Back in 2017 Instagram first launched the Shopping tool to its popular photo and video-sharing social networking platform and has now begun to roll it out globally with Australia being part of a concurrent launch with in Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. This feature was tested first with some major Australian retailers but is now available for businesses with an Instagram business profile.
We know that up to 80 per cent of Instagram users follow at least one business on the app and it’s said at least 30 per cent of users have purchased a product they first saw on Instagram. With compelling data like this, there’s never been a better time for small business to include the Instagram shopping feature as part of their sales and marketing strategy.
So how does it work and what’s the value? Instagram’s shopping feature enables businesses to turn their feed into a visual shopfront by tagging items in their images with a price tag and information. After viewing the item, description and accepting the price, consumers can be led straight to the item’s webpage to purchase, within the Instagram app. Businesses who make use of this feature can enable the shopping tab on their Instagram page for consumers to only view posts that have the shopping tag. Posts can have up to five tags, or up to 20 products per carousel. There are specific metrics and insights for shopping posts as well, so businesses can see how many clicks a product tag has.
How to set up the shop feature:
- You must first have a linked business Facebook page and an enabled shop inventory on your Facebook page.
- This will automatically link to your Instagram so that you can tag these items in photos of them.
- Enabled the ‘shopping’ feature in the settings of Instagram.
- Create and edit a post – in the last page before posting, there is an option to tag products.
Tips for using the shop feature:
- Tag multiple products on one post to encourage your audience to explore and browse.
- Use different formats – tagging single posts and using carousels.
- Make sure each tag is well positioned for the right product so that consumers know exactly which product the tag refers to.
- Create at least nine shopping posts on your profile to enable the Shop tab.
Brooke Vulinovich, Social Media Expert, www.villamanagement.com.au
