Instagram Shopping is another Social E-commerce feature which is sweeping away not just ecommerce, but entertainment as well.
Prior to social media, marketers tried a variety of methods to target an audience for product promotion.
Such as sponsored product placements in Movies & TV shows, Celebrity endorsement and etc. But, however, none is as successful as social e-commerce, especially Instagram shopping.
Why?
We’ll take a look at exactly that, in this article.
What the heck is social e-commerce?
Before i start talking about Instagram shopping i must elaborate a bit on Social E-Commerce a bit better, so here it is.
The name pretty much sums up the definition. Shopping from social media sites such as Instagram, Facebook, WeChat, and others is known as Social E-Commerce.
These platforms have had rapid and efficient growth in their respective fields.
So why don’t we make use of them for ourselves.
Instagram draws people who are looking for visually appealing content, whereas Facebook caters to information seekers and socially engaged individuals / groups, and WeChat allows users to connect more effectively with one another.
Anyways, entertainment and amusement is not the only offerings of these platforms.
Recently, many social media giants have started implementing shopping into their platforms such as instagram to engage users and to create a new source of innovation for their platforms, where sellers and users can play a key-role in shaping the platforms growth.
If we take a look at the demographics of users across these platforms, they have several things in common.
And those similarities are what every e-commerce business owner should look for, a potential buyer.
Let’s take a look at how Social Media can influence the growth of a brand.
First, A Social Media Platform is diverse and doesn’t nitpick its users, they allow for multiple users to engage within their platform and entertain themselves.
Now, this very reason is why its important to use Social Media for brand growth and awareness.
If we expose our brands to multiple subjects, we will eventually collect data on how our users might look like and what psychological traits they’ve. And also what makes them feel satisfied with our product purchase.
We’ve got a neat article on how to identify, analyze and report psychological metrics, check it out.
Instagram Shopping – What are its perks?
Instagram Shopping is a feature in the Instagram platform that allows brands to tag their products in posts & stories.
With Instagram Shopping a user could see a picture of a product, let’s say, a red shoe and see a hovering tag to view more information.
By tagging your products in your posts and stories you’re visually driving your audiences to your product.
The feeling of visually observing something before making a purchase is an effective marketing strategy.
Every brand around the world from Fendi, Gucci and even Rolex does this.
By selling first the visual appeal of your product, you captivate your audience, and then you can sell them with information.
Instagram Shopping Product Catalogue
There are two ways for you to upload your product catalogue, one with Facebook’s Catalogue Manager tool and if you’re using a shopping platform partner of Facebook such as Shopify or BigCommerce, then you can choose to use the E-Commerce Platform Manager.
And once you’re done importing your products catalogue into Instagram, let’s get tagging.
Product Tags
Product tags are within your posts and can link your user to view more information about your product.
Shopping Stickers
Shopping stickers are product tags, but for Instagram stories.
You can learn how to setup Product Tags and Shopping Stickers, here.
Instagram Shopping – Analytics
Promotions and sales churn rates aren’t the only thing impressive about Instagram Shopping.
The Instagram platform also offers an in-depth analytics platform for analyzing and troubleshooting on kpis that you would want to keep track of. Allowing you to focus your efforts on marketing strategies and ideas.
Conclusion
Now i agree that Instagram shopping is not the only source of prospects that you need.
But, its important to campaign your brand and push your product to the right people in this ever-growing world. Because, if you stay behind you’ll be left out of the buzz.
So use Instagram shopping and the overall social e-commerce buzz as a resource rather than a standalone venture and try to explore as best as you can into modern innovations.
So with that being said, give Instagram shopping a try to explore better opportunities, good luck!