Selling on Instagram: A Quick Guide

The line between traditional ecommerce and social media has become blurred over the years. Users spend so much of their time on social media (around 15% of their waking life!) that it only makes sense to meet them where they are. Learning how to set up an Instagram shop in 2024 is an absolute necessity if you want to take advantage of these shifting ecommerce trends. 

Advantages and Limitations of Instagram Shopping 

Here’s why knowing how to set up shopping on Instagram is worth it, no matter what industry you’re in. 

Seamless Shopping

Selling on Instagram helps eliminate the friction often associated with traditional online shopping, encouraging impulse purchases and maximizing conversion rates. Instead of directing customers to a separate website, Instagram Shopping allows the browsing, selecting, and purchasing of products entirely within the already familiar Instagram ecosystem. 

This frictionless experience allows users to easily discover and interact with your products, leading to increased engagement and a greater likelihood of completing a purchase.

Better Brand Visibility

Instagram Shopping significantly increases brand visibility through its dedicated ‘Shop’ tab. Here’s how it works:

• Dedicated Storefront: The Shop tab acts as a virtual storefront when you’re selling on Instagram, showcasing your entire product catalog in a centralized location. This dedicated space allows customers to easily browse your entire collection and discover items they might have missed within your regular posts.
• Enhanced Discoverability: A dedicated storefront makes your products easily discoverable for both existing followers and potential customers. This feature alone is worth knowing how to set up an Instagram shop in 2024. Your storefront provides a clear and convenient way for users to explore your offerings, naturally leading to increased brand awareness and potential sales.
• Stronger Brand Connection: Buyers can exit the tab and learn more about a product by scrolling down your page and interacting with your community. This organic exploration creates a stronger connection not just with your brand, but also with other interested buyers.

Improved Engagement

Selling on Instagram opens up entirely new avenues for customer engagement. For instance, 73% of customers believe that live chat is the best way to communicate with a company. Instagram isn’t the only way to chat with your customers, but it certainly is one of the most organic methods.

Learning how to set up Instagram Shopping gives you access to in-depth engagement tools beyond just live chat, including:

• Live Shopping: Live shopping ties all these tools together. This feature uses your shop, Q&A sessions, and user interactions to create an engaging shopping experience for your followers. You can show off a product, allow users to engage with it through Q&A sessions, and seal the deal with a CTA. You can have multiple people host one live stream, put videos or still images up on screen during the stream, and so much more.

• Q&A Sessions: As mentioned above, within a Live Shopping stream you can ask questions, host polls, or run Q&A sessions to gather feedback and engage with followers. Once you’ve learned how to set up an Instagram shop in 2024, this is an excellent way to use your page to drive conversions. Staying connected with your followers through Q&As can help demonstrate your brand’s reliability, and it’ll make conversions easier for first-time shoppers.
• User-Generated Content (UGC): Encourage customers to share their experiences with your products by using a specific hashtag or running contests. For instance, you can feature content uploaded by a customer in a story while tagging your product in it. This way, every piece of content can work both as a testimonial and an ad when you’re selling on Instagram.
  
  It’s clear to see that shoppers love buying through these organic events if they’re done well, with live ecommerce sales set to hit $68B in 2026. The key to using this feature well? Branching out. There’s a lot more you can do with live shopping than just Q&As when you’re selling on Instagram, including:
  
  • Tutorials: Nothing builds trust like seeing a product in action. For example, an electronics store could host a session on how to use a newly released phone.
    
  • Reveals: Live shopping can take product reveals out of small auditoriums and bring them directly to every living room. Hosting a live reveal for an upcoming product is a great organic way to create hype. For example, apparel retailers can show off their products with a homegrown runway show.

The Limitations

Instagram Shopping is a powerful implementation of social selling, but there are a few limitations you should be aware of.

• Meta Restrictions: Businesses need to adhere to Meta’s restrictions if they want to sell on Instagram. For instance, businesses engaged in the trade of alcohol, firearms, or adult content are not eligible to use Instagram Shopping.
  
• Location Restrictions: These features are not available worldwide. If you’re interested in selling on Instagram and live outside of the US/EU, you can consult Instagram’s official support page to see if the feature is available in your region.
  
• Setup Restrictions: If you’re not sure how to set up an Instagram shop even in 2024, you might run into a few hurdles. The platform requires businesses to complete a few complex verification procedures and link their account with Facebook Business Manager to get started. We’ll dive deeper into this in the next section.

Setting Instagram Shopping

Unfortunately, learning how to set up Instagram Shopping isn’t quite as intuitive as we’d like. The easiest way to do this is with the app:

Setting Up Directly Through Instagram

1. Check Eligibility Requirements: Before you can start selling on Instagram, you’ll have to verify whether your business meets their eligibility requirements. Additionally, you must also have a domain associated with your business. 
2. Get a Business Account: You need to have an Instagram business account before you can apply for verification. Once you’ve set this up, you’ll need to link this to your Facebook page. 

