Instagram’s total monthly user count crossed the 2 billion mark in 2021 as reported by CNBC. Also, according to the survey of Instagram for business, 44% of the people surveyed use Instagram to shop weekly. This number is expected to rise rapidly with the introduction of Instagram’s new shopping feature. According to a report, people are now spending an average of 30 minutes on Instagram. This feature allows users to easily shop directly from the photos and videos on the platform. Now, let’s know how to use Instagram for ecommerce and how to successfully dive into this wave.
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What does it mean by Instagram Ecommerce?
Ecommerce is simply buying and selling of products and services over the internet. Similarly, Instagram ecommerce means buying and selling products and services on the Instagram platform. The ecommerce store can solely be on Instagram or already existing ecommerce businesses make a store on Instagram.
Benefits of using Instagram for Ecommerce
There are various benefits of using Instagram for ecommerce stores. Here is the list of some of them.
- Instagram open ups the business to a large pool of audience. According to Instagram, more than 200 million people visit one business profile daily.
- It increases the business’s visibility. Instagram quotes that 90% of people on Instagram follow a business.
- It builds trust in the business as on Instagram people directly can interact with brands.
- Instagram makes it easier to convert leads by directly engaging with them.
How to use Instagram for Ecommerce
Various steps need to be followed to know how to use Instagram for ecommerce. Here, these are given step by step in a detailed manner.
Step 1: Make Business Instagram account
The first and very basic step to use Instagram is to make an Instagram account. Make sure to turn the business account option on. Business accounts offer various options like followers’ demography, their active time, analytics of the posts and many others. This information can be widely used in the favour of the business. To turn on the Instagram business account, just go to the profile then to settings then accounts and then finally turn on the business account. That’s it and the account is created.
Step 2: Create regular and high-quality content
The next and important step is to create content on business Instagram accounts. As Instagram is a highly visual platform, you need to make high-quality content. There is a need to post regularly to increase the awareness of the business and set up trust among the followers. There are different kinds of content on Instagram, for example,
- Images – In this category, images of 1080*1080 pixels are posted. Carousels which means a series of up to 10 images are the most popular. They can be made of videos.
- Short Videos – Right now, the most popular content on Instagram is short video content called Reels. They are from 15 sec to 1-minute videos in vertical form.
- Stories – It can also be an image or video but put in vertical format. It vanishes automatically after 24 hours of posting. This is where the audience engages directly with the business. According to a survey by Instagram, 58% of the people surveyed became more interested in brands after seeing their stories.
Step 3: Promote the Products Organically
After posting content about the products, it’s time to promote them. There are two ways to promote the products. One way is to promote them organically and another is by paid ads. To promote the products organically, keep in mind the following points.
- Firstly, optimize the profile. It means a profile should have a business and niche-related name, a clear description and some related keywords.
- Secondly, add researched hashtags related to the industry and some trending hashtags.
- Thirdly, do not only post about products. Sometimes, show behind the scenes, educate about the products, some infographics and a little humor as well if it goes with the theme.
- Next, engage with the audience, post at the time when they are most active, ask them questions, clear their doubts, etc. It shows that a business cares about its audience.
- Lastly, stay consistent. It improves the visibility and trust of the business.
Step 4: Promote the products using paid ads
Organic promotion works very well when combined with paid promotions. They both work in different directions. Organic promotion helps in building trust while paid promotion helps in increasing conversions. Almost all businesses on Instagram use paid ads to grow their revenue. Instagram reports that 50% of people become interested in brands when they see its ad on Instagram.
Step 5: Work with influencers and set up an affiliate network
A Mouthful of words is the best strategy when it comes to businesses. People trust more other people than trusting on a brand. Include this powerful strategy in the business by working and collaborating with the influencers. They have loyal audiences that trust their recommendations. Make sure to choose an influencer who has an active audience and a high engagement rate. They must align with the business outline. Then, set up an affiliate network with them. In that, they share the business’s products with their personalized code and get a little commission over it.
Step 6: Collaborate with similar businesses
Another very important step is to collaborate with similar businesses. In that way, each other’s business audience gets familiar with each other’s products. It increases the bandwidth of the business. It also helps in attracting the right audience.
Step 7: Make use of different platforms
When everything is set up on Instagram, make sure to widen the business’s horizons through different platforms. Set up a dedicated website and if a business already has a website, then link that in the bio. As well as make a Facebook account and link that with the Instagram account too.
Step 8: Automate various steps
Last but not the least, is to automate the various steps. It makes the onboarding of the audience into direct messages easy and convenient. Set up chat bots, different payment systems, etc. to help the audience to get through the buying process quickly and efficiently and clear their doubts.
There cannot be any better time to use Instagram for ecommerce than now. So, just make sure to utilize it in a great way to flourish the business.