The evolution of Instagram has been action-packed. One day, we’re trying to find the perfect filter for a square-cropped photo of a cup of tea; the next, we’re exploring how to get approved for Instagram Shopping.
At least, that’s how this marketer’s story arc went.
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The platform has gone from a simple feed of blurry photos for our friends to a powerhouse for businesses looking to build awareness, generate leads, and sell.
But is it really worth the hype?
Below, we’ll explore new HubSpot research to answer this question, detail how to get approved for Instagram Shopping (with some advice from my own entrepreneurial adventures), and share some tips for selling successfully.
New to Instagram? Our free Instagram for Business Kit can help you lay the foundation for your strategy.
Table of Contents
Are Instagram Shopping tools effective in 2024?
“Effective” really depends on your business goals and resources. Still, HubSpot blog research found that 37% of social media marketers reported seeing 25-50% of viewers click through within the first 30 days of publishing a shoppable post on Instagram.
About a third of marketers said 25-50% of these clicks lead to purchases, while 40% estimated the same amount went to non-purchase-related conversions like email subscriptions or content downloads.
These numbers are nothing to scoff at, and they are only growing.
See more in “The HubSpot Blog’s Instagram Shopping Report: Data from 500+ Instagram Marketers.”
Clearly, Instagram Shopping can be effective for driving sales and leads that can be nurtured, but is it right for you?
Should you use Instagram Shopping for your business?
The simple answer is yes — and I say this as both a marketer, consumer, and aspiring entrepreneur.
For instance, the numbers show that social selling is poised to be a huge profit driver.
According to our 2024 Consumer Trends Report, social media is the #1 channel for product discovery for most consumers, and one in four users has actually bought something on a social app in the past three months.
Looking at this, 84% of my fellow marketers predict social media shopping will overtake third-party websites like Amazon and brand websites as the preferred channel for buying, and I agree with them.
Just think about your own buyer behavior. Social selling is really where things are shifting.
Our research also found modern consumers shop on their phones more than any other device, and this is where they’re most actively engaged on social media as well.
It only makes sense that the two behaviors unite to make shopping as convenient and, frankly, natural as possible.
Instagram, specifically, has an influence that can’t be ignored. According to GWI, it’s the social media platform with the highest cultural impact. It’s where billions hang out, learn, monitor news, be entertained, and even connect with brands.
It’s the world’s third-most popular social media platform and the second-most used for social purchases.
So, it’s certainly worth experimenting with. Plus, only about half of marketers today take advantage of Instagram shopping and social shopping in general.
That means brands that embrace them now truly have a chance to make an impact without worrying about noise or competition.
Learn more about the current state of Instagram marketing and how to adapt your strategy in our 2024 Instagram Engagement Report.
Benefits and Challenges of Instagram’s Shopping Tools
Let’s get more granular about what Instagram Shopping can look like for your business by breaking down the pros and cons.
Pros and Benefits of Instagram Shopping
1. Product Discoverability
When we asked marketers about the biggest benefit of using Instagram’s shopping tools, their number one answer was the increased product discoverability.
As we discussed, Instagram is the third most popular social media platform and welcomes around 2 billion monthly active users.
Also, according to the Kepios Instagram Statistics Report, 62.7% of Instagram users report following or researching brands and products on the app. Add features like the Explore tab, and the opportunity to get your product found by new buyers is massive.
2. Better Shopping Experience
Gone are the days when you needed to leave the app to make a purchase. Now, you can discover a brand and purchase all in the same breath. This means a more enjoyable process for consumers, which can lead to more sales.
In addition, Instagram’s “save” feature (similar to a wishlist) allows users to save products they’re interested in and even be notified if/when they go on sale. (I know I’ve taken advantage of this many times.)
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3. Easier Influencer Collaboration
Another key advantage of Instagram’s shopping tools is that influencers can tag products. When you work with creators, they can easily tag the products they’re promoting in posts or Reels and send traffic directly to the brand’s Shop page to take action.
Cons and Challenges of Instagram Shopping
Now, onto the not-so-great obstacles of Instagram’s shopping tools.
1. Fees
Recent HubSpot blog research found one of the biggest challenges for marketers is the fees associated with Instagram’s shopping tools.
37% of marketers aired grievances about Instagram’s selling fees, which are currently 5% per shipment or a flat fee of $0.40 for shipments of $8.00 or less.
This is a fairly high cost, but they could very well avoid it by directing traffic to their website instead.
2. Loss of User Data
Another big concern is the loss of user data. When Instagram serves as the end-to-end sales platform, brands can lose valuable data that could inform future strategies, such as browsing behavior.
Can Instagram Shopping be your only sales channel?
Our research uncovered that Instagram Shopping was the sole ecommerce platform for many brands.
In fact, 41% of marketers surveyed said most of the brands they work with use Instagram’s shopping tools exclusively. Is exclusivity a smart move, though?
One in four marketers said launching a product exclusively on Instagram is effective due to the high discoverability and ease of purchase.
83% even said they have worked with a brand that successfully launched a new product exclusively on the platform.
