How often do you find yourself scrolling through Instagram and wishing you could buy something? If you're like the 130 million individuals who click on Instagram shopping photos each month, you've experienced something similar.

That is why you must understand how to sell on Instagram.

Businesses can use Instagram to sell items, raise brand awareness, and interact with influencers and brand ambassadors all in one location. What began as a visual-focused social media platform has evolved into a significant e-commerce platform. The app is already being used for an average of 28 minutes per day. It only takes a few seconds for leisurely scrolling to become active shopping.

Continue reading to learn how to sell on Instagram, including how to set up your account, what you can sell, and how to improve your Instagram sales approach.

When Wizard Pins began selling bespoke pins on Instagram, they understood it would be difficult to generate sales from a brand-new account. However, a series of Instagram pin giveaways helped the company earn $25,000 in sales. Wizard Pins also recognized the value of Instagram's compounding features. Giveaways helped them grow their following from 0 to 30,000 in 18 months, drive 100,000 visitors to their website, and turn pin winners into brand ambassadors.

Set up your Instagram shopping account

Begin by changing your personal Instagram account to an Instagram business account and determining whether you qualify for Instagram shopping.

The following are the eligibility conditions for Instagram Shopping:

• The location of the company must be in a well-supported market.
• Physical things must be sold for a business to succeed.
• Businesses must follow the rules of commerce.
• The Instagram account must be linked to a Facebook page and be a business page.

Are you ready to go? You can now create your catalog manually or with the help of a third party.

You can save time by connecting your Facebook Shops catalog to your Instagram account if you already have one. Just make sure you like the catalog you chose because it will build your Instagram shopping catalog automatically and you won't be able to change it later.

Use Catalog Manager to manually add products by uploading product photographs and information one at a time. Use a spreadsheet to add products in bulk, or use a Facebook pixel to import products from your website to speed up the process.

You can also utilize Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento Commerce, or OpenCart, which are all accredited third-party e-commerce platforms.

3 Approaches to sellling on Instagram

There are three basic ways to sell items on Instagram:

1. Use Instagram Shoppable Posts

The white shopping bag icon in the corner of an image distinguishes Instagram Shoppable Posts. Apart from the shopping-bag indicator, viewers will see photographs and content as usual posts. Because they display as part of a potential customer's usual Instagram experience, Instagram Shoppable Posts are incredibly effective.

You may tag products in your Instagram stories or photographs and link them straight to your catalog using Instagram's built-in e-commerce capability.

You can add up to five products per image or up to 20 for multi-image posts when creating an Instagram post. Simply tap on the items in the shot to identify them with items from your catalog. You can also share products on Instagram stories, but each Story can only have one product.

People can not only read your Instagram Shopping Posts while scrolling through their feeds, but they can also complete the transaction without leaving the Instagram app.

2. Try Buffer Shop Grid

Buffer's Shop Grid tool transforms your Instagram profile into a shop page with a grid layout. Consider your grid to be a curated collection of products that showcase your brand's style, similar to the window display in your store.

You can use your link in your bio to feature numerous product pages with Shop Grid. You can add a link to each photo that directs visitors to your website's product page.

Instagram only enables users to have one link in their bio. You can make the most of that one link by turning it into a catalog for each product photo you publish with Shop Grid. People who click on your Shop Grid link will see clickable versions of your photographs that will take them straight to the product page.

You can also schedule shop posts ahead of time and check Instagram stats with Buffer Premium to boost your Instagram shopping marketing efforts.

3. Sell through comments and direct messages

Have you ever wondered how to sell on Instagram without having a website? Manual approaches, such as comments and direct messaging, are used by certain startups and small businesses (DMs).

Share your product photographs with “Comment to Buy” instructions in the caption to sell through comments. For example, for a clothing item, you might say, "Comment 'SOLD [your size]' to buy." Then, to organize delivery and payment, you'll need to follow up on each comment with a DM. You can even automate parts of the process with third-party apps like Soldsie or Comment Sold.

If you follow this method, Buffer's engagement tools may help you stay on top of any comments you receive on your posts, which can easily get lost in the shuffle of other notifications on Instagram.

On Instagram, many small businesses choose to go right to the DMs. For artists that create one-of-a-kind items or a limited quantity of a product, selling through DMs is a popular alternative.

Although comments and direct messages need a lot more human labor than Instagram Shoppable Posts or Buffer Shop Grid, this manual method is a fantastic place to start for new businesses that don't yet have a website or a formal product catalog.

4 Ways to improve your Instagram sales strategy

Do you want to improve your Instagram shopping skills? Try out some of these strategies.

1. Create a signature style for your photos, and stick to it

Consider your favorite physical retail store when you close your eyes. What colors do you think you're seeing? What kind of vibe are you getting? We're ready to wager that you can recognize your favorite retailers and brands solely based on their appearance. In addition, great Instagram company profiles have a distinct design and feel.

Eclectic goods, for example, have a swoon-worthy Pinterest vibe with beautifully lit, clean photographs of selected product groups. Artist Stella. stardust, on the other hand, displays her work on a plain grey or black background.

2. Use Instagram Insights

Use Instagram Insights, the app's built-in analytics, to keep track of crucial data like engagement rates, post shares, and likes. Keep track of which post styles and goods get the most attention from your audience so you can focus on what they like.

3. Encourage engagement and word-of-mouth marketing

According to our poll of 800 millennial and Gen Z Instagram users, 53% of users learn about companies through word of mouth. Experiment with various engagement strategies to encourage people to share your account and items. Prompts like "Tag a friend who would rock this outfit!" might inspire your audience to spread the word. ”

Giveaways are a great method to encourage people to share on social media. To enter, you can urge others to share the post on their Instagram Stories or tag friends in the comments, in addition to like and comment on it. When people tag their friends, it frequently causes a domino effect: the buddy receives the message and decides to participate, so they tag additional friends, and so on.

4. Partner with influencers

Influencer marketing on Instagram is a strong tool. According to our poll, influencers were responsible for 47 percent of respondents discovering brands.

Micro-influencers (1,000-10,000 followers) are more effective than superstar influencers, who can reach millions of consumers. Influencers with 10,000 or more followers have lower engagement rates than micro-influencers. Customers want to buy from individuals they trust, and it's a lot simpler to trust someone who doesn't have an agent, a stylist, or a cosmetics team on call.

Glossier, a skincare and beauty brand, is known for converting its clients into micro-influencers. Glossier's Instagram account is brimming with customer-submitted photographs of the brand's products on actual people, not models.

Consider this: If you see a look on someone like fatimaaaa._ (who has less than 2,000 followers) or Beyoncé, are you more inclined to believe it's achievable? That's why, when it comes to boosting sales for firms, micro-influencers frequently outperform celebs.

Boost your sales with Instagram Shopping

Learning how to sell on Instagram is more vital than ever as e-commerce sales continue to climb around the world. According to our data, 76% of millennials and Gen Zers have purchased after discovering a business on Instagram. Given that the two generations account for the majority of Instagram users worldwide, this is a sizable prospective consumer base.

How to get started

If you are trying to promote your business, product or service then you should definitely consider the benefits of investing in buying real Instagram followers, auto Instagram likes and views for your account. You can quickly reach thousands of new people without wasting money on traditional methods of advertising. If you are not using this type of service, you are falling behind.

 

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