E-Commerce and Instagram’s Shoppable Posts
Once a business has a product catalog connected to their accounts, tagging a product is as simple as tagging a person in a post.
Back in 2018, Instagram officially launched Instagram’s Shoppable Posts feature, a native ads integration that makes it easy to tag and shop products directly from your organic Instagram posts. Thanks to this, the platform instantly becomes the new frontier for retailers to turn their Instagram accounts into visual stores, adding product information to their images along with links to the web pages.
Fast forward to 2020, this feature is predicted to really take off, primarily because of its effortless and creative integration with third-party apps and e-commerce marketing technology, hence making shopping more seamless even on organic posts.
What exactly are Shoppable Posts?
Clearly, the Shoppable Posts feature is Instagram’s strategy to become a more business-friendly platform. I mean, why not? 54% of people use social media to research product purchases, and with 90% of Instagram users already following a shopping brand, shoppable social media posts just make sense.
Shoppable post itself looks like a regular post where displayed products are tagged and linked to the seller’s website. These shoppable tags also allow users to purchase within the app. Users can create either shoppable Instagram posts or shoppable Instagram stories.
Do Shoppable Posts Work?
If you’re looking for a way to capitalize on your visual stories and really showcase your product, Instagram’s shoppable posts are definitely helpful because they will enable you to communicate product information easily and quickly to your audience.
Some clear benefits of the implementation of this feature include:
Maximize sales
Instagram’s shoppable posts can easily capture customers at the height of their interest and instantly converts that interest into purchases. The tags can also serve as a medium to give product descriptions.
Today, it’s not enough to tell people to just buy a product, in order to convince them, brands also need to provide context around the said-products. In a sense, shoppable tags are highly efficient to help brands market their products on Instagram without being overly pushy or aggressive.
Highlight brand story
For visually appealing brands in particular, shoppable posts are ideal to increase your brand visibility and to engage consumers in a way that is natural and responsive.
Modern consumers are even more demanding and savvy about advertising and marketing. One way brands can reach them is by creating an authentic narrative that makes sense within your Instagram post. Shoppable posts thus help to highlight your brand story without coming across like you’re advertising your brand aggressively to them.
Direct connection to the brand
Shoppable posts can serve as a direct link between a brand and its consumers. To market successfully, you need to know your customers first.
In today’s hyper-competitive world of e-commerce, no retailer can afford to turn away from directly connecting with consumers and followers. Shoppable posts can help brands to connect with their customers and to gather valuable consumer insights.
Easy and instant
The biggest challenge that many e-commerce brands face is to get a customer to make a purchase. That’s why it’s important for brands to come up with a way to make the purchasing processes as easy and seamless as possible.
Shoppable posts can help to make the transaction quick and simple, from browsing to payment, all within the same platform.
So, what’s next?
With this shoppable feature, Instagram has made it easier than ever for businesses to reach their consumers. As the number of users on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest growing and customer’s buying impulses are triggered through feeds and stories, e-commerce businesses need to realize the significant impact of social commerce on their sales and site traffic.
Along with Instagram’s checkout feature launching back in 2019, I believe the role of shoppable posts will become even more imperative in the future. After all, the key to successful e-commerce marketing is to create fewer steps for your shoppers, always.
Here are some quick tips to leverage shoppable posts successfully on Instagram:
- Use UGC as much as possible.
Customer content tap into a phenomenon called social proof. A study shows that 77% of consumers feel that authentic photos from other customers affect their purchasing decisions more. So you should feature as much UGC as possible in your shoppable gallery to increase traffic and boost sales.
2. Don’t forget to promote.
The last thing you want is for customers to forget about your brand’s existence. Send emails, create daily Instagram stories, post a shout-out to your loyal customers, keep reminding them how easy it is for them to shop the products they see and love with your shoppable Instagram posts.
3. Make sure you link to the correct page.
This might sound obvious, but always make sure that your link directly brings your customers to the page where they can purchase the featured products. If you choose a shoppable Instagram tool that allows only one link, the key is to choose an image that features only one product to avoid confusion.
LEARN MORE: The Importance of Content Experience.
So, have you used Instagram’s Shoppable Posts feature? Let us know your Instagram shopping strategy!
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