With over 3.5 out of 7.7 billion people engaging with the online world (Source), it is extremely important to ensure that your brand’s digital presence is optimized to its peak performance. One of the top digital platforms to optimize is Instagram because of the 1 billion users who are actively on the app every month. (Source) If you are part of an e-commerce company or online brand, now is the time to step up your game and utilize Instagram Shopping in your marketing strategy for the rest of 2020 and beyond.

This game-changing feature is a great way to showcase products and drive more sales without making your content feel like a targeted ad to your customers. With Instagram Shopping enabled, any individual who browses your company’s feed can tap on your post and purchase the featured item within just seconds. Fun fact: 130 million people tap on Instagram Shopping posts to learn more about a product. (Source) 

Benefits of Utilizing Instagram Shopping

Easier Product Discoverability

Instagram Shopping was originally available only on particular devices and in the U.S., but this year it is expected to become available outside the U.S. Having a worldwide reach means having the possibility of a more global customer base.

That being said, regardless of where your customer is, with the Instagram shop, product discoverability becomes extremely easy for the users as they can click on the shoppable tags to explore the details and pricing of the products in real-time to make a purchase decision. 

Authentic Product Promotions

Nowadays, consumers tend to trust authenticity & rely on user-generated content, or word of mouth marketing, for making their online purchase decisions over any branded content. You can build a more trustworthy shopping space by integrating all relevant UGC posts with shoppable tags to set up an Instagram shop.

It also helps in providing a realistic picture of the products, how people are using it, its aesthetic details, and reviews. This, in turn, can help in building brand advocacy along with sales. 

Opportunity for Influencer Marketing

Setting up an Instagram shop provides an ideal opportunity to leverage Instagram influencer marketing. Now you can integrate Instagram shop into the influencer marketing content to attempt driving sales directly with greater impact in terms of business results.

(Source)

How to Set Up Instagram Shopping

Setting up Instagram Shopping in your account is quite simple. Feel free to utilize Instagram’s easy guide on how to do so HERE or refer to instructions displayed below.

1. Go to your Profile Settings and tap Business
2. Tap Shopping. Note: The option to tap Shopping is only available to accounts that have been approved for Instagram Shopping.
3. Tap Continue
4. Select a product catalog to connect to your professional account.
5. Tap Done

How to Optimize Your Featured Shopping Content

There are a few tips and tricks to optimize your tagged Instagram shopping posts. Here are a few of our top recommendations:

• Instagram Shopping Feed Posts: Having tagged posts organically show up in people’s feeds feels less like a targeted paid ad. Producing this type of content feels less branded and more awe-inspiring.
• Utilizing Shopping Carousel Posts: With carousel posts, you can tag up to 20 products in your images, which makes it a quick and easy way to show off a full product range or create a lookbook for your brand. (Source) 
• Tag Products in your IG Stories: When watching your story, followers can now tap on a product sticker to learn more about the product and, ultimately, make a purchase. Tagging products in Instagram Stories can be a more organic way to promote shopping on stories, and allows you to share your  product details in a more subtle way.

Instagram Shopping is just one of many features that can be used to improve your customer’s experience interacting with your brand. Instagram Shopping is just one of many features that can be used to improve your customer’s experience interacting with your brand. The more positive, engaging ways you can think of to make your brand stand out will help to make your online reputation stronger! Which in turn, will make your customers feel more connected to your brand and will lead to more sales.

Lee McNiel