Today, Instagram is one of the best social media platforms, with more than 130 million users tapping on Instagram’s shopping posts every day. It indicates that there is a strong appetite for social shopping. If you decide to set up Instagram shopping, it is good to have more information before starting.
Here, you can read more about how to set up Instagram shopping, its requirements, and more.
Though, If you are running aretail shop, you can still using software to seel the products. PrestaShop is an online platform that allows users to create an e-commerce presence, enabling them to sell products and services through the web to an online audience. Business owners looking to move their company online can use PrestaShop to build their website, add features and, with SumUp, take payments.
PrestaShop is a freemium, open-source e-commerce platform. The software is published under the Open Software License. It is written in the PHP programming language with support for the MySQL database management system. It has a software dependency on the Symfony PHP framework.
How to Get Approved for Instagram Shopping?
If you decide to use Instagram’s online Shopping features, they should approve your profile first. As it might take a few days to happen, use this time to check your profile matches their rules before applying:
- You must have a Business Account – You can easily set up a business account, but if you do not know, read the steps here.
- Instagram account should connect to a Facebook Business Profile. It indicates that you need a Facebook Catalogue for your page to link to the products.
- You can sell primarily physical goods – While Instagram intends to increase availability to accounts with other kinds of products and services in the future, it is not possible now.
- Set up Instagram shopping in a country where it is available.
As a part of the setup, you have to accept and agree with Instagram’s Merchant Agreement and Commerce Policies.
You can see the below list to find if your region is named here. If yes, Instagram will review and approve you for Instagram Shopping.
| Businesses in: | |
| NA | Canada, United States |
| Latam | Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Perú, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela |
| EMEA | Algeria, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hungary, Kenya, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mayotte, Moldova, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Reunion, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom |
| APAC | Australia, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India*, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Laos, Philippines, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar Nepal, New Zealand, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand |
By the way, if you are running an ecommerce website it is a good idea to get help from plugins and optimization tools. Get to know more about such facilities in this guide PrestaShop modules.
How to set up Instagram shopping?
Here, you can read what you have to do before starting up an Instagram business shop in seven steps.
- Confirm eligibility
If you want to be eligible and set up Instagram Shopping, you have to check all the below points about your account.
- You have to set your business location in a Supported market.
- Make sure you are selling eligible products.
- Accept Instagram Merchant agreement and Commerce policies.
- You have to introduce a website domain from which you intend to sell for your business.
- Switch your account to a business or creator one.
Make sure you change your account to a business one. Because if you have a business account, it is possible to add more business information, such as opening hours, business address, phone number, and a link to your website.
- Connect to a Facebook page.
To set up Instagram shopping, link your Instagram business account to a Facebook Page.
- Start with your Instagram business profile.
- Choose Edit profile.
- Below the Public business information part, choose Page.
- Enter a Facebook Page from your Pages that you want to connect.
- If you do not have a Facebook Page to add, click on Create a new Facebook Page icon.
- Note: there is no need to have a Facebook Shopping page, and just a Facebook Page is enough.
- Upload a product catalog
Catalogue manager is a good way that you can use to do Facebook Business Manager. The next choice is the E-commerce platform partner. It suggests an integration with one of Instagram-certified e-commerce platforms partners like Shopify or BigCommerce.
- Account review
When you add a product catalog to your Instagram, it is time to submit your account for review. Pay attention while regular Account reviews take a few days, sometimes you have to wait longer.
To submit your account for review, follow this guide:
- Click on your Instagram business profile.
- Choose Settings.
- Sign up for shopping.
- Complete the steps to save your account for review.
- You can check your status if you visit Shopping in your Settings, any time you want.
Sometimes, Instagram notifies you to add more information to prove ownership of your website domain, and then it will let you set up Instagram shopping. In this case, you have to complete the domain verification process to submit your account for review.
- Turn on the Shopping key.
Sometimes, you might not see Shopping in your settings, which means your account is probably still under review or Instagram does not approve it for shopping. But if Instagram approves your account, it is time to turn on shopping features.
- Tap on your Instagram business profile.
- Choose Settings.
- Click on Business and then select Shopping.
- Tap on the product catalog that you want to attach to your account.
- Finally, choose Done.
- Start tagging
When you enable the Shopping feature, it is time to use product tags to highlight goods in your photos and videos over different feeds and stories.
How to make tag products?
If you want to make a product tag for your Instagram posts, choose a photo like what you will normally post and follow the below guidelines before posting:
- Choose Add photo.
- Write a caption.
- Select Tag products.
- Choose your photo.
- Look for a product.
- Select it.
- Choose Done.
- And share it finally.
Conclusion:
If you want to start an online business and want to find a reliable platform, you can start with Instagram. If you do not know how to set up Instagram shopping, read the above text to understand all steps to set up Instagram shopping and what you have to do to get approved for Instagram shopping.
