How to Sell on Instagram with Shopify – The Ultimate Guide

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Have you been swindled by the errands to churn out the easy peasy hacks to sell on Instagram with your Shopify store? Believe me, I know what it takes, and how demanding it is, to make your brand or whatever niche you’re into known to the most precise audience.

This dire need follows the immense dominance of Instagram as a sales channel for most of the online retailers. If you look at the stats of 2019 alone, you’ll kill the daunting thoughts of whether your business really needs Instagram as a marketing tool.

With over 64% of users being of the age between 18-34, that should ring a bell that age targeting comes in handy in an exceedingly remarkable way. Instagram presses on to drastically turn your campaigns into sales.

Considering the symbiotic relationship between mobile apps via well-stacked integrations, Shopify retailers are now embracing the cutting-edge features which Instagram brings to the table. By now, I presume that you know of a few Instagram wins which are trembling the social platform’s ground. From Instagram influencers to campaign ads, the list goes on.

Is the Instagram-Shopify sales channel worthwhile?

You might ask.

As of now, it seems like Instagram is a goddess of the younger demographic, for lack of easier terms. So, if you’re thinking of prepping for campaigns to push sales, this is a pliable option to sync your store to. According to data-driven figures, about 80% of accounts follow businesses(brands) that sell products on Instagram. There has also been a significant dependence on ads(over 2 million) to optimize realistic business goals and reach the most accurate audience.

Products that garner lots of interest from youthful shoppers can very well make conversions from Instagram leads.ย  Primarily, Instagram gives you the basic insights you should come to terms while trying to streamline your online store so as to increase sales. While the integrations are easy to set up, there’s much you need to take in since the trends are ever-evolving, yet turning tables under one single social platform.

One more reason why you need to sell your products on Instagram is because users donโ€™t want a long checkout process. The integration allows a potential buyer to purchase a product at the click of a button without leaving Instagram. Besides building your own audience on the basis of interest, age or even gender, Instagram is automated to hand-pick a similar crowd which is a close fit to the niche products youโ€™re dealing with.

๐Ÿ‘‰ Well, if Shopify sounds strange to you, here’s a brief sketch of its structure. But if you’ve had some interaction with the likes of BigCommerce, WooCommerce or 3dcart, then you probably get the whole point.ย Without much emphasis, Shopify is simply a 3rd party ecommerce platform.

Allow me to illustrate.

As the world is going digital, so are the shopping habits. But how do you catch the attention of online buyers to the scale you eagerly wish to hit? Goes without saying. An engrossing online store packed with smart marketing tools. On that note, making sales comes a long way. This is where Shopify center stage to optimize your business goals. It allows you to add products, use an impeccable theme, handle inventory and order flawlessly, connect to marketing channels(Instagram), and many more.

This is the only Guide you’ll need. That, I beg to guarantee.

๐Ÿ‘‰ Here’s why.

Instagram-Shopify Configurations Overview

shopify homepage

Aside from sharingย  the mainstream online marketing hacks, this guide attempts to concisely cover the following basic concepts:

  • Shopify-Instagram Integration (adding the sales channel)
  • Instagram marketing for your online Shopify store
  • Sorting the product catalog

While the task might seem quite undemanding, making your storeโ€™s Instagram account visible is always as a result of a calculated and thought out routine.

But before anything, letโ€™s see how the setups need to be done.

So how do I add the Instagram sales channel? I presume you have a Shopify account in check.

๐Ÿ‘‰ Practically, you only need to follow these simple steps:

  1. From your dashboard, you need to access the Sales Channel button.
  2. Choose the Add Sales Channel option and choose Instagram as your preferred sales channel, and click Add.
  3. Finally, log in to your Facebook account to verify your Instagram account as a valid sales channel for your Shopify store.

This exercise wonโ€™t take much of your time. I promise. You might wonder why you need to connect the Instagram sales channel with your Facebook account. The logic is pretty simple. Since the two platforms are sort of intertwined, youโ€™ll just need to manage your campaigns from one single point. No room for discrepancies, whatsoever.

The above is, however, the technical part of it. If you face any hurdles while setting up the basics, you can seek assistance from the Instagram help center. To get things in good standing, thereโ€™s much to be revamped on your Instagram Business account. Donโ€™t be tangled though. Weโ€™re getting there in just a moment.

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How do I move traffic from Instagram to my Shopify store?

At this point in time, this should be carried out in a far-reaching manner. For eligibility reasons, thereโ€™s a threshold you need to meet. First, you need to have a Facebook sales channel with a credible and approved online store. Secondly, you need to have a legit Instagram Business profile.

๐Ÿ’ก Lastly, the user needs to use the Shopify basic plan or higher. Without further talk, letโ€™s get straight into it.

Make your Instagram posts shoppable

 

 

On the face of it, this seems like an exercise which requires less effort, so to speak. The fact is, you should break the accustomed sequence done by your competitors. The best part about Instagram is that it makes product tagging so simple just in the same manner how you tag your friend in a post.

In this context, customers can gain access to your shoppable posts via a โ€˜Tap to view Productsโ€™ popup button or by clicking on the Shopifyโ€™s cart icon( looks like a shopping bag). Primarily, you can boost your sales tremendously if you work with captivating product tags.

