Instagram Shopping: Requirements, instructions, costs and tips – Selling on Insta
Instagram Shopping has been a topic for many brands for quite some time. But the new, extremely increased presence of the shopping function within the app, which brings the competition to TikTok, should definitely be worth an extra mention! Since this weekend, the shopping feature on Instagram is more present than ever, directly in the main menu of the app, always and everywhere, no matter what you do on Instagram. Also in conjunction with influencer marketing, social selling is extremely interesting for advertising on Instagram, with direct sales. But how does Instagram Shopping work? Can anyone do it? Here is a little insight.
The first, real Social Shopping Network
As a social network, Instagram has over 1 billion active users every month. This makes Instagram the most engaged network, even ahead of Facebook itself. Approximately 70% of Instagram users are under 35 years old. This is an extremely strong target group, also with a view to the future and the strategic development of their own brand. Products have been linked to Instagram for about two years. That’s why the function has long been an insider tip from our e-commerce agency.
Until now you have to create a Facebook Shop for it. Accordingly, the effort was too high for many people. After all, the own store had to be connected to Facebook to mark products on Instagram. Now everything is much easier, much more present.
Create Instagram Shop in the app, done. Now you can create products and link them in your photos and videos
That is why we wanted to tell you about it directly! Today we will take a first, basic look at the feature together. Most of the time we get very basic questions about Insta Shopping. This article answers all questions step by step.
- What is Instagram Shopping?
- Is Instagram Shopping worth it?
- How does Instagram Shopping work?
- How can you sell stuff on Instagram?
- How much does Instagram Shopping cost?
What is Instagram Shopping?
When you start the app, 5 icons appear in the main menu. One of them is new, the Instagram Shopping function.
The icon is not only present at the start of the app, but also in all subpages. It doesn’t matter if it’s a news stream, your own profile or the search for content and channels. Instagram tries something completely new with it, it becomes a social shopping network. If you open the shopping area, you will find the start page for the area here. From here you can search or navigate by topics. There you will find products, stores and other inspiration marked by users (or brands).
For example, here you can mark Influencer your products (or yourself).
Tip! Product videos instead of photos
As you have already learned in the article Instagram Video Algorithm, Instagram focuses more and more on video content. TikTok is already competing with 800 million users. Dior, for example, uses video to make your products more vivid.
This is Instagram Shopping for users. Now let’s move on to the business area that is important for you as a marketing channel. Under the respective product or store you will of course find further articles from the store.
Key figures: Is Instagram Shopping worthwhile?
The question: “Is Instagram Shopping worthwhile?” we want to look at in a little more detail. Also in relation to social commerce in general, or its potential for the future. First of all, let’s take a look at the question: “Is Instagram worthwhile?
Instagram or… what do companies use?
As described in the introduction, Instagram has over 1 billion active users per month. This makes Instagram the most engaged network, even ahead of Facebook itself. Reach and interaction, you can find both on Instagram. But are companies taking advantage of the Instagram opportunity? 76% of companies worldwide use Instagram. Here you can see the exact percentage of companies using social media platforms worldwide in January 2020.
Social Media Marketing: Advertising expenditure until 2022
The next important question, how are companies’ investments in social marketing developing? After all, this is an indicator of whether companies and brands trust in social media marketing campaigns or rather rely on alternative advertising formats. Here you can see the investments in social media advertising worldwide from 2007 to 2018 and forecast 2022 (in millions of US dollars).
Instagram has been part of the Facebook Group since the acquisition of Mark Zuckerberg. Looking at the company’s share price, the changed marketing world is reflected. The value of the company increases and increases. Here is a review of the past year (charts from Ariva.de):
In the context of the annual review of the Facebook share, here is a review of the share price development of the last years. Yes, an investment would have been worthwhile!
Direct sales instead of indirect advertising
A look at the advertising investments of companies shows that social media marketing continues to increase in its relevance. The marketing mix will therefore continue to diversify, and in addition to new networks such as TikTok as Instagram competition, there will also be expanded functions, such as the Insta Shopping function.
How does Instagram Shopping work?
To the question: How can you sell things on Instagram? Until now, influencer marketing has been the big topic on Instagram when it comes to marketing products. Now, products can be created directly and marketed in an adorable way. Users no longer have to leave Instagram to browse their own product catalog.
The golden 20’s bring with them completely new marketing opportunities for companies and brands. In social media marketing, this new, extremely present version of Instagram Shopping is of course also worth its weight in gold. But not only for established companies, also new and young brands can present themselves more elegantly. With one click on the icon you are in the world of Instagram Shopping
Over 80% mobile traffic
Proportion of Instagram.com desktop traffic by country of origin in September 2020
Setting up an Instagram Shopping Channel is free of charge. All you have to do is create your own Instagram Channel.
Create Instagram account
- Download the Instagram app, either for Android or iOS
- Tip on “Register”
- Log in with your existing Facebook account, email or phone number and tap “Next”
- Type in your full name
- Select a password
- Enter your date of birth and then tap “Next”
Voila! You have created an Instagram account. With this account you can now set up the shopping function.
TikTok vs Instagram
Currently there are many changes on the Instagram App. The extremely prominent Instagram Shopping feature, as well as a new aspect that we noticed today while recording the Marketing Podcast. The competitive pressure of TikTok is forcing Instagram to change. You should consider this in your social media marketing plan. More about the current competition between TikTok and Instagram, is available here as an update in the article.
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