3 Instagram Shop tips YOU need to be using

Businesses are always looking for new ways to grow their sales. Now with Instagram, they have a brand new way to achieve their goals. Businesses have been able to grow their sales as well as obtain new target audiences through the new Instagram Shopping feature.

During COVID-19, this feature became a large way small businesses were able to stay open and reach new customers. During the pandemic, no one wanted to leave their house to shop, and Instagram took it upon themselves to fix and capitalize on the issue at hand.

What is the Instagram Shop feature?

Instagram released a new feature called “Shop” back in 2020. This feature allows businesses and celebrities to tag their products through an Instagram post. Users not only can shop through Instagram but can now pay at checkout through it too.

This feature not only works on pictures, but also works on stories, videos, and reels. This allows the users to see the products more and in engaging ways. Promotions for products can be tagged directly through Instagram Shop and will link directly to the post.

This feature also allows businesses and creators to add other accounts to shopping partners. These partners can add tags to your products on their posts and you can see the analytics from their posts. Having multiple different accounts posting your products allows for more users to see them and have the possibility of purchasing them. User-generated content (UGC) is a great way to push your products out to different markets.

1. Use shopping tags in your content

Instagram shopping has allowed brands and celebrities to add “tags” on products they are trying to sell. To the user, it shows the item’s name, the price, and a direct link to the product. It is a useful way for users to quickly gain information about the product.

Here are some quick tips for successful tags.

Tag as frequently as possible
- By tagging products as frequently as possible, users will see the item more and be more tempted to buy it. This can also generate more clicks on the item which can lead to more sales.
Double check everything is working
- Adding tags that don’t work is a very common mistake. Check to make sure the tag is tagged to the correct product. This ensures that users will be getting the right product that is tagged in the post.
Mix up your posts
- Mixing up posts can bring a new and exciting change to your Instagram shop. This will make products stand out which gains the interest of users.
Save and Highlight your posts
- Saving posts with tags can allow users to come back to your page and easily find a post they had previously found before. This makes it easier for the user and they are more likely to continue buying from your business.
Use #hashtags
- People think that #hashtags are outdated and don’t do anything, but those people are wrong. Users are able to discover new businesses and products through hashtags. This will bring in more clicks and sales.

2. Don’t overcrowd content with overlapping tags

Instagram Shop allows for 20 tags to be put on each post, but is that too much? The answer is yes, 20 tags would be WAY too many tags on one post. Shop owners go back and forth with the number of tags that should be used. Too many tags can overcrowd the page and may create an overlap on clicking the right product. Users like having the product be easy to access and find, rather than combing through the whole website.

If 20 tags are too much, then how many should you put? The answer is 3-5 tags per post. It gives the user a clear view of what product they wanted and where to buy it. The user is also still able to see the picture, but wouldn’t be able to if there were overlapping tags. The user is more likely to purchase more of the product in the post as well.

3. Create Collections within the shop

Businesses are now allowed to create collections through the shop feature. Collections allow businesses to group posts together to make accessing old posts much easier. It also allows businesses to add UGC (user-generated content) to their collection for a later date.

Here are some ideas on how to set collections up.

Products

Grouping products together make it easier for users to find what they are looking for. For example, shoes, shirts, pants, earrings, etc. The users have direct access to the type of product they are looking for.

Promotions

Businesses always have fun and important promotions, and now organizing them has become a lot easier. Whether it be a sale, holiday promotion or a new launch, it will be a lot easier for users to find what they are looking for.

Colors

Users sometimes like to shop by specific colors rather than the type of object being sold. This way the user can directly find an item in the color they want.

Seasons

Spring, summer, fall, and winter usually have users looking for different types of items. Grouping items by the season give the user an easier time looking for specific items they would need in a given season.

Looking into the future.

Instagram Shopping has shown to be a BIG boost to sales for small and large businesses. Creating your shop only takes a few minutes, and is something that every business should utilize. There are no known big updates coming to the feature anytime soon, but there is a lot of room to grow and expand businesses.