Instagram shopping allows you to tag up to five products on Instagram posts or up to twenty products per carousel. Through Instagram shopping, your customer can access pricing and product details within their Instagram feed, and through the Shop button on your business profile. From Instagram, customers can also go directly to your Rocketspark store to purchase your products.
The setup process can be quite involved and confusing, so if you are keen to get somebody else to assist you with the setup, please contact us so that we can refer you to our expert partners and they can provide a quote to set up Instagram Shopping for you.
If you already have Facebook shopping set up you should be able to connect your Instagram account to be able to automatically enable Instagram shopping.
Here are the steps from our own learning on how to enable Instagram Shopping using Rocketspark's Google Shopping feed.
Change your Instagram profile to a business profile and link to your business Facebook page.
- Open Instagram on your mobile, go to your Profile in the bottom right corner, click the menu in the top right corner. Go to Settings -> Account.
- Choose Switch to Professional Account (both Business and Creator accounts can be used with Instagram Shopping) and select the Facebook page you'd like to associate with your Business Profile on Instagram with. Make sure your profile is set to Public as Private accounts can't switch to Business Accounts.
- On the Set Up Your Business Profile page, review your business's contact information, make any changes and tap Done.
Note: Currently, a Business Profile on Instagram can only be connected to a single Facebook Page.
Create a catalog in Facebook Business Manager using the Rocketspark Google Shopping feed.
Our Google Merchant Feed is an XML file from which Facebook can access and fetch information automatically and build the data feed in your catalog.
- Go to the Google Merchant menu in your Rocketspark Dashboard Shop Settings.
- Copy your Google Merchant Feed URL.
- Go to your Facebook Business Manager, and click on Commerce.
- From here you will be able to click on Add catalog
- Choose the Type of your catalog, and then configure the settings of your catalog, including the Catalog Name, Catalogue Owner (set this to be your business Facebook Page), and upload method (select Upload Product Info).
- Navigate back to the Catalogue Manager, and choose the catalog that you've just created.
- Add products to your catalog by clicking Data Sources under Catalogue on the left-hand menu.
- Click Use Bulk Upload, then click Next
- Select Scheduled feed, then select Next and paste in the URL from your Google Merchant Feed on your Rocketspark site. You don't need to add a username or password. This will not work on private login sites.
- Next, you need to select how often the schedule updates. We recommend daily. Once you've selected your update schedule, click Next and give your data feed a name and a currency. Ensure your currency matches the one you've set up on your Rocketspark store.
- You will see that your feed is being uploaded. Once done, check if all products in your Rocketspark shop have been added to the catalog from the Products tab. Facebook will also let you know if any products have been rejected.
Getting approved by Instagram.
Once you complete the above requirements, you'll need to set up Instagram Shopping. To be eligible for Instagram Shopping, make sure you can answer yes to the following questions:
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Is your business located in a supported market?
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Does your business sell physical goods?
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Does it comply with our commerce policies?
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Is your Instagram account a business account?
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Is your account connected to a Facebook Page?
This Facebook help guide has some more information around these requirements.
If you're eligible, the next step is to sign up in the Instagram app. Go to your profile and click the menu up the top right -> Settings -> Business -> Set Up Instagram Shopping
Follow the steps and submit your account for review. Usually, this will only take a few days though it can take longer - you can check the status of your review at any time by going into Settings -> Shopping.
Once you've been approved you'll get a notification from Instagram.
Tag products in your posts on Instagram.
- Go to your Profile. Tap on the menu up the top right -> Settings -> Shopping -> Continue -> Select a Product Catalog to connect to your Instagram Business Profile -> click Done.
- To tag products in your posts, select a photo and add a caption, effects and filters as normal. Tap the photo wherever you want to tag the product -> Enter the name of the product you want to tag, then select it as it appears in the search box -> Click Done -> Click Share.
- When your post with tagged products has been approved, your audiences will be able to see the product name and pricing when viewing the post. When clicking into the product tag, they will see a more detailed product page on Instagram with information retrieved from your Google Shopping feed, including:
- An image of the product from your post.
- A description of the product.
- How much the product costs.
- A link that takes them directly to your Rocketspark shop, where they can purchase the product.
- They will be directed to the product page in your Rocketpark shop when clicking View on website and can make a purchase on your Rocketspark website.
The images below show the flow from Instagram to the website. You can also check out https://www.instagram.com/pureandwholesome/ to see it for yourself.
Notes:
- You can tag products in both new and existing posts from your Instagram business profile. You can tag up to 5 products per single-image post or 20 products per multi-image post.
- You can edit or delete products you've tagged in single-image posts on Instagram, but keep in mind that for multi-image posts, you can't edit or delete tagged products once your post has been published.
- If you delete a product that's associated with your business profile, the associated tag will be removed from any posts the product is tagged in.