However, 15% said launching a product/service exclusively on Instagram is worse than launching elsewhere. So clearly, it could be hit or miss.
Pro tip: Test the waters first.
Like many things in marketing, I recommend approaching Instagram Shopping as an experiment. Honestly, considering some of the requirements, I was surprised so many businesses were using Instagram Shopping exclusively.
(More on that in our next section.)
But if you have met all prerequisites, have the means to maintain your Shop, and can afford the fees, go for it. Try listing your products to see if it helps boost sales.
This data will help you determine if it’s worth investing more or even all your efforts into the channel.
How to Get Approved for Instagram Shopping
Now that you have an idea of what to expect from Instagram Shopping, how do you actually get started?
As someone who has tried to set up Instagram Shopping for a passion project, I can tell you it’s not exactly easy. Nevertheless, it can be summarized in three big steps.
1. Make sure you meet all of the prerequisites.
To get approved for Instagram Shopping, you need to meet some specific criteria.
- Your business must be located in a supported market. (Instagram is currently available in about 20 countries.)
- Your business must comply with Instagram and Facebook’s Commerce Policies and Commerce Eligibility Requirements, demonstrating trustworthiness and accurate information about your products.
- Your Instagram account must be a business account. (Not creator, business.) This account must also be linked to a Facebook Page.
- You must have a website for your business.
- You must “check out on Facebook and Instagram” enabled. (This requires sharing tax and personal payout information.)
Sounds pretty direct and helpful, right? Hate to break it to you, but it’s not.
Things can get tricky once you start digging into the various links and policies. Meeting the criteria is often a process in itself. Speaking of which…
Pro tip: Before applying for Instagram Shopping, focus on growing your follower numbers.
Many of Meta’s policies are frustratingly vague, particularly the “Commerce Eligibility Requirements.
Regarding them, the website states that you must have “an authentic, established presence. This may also include maintaining a sufficient follower base,” but the specifics of what this means are not listed anywhere.
When I managed to get on the phone with Meta support last year for my store, I uncovered you must have at least 100 followers on your Instagram or Facebook page before you are eligible for Instagram Shopping.
While not the 10,000 it used to be, this is still a barrier to entry for new businesses, and Meta doesn’t state it anywhere.
Full disclosure: It’s been a while since I had this call, so I’m unsure if this follower minimum is still in place. But, granted, this was similar to the Facebook Live requirements (and those are still enforced), I think it’s worth not taking any chances.
Focus on growing your presence on Instagram, then go down the shopping road. I share 17 tips in this article.
2. Submit your product catalog.
Once all the pieces from step one are in place, you can create a product catalog in the Meta Commerce Manager to connect to your Instagram.
This catalog can be manually added (steps here) or pulled from another platform, such as Shopify or BigCommerce (steps here).
Personally, mine was pulled from a Square online store.
Note: This is actually where my Instagram Shopping journey paused.
From here, I learned I needed to have “check out on Facebook and Instagram” enabled, which required sharing personal information for taxes. It all makes sense, but definitely consider your feelings about data privacy before doing this.
3. Turn on Shopping features.
After your catalog has been reviewed and approved, you then need to actually turn on your Instagram shopping features.
To do this:
- Go to your Instagram business profile in the app and tap the hamburger menu. (The three horizontal lines are in the right-hand corner.)
- Hit “Settings.”
- Then, tap “Business” and “Shopping.”
From here, you should see a message confirming your account has been approved for Instagram shopping and find the “Shop” button added to your Instagram profile. Finally!
Instagram Product Tagging
OK, I know that was a lot, but hey, you made it farther than I have so far. Congrats!
Now, you can start adding Instagram product tags (some call these Instagram Shopping tags) to your content.
Why should you tag products? Well, having your product catalog on Instagram is only helpful if people can find your products. Tagging is the easiest way to ensure that happens.
Plus, brands that use product tags generate 37% more sales than those that don’t.
How to Add Instagram Product Tags
You can add Instagram product tags to many different types of content on the platform, including feed posts/carousels, Stories, and Videos/Reels. Here’s how, according to Meta.
How to Tag Products in Instagram Feed Posts (Including Carousels)
- When creating (or editing) a feed post, tap “Tag Products” to open the tagging menu.
- Tap on the object you’d like to add product tags to.
- Search your catalog to find the product you want to tag.
- Select the product(s).
- Tap “Done.”
Dollar Shave Club is great about tagging products in its feed posts. As you can see in this example, they tag a different product on each slide of the carousel.
How to Tag Products in Instagram Stories
- When creating a story, tap the sticker icon.
- Tap the “Product” sticker and select the product you want to tag.
- Publish your story.
Many brands opt to link to their website in Stories to check out rather than tagging products — possibly to avoid fees — but Allbirds does a great job of including a mix of both.
Again, people can only use your Instagram Shop if they know it exists. Linking to it in content that gets a lot of eyes, like Stories, is a smart way to get the word out.
How to Tag Products in Reels/Videos
- Once you’ve recorded your reel, tap “Tag Products.”
- Add the products or collections you want to feature.
- Tap “Done.”
