How to Set Up Instagram Shopping in 5 Steps! (2024 Guide)

Want to know how to set up Instagram shopping so you can get more sales?

Setting up Instagram shopping on both Instagram and your website encourages your customers to easily click on links to buy your products.

To help you boost your sales and conversions that way, we’ll show you how you can set up Instagram shopping — even if you’re not tech-savvy.

Since this article is packed with tons of helpful tips, we’ve organized it into several sections for you.

Feel free to click on a specific section to skip ahead:

• What is Instagram Shopping?
• Pros and Cons of Setting Up Instagram Shopping
• Can You Set Up Instagram Shopping on Your Website?
• 2 Methods to Set Up Instagram Shopping
• How to Turn On Instagram Shopping on Your Instagram Account
• How to Set Up Instagram Shopping on Your Website

First, let’s find out exactly what Instagram shopping is.

Or you can click here to skip ahead to the tutorial.

What is Instagram Shopping?

Instagram shopping lets you combine your product catalog and pricing with your Instagram account. That way, you can turn your Instagram account into a storefront.

By tagging products on your shoppable posts, you can promote your products directly to Instagram users to increase your sales.

With 70% of shoppers looking to Instagram for their next purchase, it’s time to open up shop right here.

Instagram Business

Right now, the Instagram shopping feature allows you to put up to 5 shopping tags per image or up to 20 products per multi-image post.

For example, users browsing your Instagram account can see your post with a View Products icon on it.

Once they tap on the icon, they can see the name of the product, product description, and price of the products tagged in the shopping posts.

If they continue tapping, they’re directed to a link to your Instagram store, where you can show all of your products.

Visitors can then use the View on website button to go to your site and explore your online store.

This buying experience sounds perfect, doesn’t it? But is setting up Instagram shopping the best fit for your e-commerce business?

Let’s find out by talking about its advantages and disadvantages below.

Pros and Cons of Setting Up Instagram Shopping

Before you learn how to link a store to Instagram, let’s take a look at the benefits and drawbacks it can bring to your business.

Pros of Instagram Shopping

If you set up Instagram shopping for your website, you can enjoy tons of benefits like:

1. Easier buying experience

Once Instagram users tap on the Instagram shopping ads for your product, they can see its listing page with the details and price.

Tapping again automatically directs them to your website domain, where they can buy your product and finish the e-commerce transaction via the checkout.

2. Higher chances of users buying from you

When you tag a product in a post, it’s included in Instagram’s Shop tab. You can also put your shoppable posts on your Instagram stories.

People can click on View Shop to open your Instagram store directly from your profile and check out what to buy.

Since Instagram users spend 85% of their time exploring new products, they can see your shoppable posts while they’re in “buying mode.”

3. Influencer Marketing

To help you reach people effectively, you can connect with influencers and have them market your products for you. And if these influencers are your affiliates, they’ll also be motivated to help your brand.

As a result, you can use the popularity of these influencers to drive sales for your brand.

We have a guide on how to use social media affiliate marketing that can help you get started.

Cons of Instagram Shopping

Now that you know its benefits, it’s time to learn how to add a shop on Instagram, right?

Not yet, actually. You need to set up Instagram shopping for your account first.

Before you can do so, let’s talk about its several disadvantages, too:

1. Limited availability to businesses

Not all brands can set up Instagram shopping for their account. You need to pass Meta’s requirements first.

2. Instagram’s Requirements to Set Up Instagram Shopping

If you want to qualify for Instagram shopping, here’s what you need.

• Have the latest version of the Instagram app.
• Connect your site to an e-commerce platform so you can sell products.
• Convert your Instagram account into a business profile and add your public business information.
• Be an admin on a Facebook page or Facebook Business Manager account.
• Have an eligible product catalog connected with a Facebook shop for your Instagram shop online.
• Go through the complex process of domain verification.
• Follow all of Instagram’s commerce policies.

What’s more, you can’t finish your Instagram shopping setup in some cases, even if you pass all the requirements.

As a result, it can be a huge hassle for many small businesses.

3. Limited to selling allowed physical goods only

If you’re a service-centered business, you can’t set up Instagram shopping since you’re not in a supported market.

Also, in setting up shopping for Instagram, you can only tag physical products, so it’s not applicable for all marketers. It’s mostly for product retailers.

4. Not all countries have Instagram Shopping eligibility

Your businesses should be in the following countries if you want to be reviewed to set up a shop on Instagram.

That means your store will not be eligible for Instagram shopping. So, your Instagram posts can’t have tagged products.

5. Instagram controls the way you sell

If you don’t meet their requirements, you can’t start selling on Instagram since they have total control.

Also, you may get approved for Instagram shopping, but if they believe that you’ve failed to meet their requirements, they can disable your account anytime, even after you set up shop on Instagram.

Plus, you’ll also have to deal with Instagram shop fees when selling on their platform.

With that, you can see if Instagram shopping can be worth it for your business.

