Instagram Shopping: A Complete Guide to Selling on the Platform

As we enter the fast-paced modern era, digital advancement and technological revolution have paved the way for various effective and innovative strategies. Social media marketing platforms such as Instagram has established them as one of the most prominent and successful among the list. With its vast reach, user-friendly interface and robust marketing tools, Instagram is the perfect platform to showcase your products to a global audience. Whether you are a small startup or a large business owner, in today's business scenario where competition is fierce, Instagram offers an unparalleled opportunity to drive potential customer base and elevate your brand's identity to the next level.  In this article we will delve into the various features and benefits of Instagram and why it is considered as the best platform for selling and beyond.

Why Instagram is One of the Most Popular Social Media Platforms?

According to the latest estimation, Instagram is known to have more than 2.4 billion users worldwide. No matter the size of your business, Instagram is a powerful tool to elevate your brand's identity and salability. If you are looking forward to showcase your products directly to potential customers successfully it is highly recommended to create a profile for your business on Instagram. Because of its large user base and powerful tools, it helps connect businesses with their audiences and drive product sales. Before you create the first post on your new businesses' Instagram account, consider following some basics on how to set up a profile for your business, and use the platform effectively to promote your brand in a step by step manner.

Write a Captivating Profile

The very first step toward making Instagram your best ally for marketing, make sure you've logged in to your Instagram account and crafted an engaging bio. This is a vital step for you before connecting with global followers. Some helpful recommendations while writing your Instagram profile

• Include your company or store's name
• Add a short description of the brand
• Add a URL webpage linking to an Instagram-specific landing page or your business's website
• Try to make your key information eye-catching with emojis and other captivating ways
• Add important details such as phone number, email id and address
• Add a #hashtag to elevate your brand's name

How Many Followers do You Need to Sell on Instagram?

Although there is no particular requirement mandate of followers for selling on Instagram, still a bare minimum number of followers to make your posts or stories count, is 10,000. Once you have activated the 'Swipe Up' function in Stories, you will be able to add links to your Stories, or get verified (blue check) profile.  For accounts with over 10,000 followers, the 'Swipe Up' feature in stories is essential as it directs your followers towards your website or product page spontaneously. However, you can sell your products through Instagram and promote your store with a thousand followers or less successfully.

How to Start Selling on Instagram?

If you are a beginner looking for a proper guidance to sell your products on Instagram successfully, here are some valuable tips.

• Make sure that your Insta account adheres with Instagram's policies
• With a captivating bio try to represent your business and your domain clearly
• Make sure that your store is located in a supported market
• Confirm your trustworthiness by having business license
• Provide accurate information.

Is it possible to Sell Your Products Directly Through the Instagram Platform?

Some of you must be still wondering about can I sell directly on Instagram?  Well, the answer is yes!
By adhering with Instagram's commerce policies and eligibility requirements, anyone can enable Instagram Shopping for their store and allow customers to purchase directly through the app. Make sure that your store is having an Instagram account so that you can promote products for further advancements and scalability. It is needless to say that this approach of direct selling is indeed a valuable one for small scale shoppers as nothing beats the ability to buy an item with a single tap.
There can be featured names like 'Shoppable Posts', or 'Product Tagging' referring to your Instagram Shopping.

How Much Does it Cost to Sell on Instagram?

If you are worried about the pricing part to advertise or sell your products on Instagram, it is easing for you to learn that Instagram shopping is free. Although it is advisable that in order to use the Instagram Shopping feature, you need an online store by signing up with the ecommerce platform of your choice (pricing plans may vary). However, if you need faster results, you may have to advertise your products online with Instagram Ads.  Though it is not a mandatory requirement, still if you simply want to promote your products, using Instagram it is free.

Learn How to Tag Products on Instagram

For eminent businesses, partners and qualified users having an Instagram accounts, adding shopping tags to Instagram posts from brands can be an effective step toward increasing your visibility. If you want to get through the process of shopping on Instagram, you'll need an online store. Shoppable posts are only available for users that have an ecommerce platform which integrates with Instagram.

 Here is how you can tag your products on Instagram

• If you're 13 years old or older with a qualified and public Instagram account, you're able to tag products.
• If your account is active over the past 30 days and has no more than 2 policy violations you are able to tag.
• If your business has approved your access to tag their products as a branded content partner then you can tag.

Therefore, go to Account settings to confirm that you're added as a branded content partner with permission to tag products.

 Steps to Add Tags to the Products to Your Instagram Posts

After your account is approved for Instagram Shopping, here's how to enable product tagging for your profile

• Tap on create new.
• Select a photo or video and add a caption, effects and filters. Tap (Android) or Next (iOS).
• To Tap Tag products, you need to Tap the products in the photo or video that you want to tag.
• Search for the products you want to tag, and then select them as they appear in the search box.
• Tap (Android) or Done (iOS).
• Tap Share.

Benefits of Using Instagram for Business

If you are aiming to turn your profile into a powerful sales channel, here are some useful tips that can help boost sales.

• With a business profile you can view data on impressions, reach, website clicks, and follower activity thereby promoting your posts within the app just by clicking on the Promote button under each post.
• Try to run ad on Instagram by paid promotions that can allow you to reach your goals faster by harnessing the benefit of video ads, stories ad and photos ad
• You can add links to your stories as you get +10k followers, using the 'swipe up' option for leading your viewers to the URL.
• Take advantage of your bio for customers who want to learn more about a company before they make a purchase. Simply share a link to your Linktree page in your bio, and when followers click it, they'll see a landing page with all the links you've added.
• Use hashtags relevant to your niche and topic such as #healthcare tips. No need to include a bunch of irrelevant tags into one post. Instead, choose hashtags that best highlight the content of the image and caption.
• Content is the key. So always publish your photos or videos with a well-articulated content that is relevant and captivating. Try to diversify your content strategy by utilizing Instagram Reels for engaging snippets and Guides to create curated product showcases.
• To successfully sell on Instagram, you need to keep your audiences genuinely engaged with your content. For example, they found you in search or saw a repost on their friend's page and followed it back to your page.
• Promote discussions in the comments section of your products with the audiences for facilitating more engagement.
• Partnering with Influencers can be a bonus point for you as it can enable more engagements and boost your visibility.

How to Leverage Your Instagram to Grow Your Income

These days, it is actually possible to make money with your Instagram marketing without even having huge followers to make Instagram work for you. You can monetize your Instagram account by following a basic strategy of having engaged followers that like, comment, and tag their friends in your posts, and react to your Stories. The first step to initiate monetizing is by calculating your account's engagement rate. You can take your total number of likes and comments, divide them by your total number of posts, divide by followers, and multiply by 100. A 2-3% engagement rate is considered average, and a 4-6% rate is considered high. Once you have an engaged and a robust customer base, you can use the following tactics to monetize your Instagram.

• You can sell several articles on Instagram, from clothing and cosmetics to furniture and DIY products.
• Try collaborating with brands to make a post that promotes an advertiser's product on your page for a fee.
• You can print your art or logo on t-shirts, mugs, posters and sell your branded products.
• You can use the platform to promote a course you teach or a downloadable guide to educate your leads.

Conclusion:

Once you have made up your mind to sell your product through Instagram, It's always good to examine businesses that have successfully leveraged Instagram for sales to gain insights. Are you interested to take your business to the next level that can be a one-stop solution to a particular mass? Look no further than SEMReseller.

Dev Bhushan

Digital Marketing Specialist at SEMReseller

• Social Media

15 Oct 2024