South Asian fashion line HoliChic by Megha is not shy about tagging products in creative Reels. Just take this video, for example.
Watching this, many of you may be thinking, “But what if the products sell out?” Wouldn’t that make the content obsolete and create a bad customer experience?
While users may be disappointed to see a product out of stock, it’s not like they’ll get slapped with a 404 page.
Tagging products in Reels still takes viewers to your Instagram Shop even if the products are sold out, so they can explore similar options.
Who knows, maybe they’ll find something they like even better.
Note: Businesses can tag up to five products per post and include tags in captions and Instagram Lives.
Savvy Tips for Getting the Most Out of Instagram Shopping
So, you know how to tag products and lead people to your Instagram Shop, but how can you truly get the most out of it? Here are some expert tips and tricks.
1. Optimize your product detail pages (PDP).
Like you would on your website or ecommerce store, optimize the product detail pages in your Instagram Shop to create the best shopping experience.
This means including the details buyers need to know to make a smart purchase decision in your descriptions, like:
- Pricing
- Product size/dimensions
- Materials/ingredients
- Product uses/benefits
- Shipping/return details
World Market has impressive PDPs, though they uniquely lead users to check out on their website rather than directly on Instagram.
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You can view full details about the product, its price, how long it takes to ship, and even return information.
Need help with writing your product descriptions? Check out our article, “8 Strategies for Writing Product Descriptions That’ll Generate Revenue.”
Pro tip: Product descriptions are also a great use case for AI tools like HubSpot’s Breeze.
2. Include high-quality images and videos.
Another important part of a successful product detail page on Instagram Shopping is high-quality images and videos.
As with any online shopping, people can’t touch and feel the products they’re browsing on Instagram like they could in person.
The visuals on your product page are their only chance to get an idea of what they’re actually buying, so make them clear, detailed, and visually appealing.
Once again, I have to praise HoliChic here. Their PDPs always include multiple visuals of their products, including studio and editorial images and videos.
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If you’re new to product photography, don’t worry! Our article “The Beginner’s Guide to Product Photography [Tutorial + Examples]” can help.
3. Work with influencers and customers to tag products.
Another thing you’ll notice on HoliChic’s PDPs is that they include tons of influencer and user-generated content.
That’s one of the best features of Instagram Shops if you ask me — The pages automatically pull in content where the product is tagged on the platform to provide even more detail for potential buyers.
Knowing this, you absolutely want to collaborate with influencers your audience loves to promote and tag your products in their content.
Affiliating with voices your buyer’s trust speaks highly of your brand and helps you reach new audiences and increase your chances of getting sales.
Dig deeper into Instagram Influencer Marketing in The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Influencer Marketing for Brands.
Nike takes advantage of this in their Instagram Shopping strategy. As you scroll in their shop, you’ll see it highlighted in a section labeled “shop the feed.”
4. Set up collections (aka categories).
Collections, or categories as they’re also listed, are one of the best ways to keep your Instagram Shop organized and make it easier for shoppers to navigate and find what they want.
Like Bath & Body Works, you can use collections to group products by themes, like new arrivals, gifts, seasonal trends, and even collaborations.
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5. Be careful not to overlap tags.
As mentioned earlier, you can tag up to five products in your Instagram posts. However, be careful not to overlap them visually.
While it can be an eye-catching experience to tap on a post and see a bunch of different links come up (at least, I think it’s a fun surprise), if one tag covers another, it can look messy and confusing.
It also makes the tags in question harder to click.
In this example, Glossier does a great job of getting a lot of product promotion out of one post, but I wish the tags were just a little more spaced to make them easier to read.
6. Add Stories with product tags to Highlights.
Stories are Instagram’s most popular feature, so, of course, you want to tag your products in them. But remember, Stories expire after 24 hours.
Don’t let all that great content go to waste. Make sure to add any Stories that include product links to “Highlights” on your profile so they don’t just disappear.
By doing this, your audience can enjoy the content for as long as you want to feature it, and an additional link and tag to your shop is maintained.
I really like Allbirds’ strategy of using Highlights to organize tagged Stories by product.
In fact, that’s where I got the example I shared earlier.
7. Promote your product content with ads.
Everything we’ve mentioned so far is a tried-and-true organic tactic, but let’s face it — it can take a while to see organic results on social media. If you have the budget, try promoting your product-focused content using Instagram ads.
Instagram ads (run through the Facebook Ads network) let you get specific about the audience you want to reach and pay to get your content in front of them.
Here are a few articles to get you started:
- The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Stories Ads
- A Step-by-Step Guide to Advertising on Instagram
- The Guide to Instagram Ad Costs
- Instagram Ad Specs & Sizes: an Updated Guide
Pro tip: If you’re just starting out with Instagram ads, don’t start from scratch. Experiment by “boosting” a post that is already getting strong engagement. What’s a boosted post, you ask? This article can explain.
Get approved, and get results.
Shopping on Instagram may not be the most common behavior right now, but it is growing.
If you’re an ecommerce business with the funds and the followers, use the tips we outlined in the article to get approved for Instagram Shopping and start seeing what kind of results it can drive for you.