This setup process is deceptively complex. Properly setting up a business account can be time-consuming, and if your verification application is rejected for any reason, it can be difficult to figure out what went wrong. 

You’ll also want to be careful when creating your product catalog, as it can impact your store’s visibility and overall SEO once it’s live. Stores will sometimes forget to remove old discontinued SKUs or hide test products from their catalog. These mistakes might seem minor, but they can create a very frustrating experience for shoppers.

If you’re interested in selling on Instagram, we recommend working with a trusted social media marketing agency to avoid these issues. Expert guidance can go a long way and even give you a headstart in your social selling journey.

How To Set Up an Instagram Shop in 2024: Unique Seller Tools

Once you’re done with the setup process, you’ll have access to multiple powerful seller tools. 

• Shops: This is the central hub of your brand on Instagram, an overarching digital storefront that lets people buy your products directly from your business page. A well-structured and visually appealing Shop is essential for optimizing product discoverability and driving sales conversions when selling on Instagram.
  
• Product Tags: Product tags serve as a direct link between posts and shoppable products. When a user taps on a product tag within an Instagram post or story, they are redirected to the corresponding product detail page. This seamless integration lets businesses leverage their existing content to boost sales and enhance the customer experience. Properly using these tags is a big part of understanding how to set up Instagram Shopping.
  
• Collections: Collections function as categories within your shop, making navigation and product organization easier. For example, an apparel retailer can create categories like ‘New Arrivals’ or ‘Winter Sale’ to help their products stand out when they’re selling on Instagram.

• Ads with Product Tags: These tags allow businesses to extend their reach through targeted advertising campaigns. The idea here is to incorporate these tags into paid Instagram ads, using them as a springboard to target specific demographics and interests. If you already know how to set up an Instagram shop in 2024, you should be making the most of this powerful tool. 

Measuring The ROI of Your Instagram Shop

Social commerce offers sellers a rare opportunity to monitor true monetary ROI. Usually, agencies estimate this metric by looking at measures like brand awareness and engagement. While these aspects are valuable, they don’t always equate to revenue. 

If you’re selling on Instagram, you can make the most of this opportunity by using the in-built analytics dashboard. The dashboard gives you insights into useful metrics like:

• Shop Visits: See how many people are browsing your shop.
• Product Views: Track which products are catching customers’ eyes.
• Checkout Completions: Measure your conversion rate and identify areas for improvement.

Can You Set Up Instagram Shopping on Your Website?

Yes–with an asterisk. You can set up Instagram Shopping on your website, but it ultimately depends on your website-building platform. WordPress users can leverage plugins like Smash Balloon’s Instagram Feed Pro to add a fully customizable Instagram feed to their website. 

Setting up Instagram Shopping on your website is significantly more complicated than setting it up on the app. If you’re unsure how to set up an Instagram shop in 2024, reach out to our team for a customized plan and let us help.

Instagram Shopping Trends to Watch in 2024

Selling on Instagram is all about capitalizing on trends. Black Friday / Cyber Monday, for instance, drove record sales of over $281B back in 2022. This figure is only going to increase as more people grow comfortable with social selling–here’s how you can tap into trends:

• Collaborate: Collaborations are a huge part of utilizing Instagram Shopping, as the platform is designed to facilitate them. If a relevant holiday is coming up, contact influencers who might be active in your industry and set up a collab. You can do this in a few different ways:
  
  • Sponsored Posts: This is the easiest way to collaborate with another account. Get in touch with a more influential account via DM/email and see if they’d be willing to feature your product in a sponsored post. When the creator uploads the post, they can use the ‘Invite collaborator’ feature to highlight your profile next to theirs.
    
  • Live Sessions: These collaborations take more effort, but they can also be much more engaging for viewers if you’re selling on Instagram. A live session could involve co-hosting a Q&A with an influencer where you discuss a particular product, including a link to reel in their audience.
    
  • Takeovers: In this instance, a takeover is when you collaborate with an influencer to take control of their page for a set period. During this period, you’d be free to make posts/stories/reels to show off your products. Naturally, executing a proper takeover requires a thorough understanding of the collaborator’s audience and style.
    
• Plan Ahead: Hitting those Q4 sales projections is only going to be possible if you can plan ahead. If you’re not selling on Instagram, you’re going to miss out on capitalizing on Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales.

Don’t know how to set up an Instagram shop in 2024? Work with an expert digital marketing agency to supercharge your social selling. Coalition Technologies has helped hundreds of businesses build their presence with data-driven social media marketing campaigns, and we’d love to show you how. Contact us today for a free consultation!