Instagram is one of the best marketing tools in existence today, allowing individuals and brands to connect personally with a wealth of potential customers. Instagram is well aware of its marketing prowess, and so has taken measures to cater to businesses. Namely, it’s allowed businesses to start their own Instagram store.
Are you interested in starting an online shop on Instagram? Then read on. Here are 5 tips for starting an online store on Instagram.
1. Sign Up
First, you might want to know how to sign up for Instagram selling capabilities. You do, indeed, need to sign up separately from your standard Instagram account.
Start by clicking on the three dots that reside in the upper right corner of your Instagram profile. Once a box pops up, click on ‘Settings’.
This will lead to another page, upon which you’ll find a tab that allows you to sign up for shopping. Once you click this tab, you’ll be provided with in-depth instructions on how to continue.
Note, in order to sell on Instagram, your account needs to be validated by the platform. If your account is deemed to meet the criteria, you’ll be granted access to selling capabilities and will be allowed to start your store.
2. Meet the Criteria for Commerce Eligibility
As was noted above, in order to sell on Instagram, you need to meet certain criteria. The question is: what criteria?
Instagram lists 5 criteria that sellers are expected to meet. These include:
- Comply With Our Policies
- Represent Your Business and Your Domain
- Be located in a Supported Market
- Demonstrate Trustworthiness
- Provide accurate information and follow best practices
For more information on what these criteria entail, click on this link. Note, prior to applying for selling capabilities, you should try to satisfy these criteria as much as possible.
3. Use High-Quality Photographs
Instagram is all about images. The higher the quality of the image, the more engaging it becomes. And that’s not just true of the images you post; it’s true for the products that you’re trying to sell as well.
You don’t want to use blurry, poorly-lit photographs of the products you have for sale. You want your product images to be clear, bright, and easy on the eyes.
In other words, don’t just take images on the fly. User proper lighting and be deliberate as possible. Good photographs will almost certainly result in more sales.
4. Take Steps to Increase User Engagement
If you want people to buy items from your store, you can’t just open it up and hope for the best. You have to inform your Instagram followers of your store’s existence and then take measures to facilitate user engagement with it.
Now, you might be wondering: how do you facilitate this engagement? There are a number of options.
You can hold a raffle in which the winner gets something from your store for free. You can create a post informing your followers of a sale that you’re having. You can study up on the times at which user engagement is the highest.
Again, there are many different ideas to pursue. Looking to improve user engagement with your Instagram store? Learn how here.
5. Post Behind-the-Scenes Content
Another tip for improving the success of your Instagram store is to post behind-the-scenes photos or videos. For instance, if you’re selling something that you yourself make, you could share a video of you manufacturing the product.
Or, you could post a picture of someone using the product. Or, if you were bringing the product to, say, a trade show, you could post a picture at the trade show, indicating in the caption why you’re there and what your product is all about.
This is subtle but effective content that will simultaneously alert followers of your product’s existence and inform followers on what the product is capable of.
Make sure to include a link to your store in the caption. This will lead followers directly to your product and allow them to make a purchase almost immediately.
Hashtags exist and you should be taking full advantage of them. By posting relevant hashtags in your captions, you expose your profile to a bevy of potential followers (and customers!). By failing to use captions, you’re essentially throwing away money.
Of course, you can’t use just any hashtags. The ones you use have to be relevant to your product, or at least relevant to the types of people who would most likely benefit from your product.
For instance, if you were selling batting gloves, you would want to use hashtags like #baseballlife and #baseball. This would give your post a better chance of being seen by baseball players, and thus would give your batting gloves a better chance of selling.
7. Represent Your Brand Identity
Perhaps the most important part of selling products on Instagram is representing your brand identity. In doing so, you inform others that your profile represents your business. If they don’t know this, they won’t know that you have anything to sell.
Now, how do you represent your brand identity on Instagram? Start by posting your logo as your profile picture. Then, within your biography, make it clear what your business does and that you have products for sale on Instagram itself.
Leave a link in your bio as well, as you want to make it as simple as possible for consumers to reach your products.
Now You’re Ready to Start an Instagram Store
And with that, you’re ready to start an Instagram store. Put these tips to good use and, soon enough, you’ll be making sales on a regular basis.
Need further help with your Instagram business? Our website is the place to be. Browse through some of our other articles right now!
