How to set up Instagram Shopping

Instagram is a huge social platform with more than 1 billion monthly users. They’re not only people who view photos and videos but also target audiences who buy products online. 

Instagram is a perfect place for find customers. Read the best business ideas to launch on IG. Now it’s more simple than ever to promote your brand and sell. Let’s find out how to set up Instagram Shopping and how to use this feature. 

Instagram Shopping is a way to promote your products for free in the feed and the Explore tab. You show your product from different sides and in use. At the same time, you give links for buying the product. These make the promotion more engaging and less annoying.

After you set up Instagram shopping, you can tag products on your posts and in Stories. The added tags direct users to the product pages on your website. This can also be your catalog page on Facebook or a partner's website like:

You can tag add up to 5 shopping tags on an Instagram photo or video. You can do this when uploading a new one or when editing an old one.

Shopping tags are also available in Instagram Stories. You can add only one Product sticker. But you can tag up to 5 products using it according to Facebook Help Center.

You must have a catalog on a marketplace or Facebook to set up Instagram shopping. If you have one, follow the steps below. If you don't have one, we recommend creating it in FB Commerce Manager.

Here is how you can set up Instagram Shopping in your account:

Below you will find the instructions on how to add and set up a shop in your Instagram account.

The steps you should take to add a shop to your Instagram account depend on the platform you chose for your shop. That's because most of the steps are taken on it. We will show only what you should do in the Instagram app.

So, you are sure you have a Business Account, now you should follow these steps to set up Instagram Shopping:

01. Go to your profile page.

02. Tap Add shop.

03. Tap Get started.

04. Continue by tapping Connect Facebook account.

05. Choose a Facebook account.

06. Specify your email.

07. Tap Next.

08. Choose a catalog from the available options. These may be catalogs you created on Facebook or a partner's platform. You can well create a new catalog at this point.

09. Tap Next.

10. Choose a website your products are placed on.

11. Tap Next.

12. Check the details and confirm you agree to Seller Agreement.

13. Tap Submit for review.

14. Tap Done.

Your account will be reviewed, once Instagram approves it for Shops, you can continue.

You may not get approval for using the Instagram Shopping feature. This happens even to those who have never posted anything controversial. And don't expect the platform to explain it. The irony is that being a platform for close communication with the audience, Instagram is not quite willing to communicate with its own audience.

If your Instagram account was not approved for Shops don't fall into frustration! You can request another review. But before that, make sure your account is ready for it.

Check your Instagram account for meeting the platform's rules before you submit it for the review. We know there are a lot of them, so check the most crucial for the first and hopefully the last review. They are the same that help you to avoid shadowban on Instagram:

Also, note that accounts using messaging as a checkout on Facebook are not approved for Instagram Shopping. Make sure you have another option chosen.

If you meet all the requirements, submit for Instagram Shopping again. Tap request another review in the message you've got from Instagram. 

When you've added a shop, you can say you've set up Instagram Shopping in your account. Now you can use the feature and tag products from the connected catalogs in your posts and Stories. Also, you can create a guide on Instagram to group products in the special tab on your profile page. You will see new shopping settings for this. 

You can add up to 5 shopping tags to a photo or video on Instagram using the shopping feature. So, if you post a carousel, you can tag 20 products in total. 

Tagging products is as easy as tagging people on Instagram posts. You can do this when posting or when editing a posted pic or video. The feature for adding a product is in the same menu you usually tag a person.

When you want to add a shopping tag to a new post on Instagram, start posting as you usually do, and tag your products in the last editing menu. After that, just tap done and see the post appear in the feed.

Here are a few tips on how to use Instagram shopping tags in posts effectively.

Instagram shopping tags in Stories are added with a sticker. You can add one shopping sticker to one story only. But one sticker lets you add up to 5 products from your catalogs. 

Start posting a story like you usually do on Instagram. Then, open the sticker menu in the editor menu and choose the shopping sticker. Choose products and finish posting the story. 

