If you do not already know, Instagram offers some great benefits for e-commerce businesses in Cyprus. You can essentially connect your Instagram account to y our e-shop and sell products from the social media platform via your website. This feature is called “Instagram Shopping” and it can help you sell more online.
If you’re ready to open your shop on Instagram, there are a few steps you need to take and important information you need to know prior to setting it up.
How to Setup your Instagram Shop?
1. E-Commerce Website
First and foremost, you need to make sure you have a website on its own domain—for example, yourwesbite.com. Your website must be an e-shop where users can directly purchase products from it, contain product listings and you must represent this shop connected to the domain you provide.
What does this mean?
Well, you just need to have an e-commerce website connected to your domain, and the Instagram shopping page you are trying to set up must reflect that.
If you do not have this, then you cannot yet sell on Instagram, however, if you require an e-shop to help you get online and sell products, then you can contact us directly for an immediate quote and free consultation.
2. Eligibility Requirements
In order to activate your e-commerce store on Instagram, your business must comply with certain Instagram policies. The core rules you need to follow are:
- Be trustworthy
Your connected Instagram/Facebook page must be authentic and established, to avoid users creating fake accounts and trying to sell products from an illegitimate social media account.
- Your business must represent your domain
Products must be directly available for purchase via your domain (website), and your Instagram/Facebook must represent the same website that sells the products. You may also need to verify your domain.
- Your social media account must be located in a supported market
Instagram shopping supports various markets; therefore, you must check that the products you sell are to a market that is supported. You can see a full list of supported markets here for Instagram Shopping.
Cyprus is a supported market for both Instagram Shopping and Facebook Commerce.
- Comply with Instagram’s policies
Your social media account must comply with standard social media policies, terms of use and community guidelines.
- Provide accurate information
Product information such as pricing, descriptions and other text must be accurate and not misleading. This may also require a clear and concise returns and refunds page in order to give users a transparent experience.
You can see the full extent of commerce eligibility requirements here.
3. Business/Creator Account
Your Instagram profile must be a business or creator account in order to use the e-shop functionality. Once you have converted your account to one of the above types, you can then connect it to your Facebook page.
4. Business Manager Account
If you are yet to do so, you need to set up a Business Manager account. From this account, you will be able to connect and set up your shop in the Commerce Manager section. With a Business Manager account, you can also manage any ads, setup up analytics and tracking, view your shop, control what users have access to and see if there are any issues with your profile verification.
5. Setup Method
Once the above has been completed, you can choose between various onboarding processes to begin your shop. You can set it up directly through the Instagram app, via the Commerce Manager in your Business Manager account or via a supported platform such as WooCommerce and/or Shopify.
To conclude:
- Instagram App
- Commerce Manager (via Business Manager)
- 3rd Party (WooCommerce, Shopify or others)
6. Fill in your Details
Last but not least, you just need to fill in certain details to finalise your shop creation. You can do this via the Commerce Manager and what you have to do is:
- Select a checkout method
- Select your sales channel (Instagram Shop, Facebook or both)
- Add products to your shop by connecting your catalogue to your website
- Review your shop overview
- Submit a review on Instagram
Great! Now you know how to set up your shop to sell products via Instagram (or even Facebook). You have all the knowledge you need to grow your business with Instagram Shopping. But why is this such a great feature?
Benefits of Instagram Shopping in Cyprus?
When you set up your shop on Instagram, you can easily make your products discoverable via the social media platform. Some of the main benefits are:
1. Increase Sales
Did you know that 130 million Instagram users tap into shopping posts on Instagram every month?
If your products aren’t on Instagram Shopping, then you may be missing out on a lot of sales, especially if your audience is Millennials and/or Gen Z.
87% of Generation Z use Instagram for holiday shopping, are you selling products in that industry? If so, then you need to get yourself on Instagram Shopping.
2. Customisable
Your Instagram shop is also customisable, you can curate products into themes (i.e. new in, trends, seasonal stock etc…) and package them into specific collections.
This gives you a lot of control over how you display your products on social media.
3. Product Information
Instagram provides product detail pages which means users can read about your products and learn about them directly via the app. This can help drive more traffic to your website and help your store convert more users.
4. Tagging
Your social media management team can better advertise your products by tagging them directly in photos on your Instagram account. Users can then see the product, and price and click to learn more about the product and purchase it directly from your website.
5. Instagram Ads
You can drastically increase the reach of your shop when running ads on Instagram. You can tag products and boost posts with tags to help drive more conversions, making it easier for users to buy your products.
Incredible Instagram Shopping Statistics
- 81% of people use Instagram to research products
- 72% of millennials buy beauty products from their Instagram findings
- Some brands have seen a 20% increase in revenue from Instagram Shopping
- There are 25 million businesses on Instagram
Statistics from The Small Business and Earthweb.
Do you Need a Helping Hand?
If you run a company in Cyprus and you’re looking to utilise this great sales tool (which is free to use) then Absolute Websites can help you from start to finish.
We can provide e-shop websites for your businesses and integrate them with your Instagram profile account. Whether you need to set up, verify and connect your account, we can help you from A to Z.
You can contact us directly at +357 96449680 or via the form on our website.
Get ahead of your competition with Instagram Shopping and increase your company’s sales online via social media.
