Well, if you have not heard of Instagram shopping, then you might be living under a rock – or just ignoring it because you think Instagram isn’t “relevant” to your brand. It’s just for the kids right? Nothing could be further from the truth.
Today social selling has become one of the most powerful channels for eCommerce sales – with all types of age groups. Just like selling on TikTok or Facebook, more brands are capitalising on sales from these popular social media channels – because it’s just smart business. You have to go where your customers are – and that’s Instagram too. The data is encouraging and taking some simple steps to set up your Instagram shop can allow your business to benefit in a big way.
“Instagram is the 7th most visited website in the world.”
3PL’s now make up approximately 25% of the freight industry. This has doubled over the last decade alone. This is because eCommerce is bigger than ever, and more business owners are using multi-channel fulfilment. So, in this article, you’re going to learn the why and how to integrate your Instagram shop for your customer’s order fulfilment.
Table of contents
1) Instagram shopping
2) Reasons for selling on Instagram
3) How to integrate your Instagram shop with your eCommerce store
4) How do 3pl services integrate with Instagram shopping?
5) Tips to increase sales on Instagram
Instagram shopping
So, what is Instagram shopping?
Instagram is a free social media channel that allows users to share photos and videos and interact with friends, but also with brands – then shop and purchase products directly from the brands’ Instagram storefront. Think of it as a brand-new free traffic source (storefront) in tandem with your website. Your website may already be doing well and flourishing with sales, however, why not add just one more sales channel to increase sales?
Some of the biggest brands are on Instagram including Nike (90 million followers), Victoria’s secret (68 million followers), Huda Beauty (38 million followers), and Gucci (35 million followers). These lifestyle brands know how important it is to be relatable, authentic, and innovative when it comes to target marketing. The internet is the digital storefront of your business. In fact, digital storefronts are becoming more popular than many physical storefronts today. Ecommerce in many industries has been outselling high-street brands over the last year, like the online fashion market.
Instagram is more than just a stagnant website. It’s a thriving community of people that want to share and interact with each other with visual aesthetics such as photos and videos. So, it was only a matter of time before Instagram shopping became available to businesses. Now, Instagram users can buy directly from Instagram and checkout on the app – or they can be redirected to any website for checkout. This is huge for eCommerce retail.
Credit: Instagram Business
Reasons for selling on Instagram
As one of the world’s leading social channels, they currently have over 1 billion active users daily! Instagram is the second most-download app in the world. Today 23.4% of all people aged 13 and up use Instagram. They use Instagram for several reasons. They like the social aspect obviously and social interaction with friends and family, but also influencers and more. They like the access to celebrities and follow them – learning and seeing more about their personal lives. They like more access to their favourite bands and can find out more about tour dates and concerts. However, they also like to follow brands that reflect their own lifestyle. This is why lifestyle brands thrive on Instagram. In fact, 50% of people confirm using Instagram to discover new brands.
“Instagram is the 4th most-used social platform.”
From fashion to health and fitness, drinks to food, and home décor, they all work. Lifestyle brands embody values, aspirations, interests, and attitudes. It’s culture really, and customers always associate with brands as a personal reflection of who they are. That’s why it’s important for brands to be creative and evoke emotional connections with their audiences. Instagram brands that do well on Instagram target their demographics with creative marketing in line with their offerings. 58% of users say they’re more interested in a brand after seeing them in an Instagram story.
Today customers want more from people and brands they associate with – because access is just simply more available through technology. Consumers are hungry for more experience-based connections.
“83% of consumers admit paying as much attention to how brands treat them as on the product they sell.”
For marketing gurus, everyone knows that Email marketing is still one of the most effective ways to reach your audience, with open rates averaging around 16.9%. However, email lists are only so big, and not every person on a business email list is necessarily a qualified lead. However, when a potential customer follows you on Instagram, you know they’re very interested in your offerings.
Here is a list of some of the most popular regions of the world for the Instagram user base.
Instagram user statistics
India – 230 million users
United States – 159 million users
Brazil – 127 million users
Indonesia – 99 million users
Turkey – 52 million users
Japan – 46 million users
United Kingdom – 31 million users
Germany – 29 million users
France – 26 million users
Canada – 17 million users
With global statistics like this, it’s understandable why the largest brands in the world embrace selling with Instagram. These are the latest statistics in 2022 and the numbers are only going to keep rising. In terms of demographics, new research has also revealed that 75% of 18-24 year-olds use Instagram while 47% of 30–49-year-olds also use Instagram.
