if you have products to sell online and
you don't have an instagram shop then
you're making a huge mistake
instagram has over 1 billion active
users and they are ready to shop
according to a study about half of all
instagram accounts use the app to shop
every single week and 81 of people said
they use instagram to research products
before buying so selling on instagram as
an e-commerce business is an absolute
non-negotiable don't make the mistake of
building your business on an island to
increase sales you need to constantly
build bridges that allow potential
customers to easily discover your
products that's why in today's video i'm
going to show you what an instagram shop
is why it's a huge growth lever for your
business and how to set up instagram
shopping and make sure you stick around
till the end because i'm also going to
share some of the best ways you can use
its features so you can supercharge your
sales if you like this content stick
around and subscribe we're releasing new
videos every single week and are always
looking for new ways to help your
business thrive
[Music]
first of all what is instagram shopping
well instagram shops sync all of the
products that you have in your shopify
store directly into your instagram
account this allows your customers to
click on a shopping icon on your posts
or your stories to buy your products
directly from instagram customers can
view your entire product catalog without
needing to leave their favorite social
app this makes for a much smoother
experience for your customers and we all
know that less friction during the
buying process equals more sales on top
of this using instagram shopping makes
it way easier on you as a business owner
because you can simply use shopify to
track and manage your orders from
multiple sales channels all in one place
you can even use shopify to expand into
new audiences by running instagram ads
and when it comes to setting up
instagram shopping on shopify it could
not be more simple just connect your
online store to the facebook sales
channel and all your shopify products
will automatically sync into instagram
this makes creating ads and shoppable
posts a breeze
before you do this you'll need to make
sure you've set up a facebook business
page and have products in your facebook
catalog
so first things first make sure that
your personal account is converted to an
instagram business account and make sure
that your business sells physical goods
that comply with instagram's commerce
policies then you need to connect your
instagram account to a catalog start by
logging into your meta commerce manager
once you're in commerce manager click
add catalog then choose the catalog type
you'd like to create if you're an online
retailer you're going to want to create
an ecommerce catalog
then you need to upload your inventory
if you're selling a small amount of
products you can manually upload this
product information to your catalog or
as i mentioned you can connect a partner
platform like shopify to automatically
import all your items from there you
need to use the following steps number
one from your shopify admin click
facebook under the sales channels in the
left menu bar
number two click set up to start in the
instagram shopping section
step three connect the required facebook
accounts to the facebook sales channel
and step four review and accept the
terms and conditions then click request
approval
it does take 24 to 48 hours for facebook
to review your products but then boom
you can start selling on instagram
now let's go over the best tools that
instagram shopping offers which will
help you promote your products on the
app the first is shoppable posts these
are just what they sound like once
you've synced up your online store with
instagram you can tag your products in
any post on your feed this makes it
super easy for customers to click
through directly from any post and shop
and is a great way to make use of any
user generated content but more on that
later product stickers
similar to shoppable posts product
stickers let you tag your products in
your instagram stories and since there
are over 500 million story views every
single day and growing this is a great
way to feature your products again in a
way that is very clickable and engaging
for your customers if you've set up
instagram shopping and added in some
products your profile will automatically
have a very handy view shop option that
features all your synced products and
any of the posts that mention them this
is a very useful one-stop shop for
customers to see everything you offer
all in one place
curating your products into collections
is an awesome way to make it easier for
your customers to shop think of it like
creating different product categories on
your website for people to browse
through but you can now do that on
instagram too just note that as a
business account you will have to create
the collection on facebook's commerce
manager first then enable instagram
checkout in order to add it to your
profile last but not least the built-in
checkout that instagram offers helps you
unlock even more features like live
shopping for live streams or the product
launch feature which lets you build hype
for your products using countdowns and
reminders and if you're using shopify
it's pretty simple to set up the
facebook channel in order to sync up
your products and enable shop pay
directly through your instagram checkout
which offers a really smooth and
seamless process that is very easy to
use for customers unfortunately this
option is only available to american
accounts as of this recording but
fingers crossed they'll expand
eligibility sometime soon by the way if
you want even more info on how to grow
your instagram account and increase
traffic to your online store register
using the link below to gain access to a
