the Instagram platform allows business owners and sellers to create a store on it for free and start displaying and selling products through it to customers, through its application through smart phones only, as this feature is not available through the browser.
This is while providing all the capabilities that enable sellers to display their products professionally to attract customers and give them the opportunity to explore and purchase products directly through Instagram.
Where your product catalog is integrated with your account as a seller on Instagram to start creating marketing content for your audience and use the marketing process mechanisms available on Instagram such as stories, photos, reels, hashtags, stickers, and other effective methods to increase sales.
So owning an online store on Instagram is a great tool for business owners, many of whom rely on it to get the many benefits of creating an online store on Instagram.
Benefits of creating an online store on Instagram
Instagram is a social platform dedicated to sharing photos and short videos, whether for personal accounts or business accounts.
Which can be used to develop your business by creating an online store on Instagram, as these features enable you to:
1. Promote the growth of your business in the commercial market and create an advantage among your competitors: because you will offer a unique shopping process to your customers through Instagram, you will transfer them with a click of a button to your online store or even browse and review products on Instagram and choose the right product and price, so that they can complete the purchase through their platform Favorite.
2. Increase your conversion rate : The rate of conversion of the audience from potential leads to actual customers will increase as a result of using various marketing features, which is a powerful factor in attracting customers.
3. Easy access to a large target audience base: Statistics indicate that the number of daily Instagram users is more than 500 million around the world, and 70% of these users explore products and brands through Instagram.
4. Saving time and effort in managing the store: it is managed through the Instagram application on the phone, so you start adding publications and stories, following up on comments and messages, and responding to them directly.
5. Raising awareness of the brand: Business accounts on Instagram have greater advantages than personal accounts, helping business owners to develop and promote their business, such as:
- Insights about followers and how well posts are performing.
- Reaching more customers who are interested in what you offer through hashtags and rails.
- Add a contact button to your profile to make it easier for customers to contact you.
- Displaying products in more than one way, whether images, real estate, stories, or sponsored ads.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg of the benefits that you will accrue from creating an online store on Instagram, because of which we advise you to do this immediately.
And this is whether you have a physical store on the ground, for example: a store that sells handmade products, or you have an online store on an e-commerce platform.
Advantages of creating an online store on Instagram
There are many advantages that will benefit you from creating an online store on Instagram, on top of which are:
1. Tag Products feature: It shows the name and price of the product, so you can place more than one tag for each image if it contains more than one product, then 5 product tags can be placed in each image, story, post and videos.
2. Product stickers: It is one of the advantages of Instagram. It is a sign that appears in the form of a shopping bag. When your customer clicks on it, product details such as specifications, price, and product link on your web store appear, and the customer can complete the purchase process through it. These stickers are also used in pictures and video clips. Videos and stories.
3. Promotions: You can launch promotions and run funded campaigns for your products and store on your account.
4. Bio: You can add a 150-character BIO to describe your store and your brand, so make sure that this description is clear and concise and shows the specialty of your store. You can also add your original store’s website or Facebook, and add some hashtags related to your niche.
5. Custom groups: You can divide the store’s products into classified groups. If the store specializes in selling electronic games, you can create a group dedicated to the Playstation, another for Xbox, another for Nintendo, and another for game accessories. You can also add tags or what is known as hashtags for each group of products. .
But before you create your online store on Instagram, you must first familiarize yourself with the conditions for creating an online store on Instagram, which we will discuss shortly.
\Conditions for creating an online store on Instagram
In order for you to be able to display and sell products on your Instagram store, your account must meet some conditions, and you must make sure that it is eligible to create a store.
These conditions are:
1. Make sure that the geographical area in which you will be located supports the feature of creating a store via Instagram. Most of the Arab countries in the Middle East, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Algeria and Morocco, have this feature available, and you can make sure that you are in an acceptable geographical area easily.
2. You need to have a credible professional account, that is, to be interacted with by the public, to post regularly on Facebook and Instagram, and to have a large number of followers for your brand.
3. To own a store on Facebook that integrates with an online store on e-commerce platforms such as Shopify or WooCommerce, so that you can import product data through it.