Reasons to sell with Instagram:
- Boost brand visibility
- Better online engagement
- Make more sales
- SEO
- Easy marketing
Integrating your online store with Instagram is easy. The only question to ask yourself now is “what are you waiting for?”
How to integrate your Instagram shop with your eCommerce store
There are several simple ways to integrate your Instagram Shop with your online store. Whether you have a Shopify store, WooCommerce store, or self-created website, it’s a basic setup through your Facebook business manager page. If you’re unaware, Facebook owns Instagram, so that’s why they’re both integrated from there – making it simple on two platforms. Therefore, when you add a shop to your Facebook page, you also add Instagram, and boom – two more platforms for your business.
If you’d still like to only open on Instagram, you still have that capability. You simply go to:
- In the Instagram app, open your profile
- Tap the 3 lines in the top right
- Tap settings
- Tap Account > Switch to Professional Account
- Select a category and confirm your business details with your website
To add an Instagram shop in Facebook:
- Go to business settings
- Click accounts
- Click Instagram accounts.
- Click the blue add button.
- Click connect your Instagram account
- Enter your Instagram username and password
When completed your store will look like the following below. As you can see it’s very visually appealing, users can like the image and also follow you if they’re interested in your products. They can also share your page and pictures with friends.
Image credit by Medium
Both Shopify and WooCommerce have an easy Instagram integration with your shop. You can also link your Instagram feed on your website so there is cross-platform marketing.
How do 3pl services integrate with Instagram shopping?
When you set up your Instagram shop, there will be links back to your website – which also links to your 3PL. Therefore, whenever you get an order on Instagram, your 3PL is automatically notified and fulfils the order for your customer.
As we recently wrote about in your article featuring the Selazar integration with Shopify we offer a digital integration through the app store. This is currently both on the Shopify and WooCommerce marketplaces.
Of course, for us to be able to fulfil your customer’s orders, we physically need to have your products in our warehouse. So, first, you simply send them to us, we store, and connect your online store to our warehouse through the Selazar platform. When this is completed, and your online store is connected – you’re ready to sell! Leverage the power of automation both for your online website and Instagram shop.
Tips to increase sales on Instagram
There are many tips to get your brand competitive on Instagram quicker. Though the potential is there for selling, you still must be smart with your marketing efforts to stand out amongst various competitor brands. I have found these are the most effective ways to market your brand on Instagram.
Leverage influencers
Influencer marketing is one of the top sales tactics for brands. Instagram influencers are typically people with a large number of followers that have a unique ability to influence others. They have well-established credibility and high engagement rates. Because of this, 93% of marketers use influencer marketing. The top industries working with influencers include luxury brands, sports clothing, and beauty brands. 82% of consumers say they are very likely to follow the recommendation of an influencer they follow.
Add CTAs to your Instagram stories
Instagram stories allow users to share photos and videos to their profile image – which is featured amongst various profiles that users can scroll, rather than just going to individual pages. When they are interested in a story they will click. Instagram stories are published separately from the Instagram profile gallery. Over 500 million people use Instagram stories daily.
So, when you add a product to your Instagram story, all you need is to add product links (CTA) which makes it shoppable. The link will go directly to your website where customers can pay and checkout from there.
Image provided by Tech Crunch
Use Instagram ADS for a minimum start of £10 a day
Advertising is the tried and tested strategy for brands attempting to generate leads. Much like a website that can remain stagnant with no traffic, it works the same on Instagram if you’re not very active. Advertising works the same way and leads users to your Instagram page. Therefore, set aside some of your budget to either get Instagram users to follow your page or be directed to your website.
I recommend setting a budget of £10 a day. Even the smallest to medium brands can typically afford a marketing budget of this size. The reach for this amount has an estimated reach of 1,300 – 3,300 a day. Those are healthy numbers for brands looking for more awareness. If you increase to £20 or £30 a day you’re looking at a reach of 2,500 – 10,000 potential customers.
Instagram shopping with 3PL services
As you can tell there are many benefits to selling with Instagram as well as your online store. Learn to leverage your brand amongst the social channel to reach more customers and boost your sales. There are many brands today that are selling with Instagram successfully. You don’t have to abandon traditional marketing methods, however innovative thinking needs to be practised, especially in 2022, and Instagram should be considered. Schedule a free discovery call with us today so you can fulfil orders with the power of third-party logistics and Instagram.
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