free online course that will help you
level up your marketing by changing the
way you think about your store's
marketing funnel learn how to go from
first day to first sale in this free
training course be sure to click the
link in our description box below to
sign up and get the training sent
directly to you okay so once you're set
up with your instagram shop and you have
all of those awesome tools available to
you here are some of my top tips to help
you make the most of this platform
number one use product tags as i
mentioned before the product tagging
feature is one of the best ways to
increase click through to your products
and your store not only can you tag your
feed post just like you tag other
accounts but you can now mention
clickable products in your captions and
add product tags to your stories and
your reels not only is this super
helpful for customers to be able to shop
your products but tagging also helps you
get discovered in the first place
instagram's shop tab is curated based on
an algorithm meaning that your tagged
products can be shown to people who have
never heard of you before just because
they've shown interest in similar
products in the past in many ways this
is a win-win because you get to reach
new people and customers get introduced
to products that they're pretty likely
to love but typically only tagged
products will get featured on this tab
so it's a really good idea to
incorporate product tagging into your
regular social media marketing earlier
this year instagram also made the very
exciting announcement that soon
customers will be able to tag any
product in their own post from any brand
currently you can only tag your own
products when posting but just think of
how awesome it will be when your loyal
customers can tag your products and
spread the love for you so it's worth it
to set up your account properly now so
that you're all prepped and ready to go
once this feature rolls out
number two create shoppable ads
setting up instagram shopping lets you
take your ads to the next level which is
what you want if you're going to be
investing money into your marketing
using shoppable ads instead of regular
ones means that customers can click
through to product tags and shop
directly from the post if you're in the
us you can even run ads with instagram
checkout which means that customers
won't even have to go to your website to
see the product they could just check
out directly through the app these ads
can use one image or a whole carousel or
even video content to promote your
products and they're usually shown in a
customer's feed or on their explore page
now if you're going to be paying for
your products to be shown to new
customers you're going to want to make
the process as easy as possible for
those customers to click through learn
more and eventually purchase your
product shoppable ads are the perfect
way to do exactly that number three
partner with influencers
as i mentioned before instagram is
planning to release product tagging to
everyone sometime soon but for now the
only way for other accounts to tag your
products is to set up shopping from
creators and partner with influencers to
share your stuff again this feature is
unfortunately only offered to us-based
accounts right now but will hopefully be
available worldwide very soon once
you've set up your instagram shopping
account and added in all your products
you can head over to your settings to
find creators to list as approved
accounts this means that your products
can be shared by those influencers and
you'll get access to analytics for each
of their posts to see which content is
performing the best influencer marketing
is obviously a huge industry right now
and customers really love to shop
through accounts that they already know
and trust of course in order to do this
you'll need to establish relationships
with influencers in your niche which is
easier said than done but we do have a
great video about launching an
influencer marketing campaign if you're
interested in learning more about how to
leverage this strategy we'll link it
down below now as i mentioned before at
the time of recording this video live
shopping is only available to us-based
accounts but we have seen from
instagram's track record that they
typically use the american market to
test out all their new features before
eventually rolling them out
internationally so i think it's really
worth paying attention to what they're
piloting now and knowing that it will be
available more broadly in the future
put simply live shopping is exactly what
it sounds like this allows creators to
tag and share specific products while
they're doing an instagram live stream
this opens up so many possibilities for
brands because you're able to not only
showcase your product on video but you
can also simultaneously
answer your customers questions in the
moment you can create custom offers and
discounts and of course you have that
feature to link directly to the product
throughout the stream if you showcase a
product on the live in this way
customers just click add to bag and the
process is completely seamless from
there using instagram checkout i can see
this being a huge advantage in so many
industries for example think of beauty
brands that could do a whole get ready
with me video while linking to specific
products as they go or a dog trainer who
is showing you how to train a trick
while featuring specific treats and toys
we already know that the live format is
really engaging and fun for customers so
this feature just takes it to the next
level we love user generated content
around here it is such an awesome way to
both thank your customers for sharing
their products by featuring their photos
and for you to build trust with new
customers when they see your stuff being
