The marriage of photo sharing and e-commerce has been consummated, and the offspring is Instagram’s Shoppable Galleries. Store owners can harness the power of Instagram by creating clickable galleries of products. Customers can purchase directly through the app without losing time searching for those products in a separate window.
By utilizing Instagram’s shoppable galleries feature, your business will be able to go beyond just sharing photos, your brand’s story, and showcasing your products. You have the ability to tag a product in a picture, link that tag to product information, and a checkout page. This dramatically simplifies the buying process on Instagram. We’ll explain more in a moment.
In addition to tagging products, retailers benefit from built-in analytics that provides detailed metrics such as the number of people viewing the products or those that purchased them. For additional information, check out this resource on the benefits of social commerce.
Should Your Business Jump on Instagram’s Bandwagon?
According to HootSuite, Instagram has the highest interaction rate of any social media platform with Instagrammers sharing 95 million posts per day. Also:
- Over 800 million monthly Instagrammers
- 60% of users search and find new products on Instagram
- 75% of users take action after visiting a post
- 70% more likely to make mobile purchases
And according to BigCommerce developers, online brands using Instagram, specifically Instagram Shopping, are already seeing an increase in site traffic and revenue.
Brands like Natori and Spearmint LOVE have massive Instagram followings, but before Instagram Shopping, it was difficult to prove the ROI of those followings... Now, by making photos and the products in them clickable, brands can easily see how much traffic Instagram is driving to their site. Better yet, they can see how many sales Instagram is driving.
Tracey Wallace, the Editor in Chief at BigCommerce
Just check out some of these stats from brands using Instagram Shopping:
- Natori sees a 1,416% increase in Instagram traffic
- Magnolia Boutique sees a 20% increase in Instagram revenue
- SpearmintLOVE sees a 13% increase in Instagram traffic
- Native Union sees 2,662% increase in Instagram traffic
If you’re not using the shoppable galleries feature, you’re losing sales. It’s time-consuming and complicated for customers to try and purchase a product that they see in your Instagram post. They can quickly get lost or distracted trying to navigate from an image on Instagram back to the exact product on your website, leaving both you and the buyer unsatisfied.
Convenient Shopping Experience for Customers
Instagram began beta-testing the shoppable gallery feature in 2016. They recognized the need for viewers to do more than just look and share the pictures.
By setting up shoppable galleries, retailers can embed up to five product tags per image. Imagine, your customer sees something that she likes on your Instagram gallery. With just a tap and a couple of clicks, your product is sold. See how easy it is in this demo video.
According to research done by Baynard, almost 70% of people abandon their online shopping carts before completing a purchase and 28% of those are due to the length of the checkout process.
A shopping experience that is simple, enjoyable, and straightforward means customers are willing to spend more time shopping with you.
Just by making the shopping experience seamless and faster with shoppable galleries, you can potentially increase sales by 28%. It is a valuable part of any eCommerce marketing strategy.
Better Business Insight Means Better Productivity
The shoppable galleries have built-in analytics, Instagram Insights, that enable E-commerce professionals and agencies to collect valuable consumer metrics such as impressions, clicks, detailed demographics, likes, profile views, and more.
You can use Instagram Insights to identify the product images and tags that generate the most buzz. The data will show you the best times to post for better sales conversions, engagement, plus other ways to improve your business strategy.
Shoppable galleries provide e-commerce digital marketing consultants a rich data source to help them identify the right targeted content and products to offer. It’s a retailer’s dream. Knowing what your customers want, see the trend, and providing it almost instantaneously based on feedback and responses.
Other Advantages of Instagram Shoppable Galleries
Besides making Instagram easier for users to buy and the ability for businesses to market strategically, other advantages of the app include:
Brand Loyalty and Improved Relationships – Merchants can analyze their Instagram customer’s preferences. Providing product updates, promotions, and sales in line with customers' wants will strengthen the relationship and build loyalty.
Multiple Sales From One Image – Instagram improved from what other social media platforms have attempted. Twitter enabled merchants to use a buy now button in 2015 but phased it out in early 2017. Pinterest also introduced “Buyable Pins” in early 2015 that is still experiencing ongoing issues.
With up to 5 tags per photo and only three clicks to complete the purchase, Instagram is hard to beat for traffic, engagement, and ease of use.
Promoting Brands, Lifestyle, and Products Through Visual Social Networks – You can configure Instagram to simultaneously post to Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, and Flickr. It’s an efficient way to utilize social networks to spread the news and generate sales.
Make Your Instagram Shoppable Now, If You’re Eligible
Making a social media platform like Instagram buyable makes good business sense. Instagram is already a perfect way to create brand awareness and loyalty using lifestyle photography. They’ve taken the next logical step and made those images shoppable and it’s available now.
However, this feature is not for every business. Lifestyle brands that promote physical products in jewelry, fashion, cosmetics, and home décor will benefit the most. Digital products or services are not eligible.
Get Started with Instagram Shoppable Galleries
Instagram has bridged the gap between shopping to buying, unlike any other social media platform. It is a direct link from the buyer to your checkout page without a third-party app in the middle. Your customers will stay on your pages longer, upsell themselves and provide you with valuable insight into their shopping habits.
