go to facebook.com/products
2. Click on “Add Catalogue”
3. Select your inventory type and click on “Next”
4. Select “Upload Product Info” to manually pick the products you want to display on your profile
5. Select the Business Manager account your catalogue belongs to (*You must be an admin of the Business Manager account to select it)
6. Enter a name for your catalogue
7. Click on “Create”.

E-commerce Platform Integration

1. Go to facebook.com/products
2. Click on “Add Catalogue”
3. Select your inventory type and click on Next
4. Select “Connect Ecommerce Platform” to automatically import products you want to display on your profile and click on “View Next Steps”
5. Select Your Business Page as the Catalogue Owner
6. Enter a name for your catalogue
7. Click on “Create”.

Step 4: Submit your account for review

You can now submit your account for review:

1. Go to your Instagram profile and tap the three lines in the top right-hand corner
2. Select “Settings”
3. Sign up for shopping
4. Follow the steps to submit your account for review.

You can check your status at any time by visiting “Shopping” in your “Settings”. Instagram says it usually takes a few days for your account to be approved. In our experience, a few days usually means at least one week.

Step 5: Turn on Shopping features and start tagging products

Once your account has been approved, you can turn on Shopping and start tagging products on your feed and stories.

1. Go to your business’ profile and tap the three lines in the top right-hand corner
2. Tap “Settings”
3. Tap “Business”, then Shopping”
4. Select the “Product Catalogue” you want to connect to your account
5. Tap “Done”.

Tag a product in a post

To tag products in a feed post, upload a photo write a caption as you normally do when publishing content on your profile, but before hitting publish:

1. Tap on “Tag Products”
2. Tap on the photo above the product you want to tag
3. Search and select the corresponding product
4. Tap “Done” and share your post.

Product Stickers in Stories

To add a product sticker to your Stories, select a photo and follow the instructions below:

1. Tap the sticker icon in the top right corner
2. Select “Product Sticker”
3. Select the product you want to tag
4. Place the product sticker where you see fit
5. Share your story.

You are now fully equipped with the knowledge to set up your own Instagram Store. Brace yourself and start showing your products to the over 500 million Instagram daily users!

While tagging your products in your Instagram feed is an essential element of your organic strategy, we always suggest to invest in Paid Social as part of your advertising strategy to reach out to new, potential customers who may not be aware of your brand yet. Give us a shout if you need a hand to get started!