And not just ordinary product tags.

The above is our case in point. ‘Sunday Somewhere’, an online store that sells sunglasses is doing it the right way. Of course, this depends on your business needs. Having said that, thereโ€™s a positive lasting effect if you work with the right audience engagement routine. Ordinarily, Shopify store owners choose to either use single images of their products on Instagram or decisively create real-life images and do product tagging, instantaneously.

And this is no rocket science. Instagram has made it quite effortless since the whole procedure of tagging products is well described on its help page. In 2019, you need some sort of distinctive technique to thrive in the e-commerce marketing game.

You need to influence your storeโ€™s potential visitors to make a purchase. And in that sense, shoppable posts cut across the need to make an alluring impression of your products towards the buyers.

The result?

You end up with high sales like never before. As a beginner, you should be alive to the fact that shoppable posts are just links that direct users to where exactly they can buy your advertised products. As simple as that. Nothing more.

This way, you can very much close in on new sales by using shoppable feeds which lead customers to your Shopify store. In a bid to tweak the shopping experience, you can monitor all actions being carried out by visitors on your site.

๐Ÿ“ข Pro tipโ€ฆ.

If you want things to get done at an automated level, you can incorporate a third-party app like taggbox which helps users embed shoppable Instagram posts to their respective e-commerce sites(Shopify in this case).

๐Ÿ‘‰ Below are some other common tips which you might need to try out;

  1. Use befitting captions. A caption which evokes interest will certainly complement your product images in an astounding way. The magic behind aย  painstaking caption is that it draws irresistible attention from Instagram viewers who relate to the same. In other terms, you need a caption which grasps your audiencesโ€™ emotions.
  2. Utilize the hashtags if need be. So long as you donโ€™t over do it, this could be an ingenious way to keep up to pace with your competitors. You can copy high ranking hashtags being used by influencers in your niche.
  3. Work with influencers if you have space to stretch your budget.Influencer marketing can be a good way to make your store gain popularity.

 

Hereโ€™s how to convert the Shoppable posts into sales;

  • Craft glossy Instagram ads

Besides the influencers, it’s unquestionably, the first if not, one of the most productive marketing strategies for most businesses. If you have a target audience, things are far-much scalable to a remarkable extent. So long as you have an authentic business profile on board, you can set out the budget you want to work with since you have to pay for the ads.

But the amount you spend depends on a few dynamics. Let me share the obvious. Your budget lies at the time length you need your ads to run. But there are tools to help you catch the crowd(your target audience). Alongside that, you can target a particular geographical location where you want your ads to be seen. There are other fruitful options you can hinge on to perfectly suit your Shopify storeโ€™s needs.

Instagram operates on a top tier platform which is beautifully designed to consistently make your ads known to the precise visitors. I know this leaves you with wishful thinking. Definitely, you donโ€™t want to a poor ROI, or equally, burn the budget youโ€™ll have spent on Instagram campaigns.

In the midst of mitigating such from happening, itโ€™s always in the best practice to start off with a small budget. Thereafter, you can spend more as you positively progress towards your projected revenue. Simply stated, boosting your ads to reach the audience you need to reach is as simple as hitting the โ€˜Promoteโ€™ button on Instagram.

  • Optimize your Instagram Business profile

As far as branding is concerned, optimizing your Instagramโ€™s profile is one factor which helps your Shopify store look more businesslike or professional, for lack of a better phrase. In regards to the terms and conditions, itโ€™s a prerequisite to have an approved business profile so as to sell via the Instagram app. In a bid to create a secure e-commerce environment, a user needs to comply with all the pre-set policies. This should be a no brainer.

Typically, you might have to wait for a period between 2-3 days to get a notification of whether your Instagram Business account has been verified on not. Once everything is in check, then youโ€™re good to go. The approval gives you the green light to confidently proceed to sell your products on Instagram

At the minimum, you need to build an engrossing bio which proves to be fairly effective while describing what your store is all about. At the very same end, itโ€™s certainly thoughtful to include a link to your store. If you know what I mean. Or use a logo if you have one. Also, you need to set a profile photo on your account to depict your online store’s niche as well as include details which explain the entire business structure.

In the long run, you end up with a sturdy and loyal target audience. You need signals which trickle down to showing which audience is most likely to make a purchase from your store. On this account, therefore, you can preferably turn organic content which is making a decent engagement and do some ads for the same on Instagram. This simple trick can help you optimize your business profile significantly and more than you could anticipate.

Still not convinced?

As you may know, branding has good returns if you look at it from the digital marketing perspective. In this case, you need to incorporate high-resolution graphic content in your product collection.

  • Use sensible Product catalogs

In all exactness, this part sets out the necessary product information any potential buyer would need before hitting the checkout button. Since youโ€™re virtually selling items, the most clear-cut thing to do is to sort your products in a systematic way.