4. That you have reviewed the terms and policies for creating an online store on Instagram, advertising policies, merchant agreement, and terms of use before starting to create the store.
Steps to create an online store on Instagram
After completing the conditions point, and making sure that you are allowed to create your online store on Instagram, you will have to actually create it.
Here we offer you the steps that will allow you to easily create an online store for you on Instagram through your mobile phone, as it is only available on it and not on the browser version of Instagram.
First Step: Create an Instagram business account
In the beginning, you need to set up your account as a commercial account, so take the following steps :
1. Log in to the Instagram platform through your actual account or create a new account for you, and then transfer this account from personal to a business or business account.
You can do this by entering the settings and choosing to transfer to a professional business account, or even by clicking on Edit Profile from your profile.
2. Choose the category that describes the activity you are doing (mostly it will be a product or service).
3. Click on the Business option for sellers and commercial activities. This option helps the public find you when searching for your products that interest them. When you click OK, your profile will become public, anyone can see your posts, and you will not have to approve follow requests.
4. Review the contact information for your business, such as: contact number, email, business address and domain for your store.
Second Step: Submit a store creation request
This step is done by submitting a request to Instagram management to review your data and approve the creation of the store.
It is done through the following steps :
1. Click on the Settings panel.
2. Click on the Commercial Activity option.
3. Choose the Instagram Shopping setting.
4. Link your Facebook account to Instagram, but if you took this step earlier, you can click Continue.
After this, Instagram will offer you to link your account to the Facebook account of your activity. Choose your account and complete this step to move to the next step.
Step Three: Register for the Instagram Shopping feature
It is a feature that enables you to link your store on Instagram with a product catalog for your online store on the web, as this store is the source of the products displayed in your Instagram store.
Fifth step: setting up the store and activating the purchase process :
After obtaining the notice of approval to create the store, the step of setting up and activating the store comes :
- Go to the Settings menu, then click on the Shop option.
- Select the product catalog you want to add to your store.
- Use Commerce Manager to manage your store's catalog, it enables you to get insights into customer preferences for products, select the payment method that best suits customers, manage orders and view returns.
After you have taken the previous steps and obtained approval to create your store, set it up and activate the purchase on it, you are now ready to use the different strategies to market your products.
Instagram marketing strategies
Instagram is one of the leading social media applications that has a great ability to communicate ideas, feelings, and marketing messages to the public.
Below, we will learn about Instagram strategies that ensure the success of your online store and promote the growth of your business:
The first strategy: using hashtags
This strategy is used in posts to enable users to discover content through keywords preceded by the # sign, which are most likely the keywords by which audiences discover products and services.
You can create a special hashtag with the name of your store or the products that you offer through it, as you make it easier for the audience to follow you through this hashtag.
One of the best practices is to use 5 to 10 hashtags per post, whether it be a story, rails, or image, to reach more users.
The second strategy: relying on reels
The Instagram platform launched the Reels feature, similar to Tik Tok, which is a video clip with a duration of 15 to 60 seconds.
These clips allow users to record short videos with different audio clips, use filters, and edit photos.
You can use this feature to educate your audience about your store and your products and their importance, as it is a great way to attract the attention of the audience, who prefer to obtain information in the shortest possible time.
So you can create clips of Rails showing the audience how to order products or discounts and quick offers, while including an invitation to make a purchase decision , such as (don't miss the offer, buy now).
The third strategy: Stories
Stories or Instagram Stories is a feature that enables you to post photos or videos of your store that will only be visible to customers for 24 hours.
The Stories feature is used by 500 million users on a daily basis and allows you to post photos and add effects.
It is also considered a more effective method than images because it receives more views and interactions from the audience, and you can increase the views and interactions of your stories by receiving audience questions about your products and the ability to share and answer them in the same stories.
The fourth strategy: Exploiting funded ads
Sponsored ads are one of the marketing strategies supported by most social media platforms. As an online store owner on Instagram, you can target your audience according to age, gender, location, and interests.
