Selling on Instagram with Shopify: Complete Guide for Beginners 2024

Instagram is one of the leading social networking platforms in the world today. This platform is also considered a large marketplace that allows businesses to sell and advertise products through videos and images. In this article, we will provide details about Instagram and how to sell on Instagram with Shopify.

Overview: Instagram and Shopify

What is Instagram Shopping?

Instagram is a free social networking platform with more than 1,000,000,000 users. According to a forecast from Statista, this number will continue to increase.

You can see the remarkable growth in the number of Instagram users between 2016 – 2021 and forecast to 2023. The members joining this social network have grown from more than 400 million accounts to billions of accounts.

How Does Instagram Shopping Work?

Instagram Shop is a group of Instagram features that allow people to make purchases through your photos and videos, no matter where they are in the app. 130 million Instagram accounts are clicking on a shopping post to learn more about products every month, according to Instagram. Besides, 500 million accounts access Instagram Stories every day. 36% of Instagrammers say they enjoy shopping and consider it a hobby.

Instagram is currently a potential market for business because of its number of users with similar shopping behavior. There is no doubt that Instagram is a huge opportunity for store owners to exploit based on how it works.

A leading social networking platform and a leading e-commerce platform, why don’t we start combining them by connecting Shopify to Instagram to boost your sales?

Importance of Shopify Instagram Integration? 

The change in buying behavior of the new generation

Millennials and Gen Z are the two dominant and influential generations in the market recently. Their shopping behavior is more variable and unpredictable than before, especially Gen Z. Nowadays, there are a lot of studies aimed at this target group. Gen Z is the generation that will dominate the market in the next few years. Getting to know more about them is a great way that store owners can grow their businesses.

Some things that we can describe Gen Z:

• • They were born and raised in the age of technology. Thus, their lives and shopping behavior are closely tied to technology.

• • They love to explore, are willing to experiment and pursue different things.

• • They have cheap, free tools and use them wisely.

Share of global shoppers who think social platforms are a better place to find out about a new product than online search in 2021. Gen Z and Millennials are the generations that have the highest agreement with this view. With those changes, store owners need to take measures to meet the shopping needs of new-generation customers through the Shopify Instagram sales channel. Instagram Shop can make things simpler on mobile devices.

Optimize customer experience

Since Instagram began to be acquired by Facebook and continued to develop this social networking platform as an extension of its arm in 2012, users have witnessed positive changes coming from Instagram. Not just an ordinary photo-sharing platform, Instagram is constantly being improved, adding interesting features to meet users’ needs.

Each user will be a content creator on their own free personal account on this social media. Indeed, they can edit and post pictures on their wall, share quick moments through Instagram Stories, create short videos with Reels, and much more, with the features Instagram has to offer.

Instagram users will be satisfied and have a better experience with the Shopify Instagram integration that the store owner has built into their shopping process. This also increases the brand’s professionalism in the minds of customers when your store appears everywhere that users are likely to search. Moreover, the appearance of the brand must be prepared, and thoughtful, and meet the needs of buyers to the maximum extent allowed.

Increase conversion rate, generate revenue for your store

Instagram Shopify integration increases the conversion rate to your store during your customers’ day-to-day activities. This process will boost the ability to purchase and generate revenue for the business.

How Does Shopify Instagram Integration Work?

Basically, the Instagram Shopping page connects the products available in your Shopify store after successful Shopify and Instagram integration. Specifically, all the products in your Shopify store will automatically be displayed on your Instagram storefront by linking your Shopify store to your Facebook Business and Instagram Business accounts. After that, customers can view your products on Instagram by using product tags or view your online store. Furthermore, you don’t have to design a store on Instagram as it already has a set of templates that every store must follow.

Additionally, if a customer has already purchased or intends to buy something on your online store, your Instagram page can help attract them to come back for another visit.

How to sell Shopify products on Instagram

Step 1: Create a Facebook Business Account and connect it to your Facebook Page

• • Go to Facebook Business Manager page, select Create Account

• • Fill in your store information and click Submit

• • Confirm your email to start accessing Facebook Business Manager

• • Go to the Accounts, select Pages tab

• • Select Add Page to link your Facebook Page

Step 2: Set up a Facebook Sales Channel on Shopify

• • Go to your Shopify dashboard, select the + icon next to the Sales Channels tab

• • Choose Facebook to link Shopify and Facebook Shop before starting selling on Instagram

• • After agreeing to the terms and connecting Facebook – Shopify, select Finish setup

• • Setup has been completed

Step 3: Create your Instagram Business Account and connect it with Facebook

Before setting up Instagram Integration on Shopify, you have to check if you are Eligible for Instagram Sales Channels

Step 4: Connect your Instagram Business Page with Facebook Business Manager

• • Visit Facebook Business Manager page, click the Accounts tab

• • Select Instagram accounts

• • Select Add and Connect Your Instagram Account with Facebook Business Manager

Step 5: Set up an Instagram Sales Channel on Shopify

• • Click on Facebook store that you set up on your Shopify earlier

• • Choose Start setup, Connect to start setting up your Shopify – Instagram store

• • Select Request approval to complete.

It will take a few days for the parties to review and approve your store. Once that’s done, selling on Instagram through your Shopify Instagram integration will officially begin.

How to increase sales on an Instagram channel?

Focus on content in Instagram that converts to your Shopify stores

The best thing you can do isn’t turn your Instagram shop into the second Shopify store. Having content strategies that provide more entertainment value is what draws the interest of your potential Instagram audience. You start a new sales funnel, where almost every user comes in with interesting and creative content. In fact, around 200 million users interact with posts on Instagram every day; what do you do to get the most out of that?

Creating and developing a brand personality that suits your target audience on Instagram is not bad. As a result, your brand personality will guide the content of your posts, the language you use to communicate with your customers, the way you create, and more. Those things help you create a community of your own and grow your business on it.

Engage with your Instagram leads via Comments, Replies, and Hashtags

Increasing sales on Instagram is essential to make your target customers happy. Treat your followers well by regularly interacting with them through Comments, Replies to your posts.

You can provide your Instagram customers with a link to view detailed product information at your Shopify store in the Replies section as soon as a customer has a question. That gives them timely responses and increases the customer experience in your store.

Tracking the Hashtags that users often use when mentioning your brand, industry, or product helps you solve problems; your brand will be an expert in its field. In addition, timely tracking of brand information that users reflect on social networks is vital for every business.

Link to your Shopify store from Instagram Stories and Instagram Influencers

Since Instagram Stories launched, this feature has made more and more users access and interact on Instagram. Some studies suggest that Instagram users are pretty comfortable interacting with ads from brands, unlike other social networking sites.

Adding a link to your Shopify store on Instagram Stories (provided your Instagram channel has 10,000 followers) will increase your customers’ ability to view your store and initiate shopping.

Likewise, you should create coverage for your store and drive customer trust and purchase with Instagram Influencers.

Organize giveaways that provide value to your followers to promote your Shopify store

Most of your customers love activities that bring direct value to customers from your brand. For example, organizing mini-games and giving away your creations to the luckiest players is a creative idea.

This is a quick way to make your product and brand more well-known. At a time when every user can become a micro-influencer in their community, let’s take the opportunity to grow your store.