How to Start an Online Business by Selling Products on Instagram

Instagram has become a very popular social media platform with many followers. Here people can connect with others through pictures. Now, marketers are exploring new ways to use it for their product promotion and branding. It is difficult to find someone who doesn’t have a social media account now.

So, this channel has become very popular and marketers can use it to reach their customers for promoting their product. More than 800 million people use Instagram account nowadays. Anyone can start a business and use Instagram to sell their product without spending a single penny.

Usually, new business ventures need to invest money to create a website to sell their product. The initial cost will be more in that case. Now because of the prominence of social media people started to do business through these social media platforms. 

You can see the Facebook marketplace where people can sell their products by posting pictures without any cost. Instagram also offers a special feature for people who want to sell their products. The feature name is the Shoppable post. As a part of enlarging their service to business users, they started this new feature which is very useful for people who want to start an online business.

This is a complete guide for newbies which can help in starting a new business through Instagram without much cost. 

Why Instagram?

Instagram has become a very popular marketplace nowadays. More than 800 million people use Instagram and top brands all around the world choose Instagram to publish their advertisements. Other reasons that make it stand out among all other social media platforms are

  • 500 million daily active users
  • 5 million active business profiles
  • 60% of users discover new products from the Instagram platform
  • More than 500,000 business advertisements
  • 36% of businesses use Instagram as a part of their business promotion
  • 75% of Instagram reacts to a business advertisement
  • Instagram has 5 times growth rate compared to other social media platforms within the last few years

These statistics make Instagram an excellent marketplace for newbies out there to explore. Let’s explore more about this excellent platform 

What do you need to know before starting an Instagram account?

Instagram offers you an option to make your account as personal as well as a business account. If you are opening an account in order to sell some products business accounts will be more suitable. Unlike other platforms, Instagram will not allow you to add a link to your website where users can buy products.

This is what makes Instagram marketing different from all others. You can only add the link to a website in your bio. Users have to go to your bio to visit the website where you sell the products. All you can do here is posting pictures with the price.

But the average order value of Instagram is $10 higher than that of Facebook.

Selling Products on Instagram

Steps to set up a Shopping account on Instagram

Step1-: Instagram business is possible only in few countries like the US, Australia, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and so on. You can check the countries where the Instagram business account can be used on their official website. Make sure to create a business account in order to sell products on Instagram.

Personal account holders cannot sell products in their accounts. Also, you need to connect your Facebook catalog with your Instagram account. You will get more details about connecting your Facebook catalog to the Instagram business account below.  

Step 2-: Connect your Instagram Business profile to the Facebook catalog. You can follow these steps to connect your Facebook catalog with the Instagram business account

  • Go to catalog Manager in your Facebook profile
  • Select the catalog you want to connect with your Instagram account. It will take you to the Diagnostics page for the catalog
  • There you can see more ways to use your catalog and select Instagram shopping from it
  • From Instagram, business profile select Connect profile. 

You are done with connecting business catalog with an Instagram account 

Step 3-: Instagram will review your business account. There are two options such as your Instagram account will be reviewed for accessing the shopping feature. Another one is if you are creating a new catalog then Instagram will review the catalog first and then your account. You may have to wait a few days for the review process to get completed. 

Step 4-: Turn on Product tags and stickers. The process is very simple by following the steps given below

  • While creating a business account make yourself an admin and go to your profile to get started
  • You will get an alert that can let you tag the products and if you don’t get that alert tap on the gear button
  • Now tap on products and Continue
  • You will get an option to connect the product catalog you want to add to your business profile
  • After selecting the one you can tap on the Done button

Hooray!!!! You are done with the setup and now start to tag your products in the Instagram post. 

Step 5-: Create and share a story from your business account. You can tag 5 products for a single image or video and use to share with your followers. If you are using a multi-image post then there is a chance to add up to 20 images at a time. Share your Instagram post and story to make more followers. 

