How to Start an Instagram Store: 5 Important Steps

Last Updated on October 25, 2021

What Is An Instagram Store And Why Can It Be Such A Successful Business?

Why start an Instagram Store? Instagram is one of the most popular social media channels for sharing amongst users. It provides a wonderful opportunity to share your interests with others and is an excellent platform for products that are visual in nature. More importantly, Instagram is also a powerful tool for brands who want to sell their goods directly through social media.

It’s no secret that Instagram users love shopping at physical stores they can visit when they’re out and about. However, since not everyone has the time or resources to travel all over town visiting every store in person, many people have turned towards online shopping instead. This is why many retailers have begun turning to Instagram’s new shoppable function in order to increase their revenue by offering customers the ability to shop directly from within their Instagram feeds.

5 Steps To Start An Instagram Store

Here are the 5 steps to take to start a successful Instagram store that customers will love:

Step 1: Create an effective strategy for selling on Instagram

Creating an online storefront within your existing Insta profile is easy to do, but first – it’s important to develop a few key elements of the look and feel of your shop so it looks highly professional. Brands should consider things like colors, fonts, filters, and more before they begin uploading products to their feed. This way, people will be sure to recognize your brand as one that sells visually appealing items worth buying whenever they see something you post. When creating this new part of your page, it’s also necessary to think about and account for things like product availability and accurate shipping rates.

Step 2: Upload quality products that will get attention

One of the most important aspects to keep in mind when uploading products to your Instagram storefront is that people want to be able to get a good look at them. Therefore, it’s crucial you upload items that are high-quality and interesting enough for users to stop scrolling through their feeds long enough to take a closer look.

When creating descriptions for your products, make sure you have a complete description of what it is and why someone might want to purchase it. Also, try providing information about where the item was originally made in case there is any interest in having a piece produced locally instead. In this day and age, transparency is a necessity for any business that wants to succeed.

Step 3: Add additional information about your products

In addition to the high-quality images of the product itself, people will likely want more details before they purchase anything from you. In order to make everything as easy as possible for customers, it’s important to tag all of the items you upload with relevant hashtags and include a link in your bio leading directly to your Instagram storefront.  

On top of this, it could be helpful for users who are interested in seeing other examples of what you sell on a regular basis if you were to create a highlight reel featuring some of your best-selling pieces or popular items currently available. This way, there’s no need for potential customers to search through your entire feed to find everything you offer, and instead, they can simply visit the highlight reel for a quick look at what you sell.

Step 4: Explore different marketing strategies to promote your Instagram store

There are many different ways to attract people to your new storefront on Instagram, but some of our favorites include using targeted ads, making it easy for other users to spread the word about what you’re selling, and finding hashtags that will help drive real customers directly to your profile. For example, it’s possible to target specific users based on their location or interests – which makes it much easier for them to discover products that interest them. As far as spreading the word goes, connecting with other brands on Instagram who have similar followers could be a great way to get the word out.

When it comes to hashtags, make sure you’re using ones that are relevant and not too generic or common. Finding popular hashtags that aren’t overused will help drive more real users who are much more likely to engage with your content and turn into paying customers.

Step 5: Give people a reason to visit again and again

Once you’ve set up your profile so it looks professional, uploaded quality products, and given people adequate information about everything you offer, it’s time to focus on keeping things interesting so they’ll visit as often as possible. This means uploading new items as often as possible, sharing images of how other customers use what they buy from you in their day-to-day lives, and responding to messages in a timely manner.

When it comes down to it, Instagram storefronts are able to easily provide anyone with the tools they need to become retailers on their own platform. By following these easy steps, you can create an online presence that will allow you to sell your products without having any previous experience or technical know-how.

Instagram Store & Marketing Strategy

The first thing you need to do is choose a marketing strategy. There are many different approaches to Instagram selling, but they all revolve around one central idea: building trust with customers. For example, if you’re selling clothing items, it helps to post pictures of people wearing your products rather than just flat images. That way you show customers what the jeans or t-shirt look like on real people and not just a hanger in the store. Other types of stores will have their own strategies that are unique to their business models – which we’ll cover below. If you already have an eCommerce store, then this should be an easy process because you already have a marketing plan in place. The only difference is that Instagram will be your new sales channel and you need to make sure it’s integrated perfectly.

There are two types of ads available on Instagram: carousel ads and single image/video ads.

Carousel ads let you show multiple images or videos, but take up much more ad space than the regular type of ad. You can tap into your entire feed and put up all kinds of different products and images that people might like to see, which makes this strategy perfect for brands with lots of different items for sale.

On the other hand, single image/video ads only allow one piece of content at a time – so choose wisely based on how many products you have to sell.

The last thing you need to do – before choosing a marketing strategy – is actually create a business account on Instagram. If you’re just trying to sell items through your personal profile, then this step isn’t necessary. However, if you want people to buy things from your company’s official profile, then it needs to be set up as a business page first. This ensures that there are no problems with payment, tax rates, and other similar issues down the line. In order to make any money on Instagram, your eCommerce store has to be able to run as efficiently as possible.