How To Set Up Shops And Product Tags On Instagram To Reach Shoppers

How To Set Up Shops And Product Tags On Instagram To Reach Shoppers  

The holiday shopping season is just around the corner – have you started mapping out how you plan to reach consumers this year? Instagram should be a platform your business considers for your strategy, as the number of users who use the app to shop is rising. 

As we already know, the way consumers use Instagram and other social platforms are shifting. Now that these platforms offer shop tabs and store displays, users have more ways to connect with products outside of just clicking on ads and seeing organic social posts. 

The more businesses utilize these new offerings and start implementing these tools, consumer expectations will shift, making it crucial to consider platforms like Instagram to highlight your products. 

To help businesses navigate the best way to use the app, Instagram recently published a guide to getting started with social shopping. You can review the full guide here, but we have outlined some of the key points below! 

Preparing your shop for sales:

The first thing you want to do is set up a Catalog in Commerce Manager. Catalogs are containers holding information about all the items you want to promote across Facebook and Instagram. Once a catalog exists, you can use it for ads, selling from your shop, and more. As a constantly evolving business, you want to ensure that you maintain your catalog. Providing all available information in your catalog ensures that shoppers can find what they are looking for. Additional tips include: 

• Assigning permissions

          Make your business the owner of your catalog in Business Manager and assign permissions to others, like your ad agency, that need to              update the catalog. 

• Using a single catalog

          Sticking to one catalog for both ads and shops ensures all products you want to sell from your site are in it.

• Uploading high-resolution images and video

           Ensure you include at least four high-resolution photos that are a minimum of 500×500 and accurately showcase your products.

• Curating your shop

          Control which of your products appear in your shop by hiding or unhiding them in Commerce Manager.

Using Product Tags: 

By tagging your products in multiple formats, you can reach consumers with shoppable content in different places on Instagram, like: 

• Reels

         Tag up to 30 individual products from a single catalog or collection in a 15, 30, 60, or 90-second video.

• Stories

          Utilize one product sticker per Story on your photo or video posts.

• Feed

         Tag up to 5 products from a single catalog on your photos or videos that are less than 60 seconds in length. 

• Live

         Tag up to 30 individual products from a single catalog or a collection. You can add products before going live and pin products during               your stream at the bottom of view. These broadcasts can be 60 seconds to 4 hours in length. 

While this guide from Instagram is short, it gives your business all the basics you need to get started.

Looking to get your products in front of as many consumers as possible? Call or email us at sbellem@bbrookstone.com to get started. We would love to help you with your social shopping efforts.