Instagram has today launched a shopping service on it's platform that gives influencers and retailers the opportunity to turn their social media posts into a platform to sell their products and merchandise.
Instagram originally launched shopping in the US last year, and has been trialled in the UK by a range of brands. Influencers currently use Instagram as a way to advertise products, connect with their customers and also promote products using the platform. With Instagram's new shopping capability, this will allow influencers to monetise their posts by selling their merchandise and products directly!
Mobile sales have become one of the main sources of growth for influencers, and now they will be able to direct customers to their own stores directly through tagged posts on Instagram.
Ritual Network offers a solution that lets influencers design, set up, and manage their stores across multiple sales channels, including web, mobile, social media, marketplaces, brick-and-mortar locations, and pop-up shops. With the addition of Instagram, this now offers another solution to shorten the consumers journey to your products!
In a survey of small businesses conducted, 42 per cent said they would rather point customers to their Instagram profile than their website. This presents a huge opportunity for influencers as it gives them the capability to sell their products to a market of over 800 million monthly users seamlessly.
At present, Instagram told Verdict it has no plans to charge commission or directly monetise the Shopping feature, but it is expected to bring further traffic to an app which already draws 500 million users per day.
How to set it up:
Requirements
To use Instagram sales channel, you need to meet the following requirements:
You need to be located in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy or Brazil.
You need to have a Facebook channel with an approved Facebook Shop.
You need to use the Online Store sales channel.
You need a business profile on Instagram.
You need to have an online store with Ritual Network, Shopify or similar.
Before you can set up the Instagram sales channel, you need to make sure that you have a Facebook Shop page and that you have added products to your Facebook catalogue.
The next step is to make sure you have an Instagram business account. To convert any Instagram profile into a business profile, complete the following steps:
Using Instagram, open your profile and then go to your settings.
Tap Switch to business profile and follow the steps to connect Instagram to your Facebook business page. Make sure that you connect to the Facebook page that you added to Shopify.
If you're an influencer, will you be taking advantage of this feature? We certainly will.