It’s Time to Start Selling on Instagram Like A Pro

From top styles to quirky home décor finds, Instagram is brimming with inspiration. The popular app has proved to be perfect for sparking a buyer’s attention. And now with the app’s new shoppable features, selling on Instagram has never been easier.

For years, the struggle of not being able to directly link a website to an Instagram post positioned a gap between potential buyers and sellers. In the past, a website could only be linked in a profile’s bio. Fortunately, the latest shoppable feature makes it easier for businesses to take advantage of the 1 billion Instagram users, 80% of which are already following their favorite brands.

To gain access to shoppable posts, there are a few prerequisites:

• Your business needs to be located in the U.S., Canada, UK, Brazil, Spain, Italy, France, Australia, or Germany.
• Your Instagram app needs to be the latest version available in your country.
• Your Instagram account needs to be a business profile, which is free to set up. Make sure your profile is public when you do this.
• Once you have a business profile, you then have to connect it to a Facebook catalog. There are a few ways to connect to a catalog. You can create a shop on Facebook, create a catalog in Business Manager, or set up a shop for Facebook in Shopify or BigCommerce.

On a business’s Instagram account, individual shoppable posts will be marked by a shopping bag icon in the top-right corner and on the bottom left corner. Users will also be able to browse your “Shop” feed directly from your Instagram profile. These icons link right to your ecommerce website, making shopping a breeze for Instagram users.

Instagram business accounts can also utilize analytics for their shoppable posts, which include how many people viewed product information or clicked-through to its product page. This information helps to keep track of which products are gaining the most engagement and sales amongst your followers.

As you’re creating your shoppable post, be sure to include a few visually appealing aspects. Try out video posts or lifestyle images to better attract your consumer. When they identify with an image, consumers are more likely to click that “buy” button.

Variety is key when selling on Instagram as well. Switching up captions, hashtags, or call-to-actions will keep your customers intrigued and engaged.

Instagram is evolving into an ecommerce platform which means that businesses both small and alike can expose their products to hundreds of millions potential customers. Make sure that your business is selling on Instagram the right way. If you’re looking for help with your next social campaign, contact the social media experts at Kraus Marketing today.