INSTAGRAM SHOPPING FEATURES FOR YOUR BUSINESS

by Imeru Wambui

What is Instagram

Instagram is an image and visual content sharing social networking platform, commonly known as Insta or IG.

It was originally launched in October 2010; after its launching it rapidly grew in popularity with 1 million registered users in just 2months then to 10 million in that year. Today Instagram is one of the most popular social media networking platforms that we have around boosting with 1 billion monthly active users and 500 million daily active users.

According to Hoot suite Instagram is the 6th most visited website, 4th most used of any mobile application and the 9th most popular google query, its daily logging is 2nd to Facebook which boosts with 2.8 billion monthly users. all these shows the undeniable power and potential this social network carries.

With new features such as Instagram shopping being developed and launched to help businesses maximize their business opportunities using the platform. We really can clearly see that Instagram is here to stay and grow.

Instagram Shopping

Instagram shopping is a set of shopping features on Instagram that tap into users existing behaviors to turn ordinary Insta accounts into a customized shopping storefront. Note this is only available if you have a business Instagram account.

Let’s check out how Instagram shopping can help your business and what features being offered that maybe you haven’t taken advantage of yet.

Instagram Shopping Features

Let’s check out these features of Instagram shopping that enable you to See a Product, Fall in love with it and Shop for it. They include the following

1. Instagram Shop- it’s an in-app shopping destination that allows users to shop directly on business profile pages.

2. Product Tags- they allows businesses to highlight and categorize their product catalogues in Instagram Stories and Feeds to help the users learn more about the product

3. Adverts with Product Tags- they allows businesses to maximize reachability and search ability for products by boosting shoppable posts.

4. Product Detail Page- it helps businesses showcase all relevant information about a product such as descriptions, price, features etc. by pulling in all media where the product has been tagged on Instagram.

5. Collection- it allows businesses to customize their shop by curating products into themes.

6. Check Out – currently only available in the USA only it allows businesses to sell their products directly on the Instagram platform where users can purchase and pay securely using Facebook Pay without leaving the platform.

7. Product Launches- it allows businesses to announce launches of new upcoming products so that users can preview product details then set a reminder to buy once the product becomes available.

8. Live shopping- it allows businesses to sell products through Instagram live to their audiences in real time. This feature is available to checkout businesses only.

The average person turns to Instagram to access remarkable photos and videos with users spending 30min per day on it and 130 million of them tapping on shopping posts every month. These statistics make it a very valuable tool for any business or brand to market itself, build brand awareness, drive traffic, engage with the audience in real time and nurture leads and sales.

Regardless of what type of industry or size of business your operating in, Instagram is a powerful marketing tool that you definitely need to integrate into your marketing strategy if you’re not already connected or utilizing it.