Note that you can't change product names when tagging products on Instagram. The names will appear as they are in the catalogs. If you want to change them, you should do it in the catalogs.

Instagram allows promoting your shopping posts. You can boost them using the IG tool or launch ads in Commerce Manager. Do this to reach more prospects on the social network.

Read our guide on how to boost posts on Instagram. There you can find step-by-step instructions on how to promote your content using the app tool.

If you want to create an ad for your Instagram shopping post in Facebook Commerce Manager, follow these steps:

01. Tap Create Ad.

02. Choose Boost existing content.

03. Choose Instagram.

04. Tap Boost post near a shopping post you want to advertise on Instagram.

05. Fill in the fields. You can set a goal, audience, duration, and budget, read how to do this in the guide we mentioned above. If you are a beginner, we recommend changing only the budget and duration. Tap Boost post now. 

Instagram Shopping is not just for fun that you might have when setting it up, you use it to do business. That's why you may want to be sure your business is doing great and it will pay off. Use Instagram Insights and Google Analytics for this. 

Track metrics in these tools to tell how your Instagram shopping posts perform. The figures and their changing give an understanding of whether you are going in the right direction. They also tell what posts and Stories sell best in your account. 

When you know which Instagram shopping posts and Stories make your audience buy, you can make your marketing strategy more effective. Post more alike content to get more sales. 

When you see the statistic numbers corresponding to your Instagram shopping posts getting worse, you can immediately take measures to reverse the situation. Maybe, you see the engagement and reach falling, then you can use these Instagram growth tools to make the metrics go up again.

Instagram Insights is an inbuilt tool that allows you to learn more about your audience and content. You can see the statistics to understand the success of your campaigns. What more, you can see the figures for each of your Instagram shopping posts and Stories to understand what sells better. 

Instagram Insights provides you with such information as the number of followers and their growth, user activity (the number of profile visits, likes, comments, views, and users’ source of content), and information about your audience (age, gender, etc).

There are also metrics for how many people tapped your Instagram shopping tags in the feed and Stories. You can see the number of taps on the product page.

Google Analytics also tells you which Instagram shopping posts and stories sold more and which products are more popular among your audience. This tool will give you a lot of new insights if you provide payout out of Instagram.

What you should do is generate links with UTMs for each of your products. You can do it in google Campaign URL Builder for example. You use these links to navigate users from your Instagram shopping posts and Stories to the catalog or payout page. 

The information UTM links give you will be your key to Instagram Shopping strategy optimization. You can track traffic and conversion, and by analyzing them, you will figure out what works for your audience best. 

Let's say you added a post and a Story showing the same product. Both of them have Instagram shopping tags. These tags are links with UTMs. Some people have already followed these links and bought the product.

In this case, Google Analytics has an advantage over Insights. In Insights, you can see how many people followed the links, which is quite usable, of course. The UTMs in Google Analytics can tell you this too. But the UTMs can also tell you who exactly bought the product — those who come from the story or those who come from the post. 

Instagram Checkout allows you to receive payments right in the app. Fewer clicks mean there are fewer chances your prospects slip away. And that makes running a business on Instagram more profitable for you.

Instagram Checkout is still a beta feature. Only eligible US shops can use it. But if you are one of them, you definitely should try it!

We have to admit Instagram Shopping feature is quite usable. But only if you meet all the platform's eligibility requirements. And only if you've got your head around setting it up, which is quite a challenge! That's why we want to suggest an alternative.

The good news is that you don't have to set up Instagram Shopping to sell online. Having an account is more than enough. Here is what you should do:

There are two ways to set up a shop on Instagram. You can use the Instagram shopping feature or make your profile page into a shop.

The Instagram Shopping feature can be set up in a Business Account: 

When your Instagram account is approved for shops, you can use the feature and tag products in your posts and Stories. 

Turn your Instagram profile page into a shop. You need no shop website and catalogs, and no eligibility approval for this way.