Does Instagram fit my business?

Before you start setting up the store, it’s important to check if Instagram is the right selling platform for your business and if you meet the requirements.

For example, check if there are other Instagram stores in your industry and also read Instagram’s qualification criteria to make sure your products meet the guidelines.

Business or Creator account required

The basic requirement is that you have a Business or Creator account and that your company has its own website domain. Your Instagram store must contain products that are also for sale on the company website. Through the stored domain, the connection to your webshop or your website becomes visible for Instagram. However, you should consider whether such a store fits your strategy or whether the solution of a Shopify store or a webshop based on WooCommerce makes more sense. Possibly both in combination makes sense.

Having looked at the prerequisites, we now come to the various steps that need to be taken:

1. If you don’t have a Business or Creator account yet, you will need to convert your account first.
2. The second step is to connect your Instagram profile to your Facebook page if you haven’t done so yet.
3. After you have connected your account to your Facebook page, you will now log into the Facebook Business Manager. To do so, go to business.facebook.com. If you don’t have a Facebook business account yet, you can create one now for free. You need the Business Manager to set up your store in the Commerce Manager in step 4.
4. Now you can set up the store using Commerce Manager or these platforms. To use Commerce Manager go to https://business.facebook.com/commerce and click on Add Shop. Here you can connect your store directly by tapping on “Synchronize with partner platform” on the right.
5. If you don’t want to go through this step, the next thing you need to do is choose whether you want to set your purchase completion via another website or via messages.
6. Then select from which account you want to sell your products and click continue. Now the business email address still needs to be sent.
7. On the next page, enter your website where you sell the products and click continue.
8. Finally, you just need to select where you are shipping to and complete the setup on the next page.
9. After you have set up your store, you now need to manage your catalog. To do this, enter a name for your catalog and add products to it. You can do this either manually, with your Facebook pixel, or automatically via a partner platform.
10. In the last step, open Instagram again, go to the settings and then either Business or Creator, depending on the account type. Select “Set up Instagram Shopping” and follow the given steps here. You can connect the catalog you created in the Business Manager. Select the website where the products are listed and Instagram will do a final review of your application. This process can now take up to a week. If you get confirmation, you can now tag and sell your products on Instagram.

Set up Instagram Shop – and then? What makes a good Instagram store?

Setting up an Instagram store is not enough, as long as you are actually interested in selling products to men and women. In order to sell as successfully as possible on the social media platform, a few things should be considered.

First of all, this includes conscientious maintenance of the product range. Even small errors can quickly lead to a link not matching the desired URL, for example, and potential customers not finding the product as a result. The functionality of the store must be ensured at all times when setting up a store on Instagram,

Furthermore, you should be aware of the user intent on Instagram. While website visitors are usually looking for useful information, most Instagram users are more concerned with ideas and inspiration. By aligning your content strategy with it and publishing high-quality, varied content. To maximize the success of selling on Instagram, it is necessary to increase the conversion rate, that is, the number of visitors to your own Instagram store. This can be achieved with different measures and instruments. The following tips can help to permanently increase the number of visitors to your own Instagram store:

• Instagram hashtags determine the success of an Instagram strategy in many cases. To ensure that as many users as possible get to see your posts, it’s important to use hashtags as effectively as possible. It is helpful to orientate yourself on the most popular Instagram hashtags or to look at which hashtags competitors are successful with.
• It’s easy to place ads on Instagram to temporarily increase your reach. This makes sense in many cases, for example when it comes to seasonal products, but you should still use paid ads as sparingly as possible, otherwise a negative impression can quickly arise.
• Shopping posts should always be based on the previous feed.
• Design shopping content in a uniform manner (corporate design).
• Many Instagram stores could be much more successful if they used the carousel feature. This function is ideal for generating interactions with users. For example, you can post a series of similar images and ask users which one they think is the most successful.
• Instagram Stories are ideal for introducing new products, and videos in particular are a great way to tell short stories and provide users with original content that generates interest.
• A content plan helps to continuously post up-to-date content.
• Also comment on posts from others and build relationships with other users with similar content.
• Use analytics tools like Instagram Insights to evaluate and optimize campaigns and strategies.

Which options should be used for one’s own Instagram store strategy and which should not is essentially dependent on the individual objectives and the respective target group. Therefore, opening the Instagram store also involves a certain amount of planning and strategy.

Having trouble creating an Instagram store?

If you need help setting up Instagram shopping or if they encounter problems setting up store on Instagram, feel free to contact our agency for competent and fast support. We would also be happy to support you in developing a suitable strategy and help you implement suitable concepts to increase the conversion rate of your Instagram store and thus also sales in the long term.

eBakery – we are your social media contact

As an experienced social media agency, we are also happy to help you with all your Instagram questions. If you want to know how far Instagram can be used for your business, feel free to contact us.