๐Ÿ‘‰ Before we delve deeper into this fact in issue, letโ€™s learn how to go about it. So hereโ€™s how to add products to your Instagram posts;

  1. On your Instagram account, go to the โ€˜Profileโ€™ page and hit โ€˜Get Startedโ€™.
  2. Click โ€˜Productsโ€™
  3. Tap โ€˜Continueโ€™
  4. Choose the exact product catalog from the Shopify account which you want to sync your profile with.
  5. Click โ€˜Doneโ€™

Once you embed the product tagging, you need to run a couple of tests to check if everything is compatible and works out perfectly.

And hereโ€™s how.

You need to upload an image displaying your products. Instagram allows you to make the most out of product tagging since you can successfully tag as many as 5 items per post. What a fantastic way to engage your shoppers! Think of it this way. Letโ€™s suppose youโ€™re in the e-retail bandwagon, you can virtually display your huge inventory in a scalable way. Well, this depends on how long, or rather, the number of times you want your ads to be live. As a drop shipper, for instance, itโ€™s all about promoting the winning product to the right audience.

One question though.

But how do I measure all actions which emanate from my shoppable posts? This might have come across your mind at some point in time.

If you couple everything up with a powerful tool like Google Analytics, you can track how the web traffic is fairing at the convenience of your Shopifyโ€™s intuitive dashboard. All you need is to sync the Google Analytics ID with your Shopify store. The e-commerce platform has an all-inclusive guide with all the basics you need to integrate the tool with your store.

But hereโ€™s the catch.

You need to create product catalogs which capture the real-life experience to influence the customersโ€™ behavior in a fanciful approach. By that, Iโ€™m trying to suggest that you need to show which problem, in particular, your niche product strives to resolve in as far as the market stands.

Letโ€™s use an illustration.

If let’s say, you want to sell consumables, one way to always make massive sales is to retain customers by all means possible. Your product catalogs should have eye-catching offers to drive traffic your way. And not just junk traffic. Weโ€™re talking about low bounce rates and good conversion rates.

Instagram apps you might need to socially engage your Shopify store

These tools come into play whenever you want to boost the productivity on your Instagramโ€™s shoppable posts, elevate your storeโ€™s traffic, double your sales, and the list goes on and on.

Now that you have a rough sketch, letโ€™s catch sight of some high-ranking apps.

  • Covet.pics

This app does an amazing job to the visual clarity of your Instagramโ€™s gallery. It converts posts into sales by automating your products page. Customers can spontaneously purchase your items at the click of an image post.

Since it fully automates your Instagram account, it auto-generates all actions by users( community of returning customers) which allows them to upload their own posts and run competitions.

But thatโ€™s not all.

Covet.pics gives you accurate funnels to check the performance for your campaigns and galleries alike. So whatโ€™s the benefit here? You work with well-aligned forecasts, improve the shopping experience, and scale your e-retail business.

If you always take note of the previous usersโ€™ feedback before you test a product or service, then you probably donโ€™t need to do so on this one. I personally did a run on it, and surprisingly, everything looks good. It ranks up high on Shopifyโ€™s marketplace and has tons of positive reviews from users.

Whatโ€™s not to talk about this app. Well, Instafeed, is, for the most part, more of a customizable feeds tool that is compatible with all the Shopify themes. Do you want to always keep fresh content on Instagram? Then look no further. This app hooks you up with new visitors and makes your account discoverable.

socioh app

If you ainโ€™t privy to this one, itโ€™s the King or in slang language, the real OG of audience retargeting. Socioh speeds up the ROI from your Instagram ads. It has tools to help you make sales through discounts and coupons.

Moreover, it comes with compelling software that is flexible enough to allow you to make adjustments (i.e- brand your product catalogs). It optimizes your images to make them load fast on both your Instagram account and the store, accordingly. Bear in mind, the fact the if the product page is quite sluggish, you might experience some sickening bounce rates. As a merchant, you donโ€™t wish that to happen.

To keep off this drawback, you might need to put this app into consideration while managing your ads.

shopify ping

Besides the marketing functionalities on this app, it helps you handle customersโ€™ conversations and set up checkout options for your customers. Shopify Ping is a business chatting app walks the talk via a Kit which brings you closer to customers by integrating with Apple Business chat.

Since it integrates with your Instagram account, you get real-time notifications whenever a potential buyer makes inquiries about your posted products.

Wrapping Up

Putting everything into consideration, itโ€™s right to say that the Shopify-Instagram integration is quite forthright, yet at the same time, needs a little more input. To fend off all sorts of uncertainties, I’d recommend that you keep a bright eye on the above pointers. Itโ€™s no surprise that some store owners are making a killing by using Instagram as aย  global and diverse sales channel.

Making sales from a single inventory point has never been easier. You just have to make a few tweaks on your customerโ€™s shopping experience via pleasing product tags. By so doing, youโ€™ll be structuring a considerable amount of traffic to your product and checkout pages.

Lastly, I insist that you optimize the leads by using high-resolution photos to capture your viewersโ€™ emotions. Taking note of the various ways to sell on Instagram, itโ€™s prudent to test all options first, so as to determine which one, to be precise, works best for your Shopify store. Your business needs matter most.

Much being said than done, itโ€™s time for you to take the wheel. As I promised, this is the only manual youโ€™ll need. Cheers!

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