Tips to Sell Online  on Instagram

How to start an Online Business by Selling Online on Instagram

You don’t have to be an expert to sell on Instagram. Anyone can start a business account with an aim to sell their product on Instagram. But the important factor is that they need to know how to use the platform effectively to make their business successful.  Here are some good tips for starters on Instagram that can help to improve their online business  

  • Sell through the Shoppable post

Shoppable post is a new feature from Instagram for business account users. It allows you to post your product pictures with a price tag. According to a survey, 72% of customers look for the Instagram post of the product before buying it and 38% of customers agree that they will usually buy the products they see on Instagram. Shoppable post let the customers click on the post which will take to the product page and they can buy it directly from there.

By doing this Instagram users can buy the product without leaving the platform. If you are living in the US this photo tagging feature is available. It is only approved in the US and others have to wait until the country approves it. You can tag post once after connecting your Instagram business account with a Facebook catalog or a Business Manager catalog. 

  • CTAs are not outdated anymore

Call to action is very useful to make more conversation on Instagram. Most business users are not aware of this feature. You can add a compelling CTA within your bio that can make people click on it. If the pictures you post on Instagram is compelling customers will see your bio and you can give them a good Call To Action. It could be anything like ‘Visit our website’, ‘Shop our products here, ‘To see the latest products click here’ etc. Profile viewers will click on it to see your latest products and this can boost your sales. 

The landing page should be also compelling to make more conversions. Instagram is based on mobile devices and more users go to the app through their mobile device. If you can create a landing page that links to a specific Instagram page with your CTA button it is very useful too. The landing page can contain any elements such as convincing testimonials, videos or any comments that can make the visitor turn to a customer. 

  • Instagram Stories

Insta stories can tell the background stories related to the product you are selling. This makes the users more curious to see the final product. When you make a product that you sell on Instagram add various pictures associated with it in your Instagram story. This will automatically disappear within 24 hours. Be creative with your Instagram story and make users believe in you and your product.

There is not a certain guideline to publish these stories. You can make it special by clicking some natural snaps and post it on your Insta feed. You can also use this feature to post about your upcoming products that have not been released yet. This will make the users more curious and will help in your business improvement also. 

  • Use customers as brand advocates

This is another way of attracting more users to your business. After getting a few businesses through Instagram encourage your customers to post pictures with your product. Give them credit and repost their pictures on your account. This is a better way of an advertisement than spending money on some famous model. A picture of a real customer with your product and create more trust in your brand than a paid advertisement.

More than 90% of customers react to user-generated content than advertisements. It will help to show users that there are loyal customers who love your brand. Make sure to repost the original image shared by the customer to look more real. 

  • Hashtags will save you

The hashtag is a great blessing Instagram provides to get noticed easily. Most powerful brands use hashtags to get noticed among thousands of other posts. Here are top used hashtags on Instagram

These hashtags mainly help the products to get noticed among all other posts. If you are selling jewelry you can add relevant hashtags with it such #handmade,  #stylish, #vintage style, #whole sale jewelry and many more to take it to the relevant category. When a user searches the post related to handmade jewelry it will help the post to appear under the search result. 

  • Be Active

It is very important to be active on Instagram to start selling online. While using this for the business you should post something new every day and make your account active always. It will help the followers to remember your brand. If you fail to do so your followers will stay back from your brand and easily forget about it. Make sure to post interesting pictures that can grab the user’s attention to make a good impact on the audience. 

  • Use the comment section to Sell Products

There are some popular apps that let you sell in the comment section. Speedy is one such example. You can download this app easily in an Android and IOS device. Just like this, you can use Instagram to sell your product from the comment section. Just post the picture with a description of your product and all customers have to do is enter an email address. You can send a safe check out the link to the user’s email and sell them the products through this.  

Wrapping up

Instagram is a very useful platform for selling products online. There are ads on Instagram like Facebook and other platforms. But you may have to spend money on it.  No need to worry about spending money on advertising if you can follow the tips given. Use the shoppable Instagram post to sell products online.

Use product tagging, CTAs, Instagram stories, Hashtags, etc to make your Instagram promotion successful. You can also go live using your Instagram account to connect with your business followers. Save your money without spending on advertisements and paid promotions using the Instagram business account and be successful.

What do you think about selling products on Instagram? Let us know your thoughts below.

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