In the past year, Facebook has introduced Facebook Shops, Instagram Checkout, and Live Shopping, thus removing most of the remaining obstacles to finding and purchasing things through social media.
The latest free features that companies may utilise to generate sales straight from Instagram’s or Facebook’s platform will be highlighted in this post, along with any brand criteria for utilising these tools.
There Are Three New Instagram Shopping Tools You Should Use
Facebook Retail
Instagram is technically owned by Facebook, hence it was Facebook that released this function. Your Instagram followers, though, may use this function to buy things without having a Facebook account.
Launched in May, Facebook Shops lets businesses set up online storefronts that can be accessed straight from the company’s Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, or Facebook Business Page.
Brands can customise the Shop’s button colours and text to reflect their own aesthetic, and they can decide whether they want customers to make purchases directly from the Shop or through an integration with an ecommerce website they already use.
Viewing Instagram
For businesses who only want to sell a few items on Instagram, or don’t have the resources to set up a Facebook Business Page or catalogue in order to launch a Shop, Instagram has introduced a new in-app Checkout experience that can be accessed through Instagram Shoppable posts.
Many retailers have already begun utilising Shoppable posts by the year 2020. Users might click on the featured image in these postings to be sent to an external website cataloguing the featured product or experience.
In addition, Instagram states, “Businesses can truly leverage the full ecosystem of Instagram Shopping features to build experiences that drive awareness and transactions.”
If your brand is interested in selling online but you don’t want to keep track of the performance of a wide selection of products, Checkout could be a good fit. With Checkout, you can sell as few as one or two products in as few as a few posts and track the performance of your content in terms of engagement and sales.
Live-streaming retail on Instagram and Facebook
Facebook has also introduced live buying services for Instagram and Facebook, allowing users to purchase things directly from posts or previously published articles.
Shop in Real Time on Instagram
Instagram Live Shopping is the first live shopping tool offered by a Facebook-owned business, and it delivers a comparable purchase experience to live video streaming on the app, much like Checkout does for posts inside a feed.
Tips for Successful Product Promotion on Instagram
It’s possible that you’re now prepared to use Instagram’s in-app shopping capabilities to sell your brand’s items. However, as with any new marketing or selling approach, you should keep a few important points in mind.
Remember that your content strategy is essential.
It’s easy to think that all you need to do to get people to buy from you is to flood your followers’ feeds with images of your products and some simple promotional text and cross your fingers.
Keep in mind that social media users are constantly exposed to advertisements including product photos and generic copy, so if your promotional content doesn’t stand out, your audience may tune you out even if they appreciate your business.
A live stream tutorial in which an influencer discusses your product or user-generated content like customer testimonials are two examples of how you can take your product promotion to the next level and show audiences more valuable details than a basic product shot, which could convince them to click and buy your items much more effectively.
Feature selection is crucial to the success of your business.
Checkout and Instagram Live Shopping allow you to zero in on specific items or services through your content, while Shops will allow customers to buy a wide variety of products from you at once. While Facebook Shops may be ideal for larger brands that can deliver multiple products at once and handle potential high demand, Checkout and Live Shopping may be more suitable for smaller businesses that are more comfortable highlighting a single product at a time.
Moreover, a Facebook Shop can help you move your inventory if you have a great supply chain, a lot of products to sell, and no time to make content; if you have a great content team and only a few key products to sell, you may want to create solid product marketing content paired with Instagram Checkout.
Your revenue is one measure that needs close attention.
While Facebook Shops, Checkout, and Live Shopping don’t cost any money for brands to use, they do require time and effort to create and maintain a Shop or content that highlights items sold in Checkout. As such, it’s important to track the financial and engagement-related metrics of each strategy to learn what works and what doesn’t and to decide whether or not to invest further resources.
To understand how other firms transitioned to ecommerce in 2020, bookmark our Ultimate Guide to Ecommerce if you’re thinking about implementing an ecommerce strategy on Instagram or another online platform but don’t know where to begin.