shared organically by loyal fans and the
best part is that thanks to instagram
shopping you can now make this content
shoppable using the product tagging
feature that i mentioned before
obviously it takes time and traction for
customers to start sharing photos of
your products in action organically but
you can encourage them to do so by
making user-generated content an
important part of your marketing
strategy and regularly sharing photos
and testimonials from real customers in
your feed
another great way to do this is to
create a specific branded hashtag that
customers can use to connect with your
community the clothing brand free label
does this really well with their
my hashtag
label it serves a lot of purposes
customers have a place to share their
love for the product prospective buyers
get to see some social proof from real
customers and then the brand can share
some of the photos to promote their
products more widely whether we're
talking about feed posts or reels there
has never been a better time to start
integrating video into your ongoing
content creation especially for
e-commerce brands one study showed that
after watching a video featuring a
product 64 of social media users said
they were more likely to purchase that
product so this is really worth paying
attention to and investing in for your
own business the good news is that apps
like instagram and tiktok have made the
process of creating catchy videos easier
than ever before you can do it straight
from your phone and upload directly to
the app and since instagram in
particular is really trying to encourage
users to make more videos right now
video content is currently getting a lot
of reach and engagement within their
algorithm for product based businesses
especially video is an awesome way to
show your products in action if you sell
clothing you could use video to show
what all your dresses look like on
different body types or if you sell high
quality kitchen tools you could make a
recipe that showcases why your vegetable
peelers are so good seeing a product in
action makes it way more engaging for
customers which hopefully means way more
sales for you
one of the huge advantages of using a
platform like instagram shopping to
drive sales is that your customers are
already used to using the app to send
dms or leave comments or engage with
stories this gives you a huge advantage
because it makes it way easier to answer
their questions or address any
hesitations about your products and
ultimately this helps you provide better
customer support if anything goes wrong
instagram's quick replies feature is
incredibly useful if you're getting the
same questions repeatedly or just have
too many dms for you to handle alone
quick replies are basically like canned
responses that you can insert into the
message thread seamlessly anytime you
get a really common question
this saves you a ton of time and means
that your content and your tone will
always be consistent when you write
these responses in advance there's not
going to be any risk of typing in a link
wrong or forgetting to mention a
specific detail or you can take it to a
whole other level with automated replies
using a tool like manychat this is a
simple chatbot that you can program with
specific answers based on a customer's
keyword selection this is obviously less
personalized than sending a message
yourself but it can be an easy way to
address common concerns if you're
overwhelmed by questions in any case if
you're using instagram shopping as a
core sales channel in your business then
it's a really good idea to invest in
building some customer support right
into the way that you and your customers
use the app and there you have it some
easy ways to invest in instagram
shopping if that's the right sales
channel strategy for your business now
instagram is really interested in
building out its e-commerce features so
stay tuned because there will probably
be many more awesome tools available to
business owners in the coming months and
years and if you know how to take
advantage of them that could mean big
boost to your sales and more benefits
for your customers and this might go
without saying but in order to use any
of these awesome instagram shopping
features that i've been talking about
today you will need to have an
e-commerce store set up that integrates
directly with your instagram profile if
you don't have one yet you're going to
want to come check out shopify i can't
think of another ecommerce platform that
integrates as smoothly with facebook and
instagram while also offering such a
beautiful and powerful online store for
customers to shop but you don't have to
take my word for it because shopify
offers a 14 day free trial for you to
come check out all the features for
yourself and set up your store just the
way you like it click the link in our
description box below to access your
free trial and get started on building
your own ecommerce store today okay so
hopefully by now you have some good
inspiration for starting to build out
your instagram shop and now understand
how to use it to reach new customers if
you do have any questions about the best
way to set up your store or how to
promote your products make sure to check
out our other videos on instagram
marketing here on the channel or just
drop your questions in the comment
section below so we can get back to you
and help you out
our goal here on this channel is always
to support you to either start or grow
your online business because we really
believe that ecommerce is for everyone
so if you like this content stick around
and subscribe we're releasing new videos
every single week and are always looking
for new ways to help your business
thrive so until next time i'm stephanie
pellet i want to thank you so much for
watching and i'll see you in the next
one
[Music]
you