It is an advertising method for marketing products through stories, news, and publications. It also has many benefits, as it is an essential factor in achieving your marketing and sales goals and increasing the number of followers of your store.
The fifth strategy: Influencer Marketing
Collaborating with influencers is one of the indirect marketing methods that you can use to promote your products and your store, and it is a very effective way to convince the customer and make him take a serious step towards you.
Many business owners use this strategy because it has a high ability to persuade the public, spread awareness, and promote products and ideas.
The success of this strategy also depends on choosing influential personalities who provide content related to your field of commerce and have a large number of followers who are affected by them and the content they provide, so they will turn accordingly to be your followers and have a strong motivation to become your actual customers.
The Sixth Strategy: Competition Marketing
It is a feature that many beginners rely on in any field, and it is the establishment of activities through publications or stories based on audience interactions and many use them in order to activate their accounts and obtain a greater number of followers.
So that you invite them to participate in the competition with the aim of increasing the number of followers, marketing your products and your store, and increasing interaction on the account.
Contests are among the most common methods applied through Instagram, as they depend on providing simple gifts such as discounts or in-kind gifts in exchange for audience interactions.
The seventh strategy: User Generated Content
Instagram is mainly an image-based platform, and while designing high-quality images on a tool like Canva or others helps you get more engagement from customers.
However, something else that might help you achieve better results is encouraging customers to create their own content and images about you.
This can be done in different ways, for example if we assume that you own a store that sells beauty and hair care products.
You can request photos from customers before and after using the products and share them with the public, which increases their confidence in your products and leads to an increase in your sales.
The eighth strategy: spreading through messaging and chatting
Messaging and chatting is an important feature that enables you to communicate with the public directly, and it has been improved to help respond and communicate quickly with customers.
They offer several advantages to store owners when using them:
- Direct response through the application without the need to go to another application or to the inbox to respond to correspondence.
- Quick Send is a feature that enables you to share content directly with your target audience or add content to your story.
- The ability to create opinion polls in a group chat with a group of customers about the products they prefer or the appropriate prices.
The most important tips to ensure the success of your store on Instagram
At the end of our article, I would like to share with you a number of tips that can help you make your online store successful on Instagram:
1. Determining your geolocation and sharing it on your profile contributes to an increase in the number of followers, and your store gets 5% more interactions and engagements when geolocating.
2. Use video editing apps when creating any videos you post on your account to promote your store.
3. Maintaining the audience's attention by posting on a daily basis about the latest products, price discounts, and offers available to obtain audience interaction and ensure that they see your publications and thus increase your sales, and use publication scheduling tools.
4. Instagram does not rely heavily on textual content as much as it does visual content, but you must include strong phrases that urge your followers and audience to make a purchase decision.
We recommend that you read the article 7 Tips for Successful Content on Instagram , which will help you provide successful content on Instagram that enables you to reach your sales and marketing goals.
5. Use the insights of followers and Instagram Insights to follow up on your progress, analyze the efforts you have made, and see the results that have been reached.
The most frequently asked questions about creating an online store on Instagram
1. How to create an online store on Instagram?
You can create your online store on the Instagram platform through only 5 steps, which we mentioned in detail in the article, and they are in short:
- Create a business account on Instagram.
- Linking a store on Facebook to the store on Instagram.
- Submit a request to the application management to create a store.
- Register for the shopping feature.
- Store setup and purchase activation.
2. What are the conditions for opening an online store on Instagram?
There are some necessary conditions that must be met in order to be able to create your online store on the Instagram platform, which are:
- Ensure that Instagram Shop is supported in your target geographic region.
- A credible professional account with a large number of followers on Instagram.
- An Instagram store integrated with a web store so that the product catalog for Instagram can be imported through it.
- View the merchant agreement, terms and policies for creating a store on Instagram.
3. What are the most important Instagram marketing strategies?
There are some marketing strategies that may help you succeed on Instagram, the most important of which are:
- Use hashtags.
- Reliance on Reels.
- Stories.
- Exploitation of sponsored ads.
- Influencer Marketing.
- Competition marketing.
- User Generated Content.
- Spread through messaging and chatting.