Can You Set Up Instagram Shopping on Your Website?

Now, reading about these cons may cause you to ask: “Since it’s hard to tag my products on my Instagram account, can I easily add shoppable Instagram posts on my website instead?”

If your business isn’t located on Instagram’s list…

Or if you’re not qualified, or your account is not approved by Instagram…

Or if you want to have total control over the way you sell products to your customers…

Then, yes. There’s another way you can create shoppable Instagram posts.

How? It’s by using a top-rated WordPress plugin to help you set up Instagram shopping on your website.

This way, you don’t need to have a Facebook catalog, a product catalog, or even a Facebook business page to help you pass Instagram’s strict eligibility requirements.

You only need your WordPress website, a trusted WordPress plugin, and your Instagram account so you can start making money from your shoppable Instagram posts.

It’s like your very own Instagram checkout right on your website. And it works on your site, whether you have a creator account or a business Instagram profile.

As a result, your website can be your own e-commerce platform — even if you don’t have a Shopify or BigCommerce account!

Then, you can get tons of sales from your new WordPress Instagram shop.

With that, let’s go ahead and see how to create a store in Instagram using 2 different methods.

2 Methods to Set Up Instagram Shopping

Want to know how to set up Instagram shopping? You can make shoppable Instagram posts on:

1. Your Instagram account:

You need to meet Instagram’s requirements and apply and wait for their approval first. Plus, you need a professional account on Instagram, also known as a business account.

Then, you create a shoppable feed on your Instagram account where images in your feed link to your website.

2. Your own website:

Using a WordPress plugin, you can set up Instagram shopping on your site by making a shoppable feed on your website.

Shoppable images have links that people can click on to buy your products.

Since you’ll display the shoppable feed on your website, you can control the links that people click on to buy from you.

This method helps you create another platform for your sales channel so you can make more money for your business.

How to Turn On Instagram Shopping on Your Instagram Account

Once you’ve applied and Instagram has successfully approved your account, you can connect your website to your Instagram shop.

For that, you can simply turn on the product-tagging feature from the Instagram app by following the steps below:

• On the top-right corner of your Instagram business account, tap the 3 lines.

• By doing this, you can edit profiles for Instagram. Now, tap Settings, then tap on Business to continue.

• Then, if your account is approved for Instagram shopping, tap Shopping. If your account isn’t approved, you won’t see this.
• Tap Continue to select a product catalog to connect to your Instagram business account.
• Finally, tap Done to turn on Instagram shopping for your account.

Now that you’ve turned on Instagram shopping for your account, you can start tagging your products in your Instagram posts.

How to Add Products to Instagram Shop Using Tags

Check out the steps below, and you can learn how to add products to an Instagram shop:

• Go to your Instagram business profile. Create a new post and add a call-to-action in the caption along with the product information.
• Then, tap on Tag Products. After this, tap on the section of the photo where you want to place the product tag.

• Search for the product by typing its name on the search bar. Then, select it.
• Tap Done, and finally, Share to post it on your Instagram account.

Then, you can grow your sales when people check out these shopping ads.

Already know how to install Instagram shopping and tag products on your Instagram post?

Great! Let’s move on to setting up Instagram shopping on your website.

How to Set Up Instagram Shopping on Your Website

Instead of making a shoppable feed on Instagram and linking it to your website, why not make a shoppable feed on your website and link it to another page on your site?

That way, your potential customers can shop from Instagram feeds on your site.

Even if you’re not an IT expert, you can easily display a shoppable feed on your website with the Instagram Feed Pro plugin.

Using this plugin, you can create, customize and embed Instagram feeds in just a few simple clicks — no coding needed.

It’s so simple that you don’t need to bother with ads managers or commerce managers to start growing your sales.

Plus, the plugin comes with smart caching, which saves a copy of your Instagram feeds. That way, your site can show the saved copy instead of loading your feed from scratch each time.

That way, you can show tons of photos, videos, and reels, and your site will still be lightning-fast. And with a faster site, you also get better SEO.

Want to convince your target audience to buy from you? You can show user-generated content from real Instagram users.

With over 1,000,000 active users, the Instagram Feed plugin is the top choice of WordPress users in displaying Instagram content from their accounts on their websites.

Also, with a rating of 4.9/5 stars, it’s the highest-rated Instagram feed plugin for WordPress, so you know you’re in great hands.

Ready to display shoppable Instagram posts on your website? Follow the step-by-step guide below:

Step 1: Install the Instagram Feed Plugin

To start, you can get your copy of Instagram Feed Pro here by downloading it to your computer.

Then, upload the plugin to your WordPress website and activate it.

If you’re not sure how to do this, check out this step-by-step tutorial on how to install a WordPress plugin to your website.

Step 2: Create a New Instagram Feed

You can now use the Instagram Feed Pro plugin to create a new feed for your site.

First, navigate to the Instagram Feed » All Feeds menu from your admin dashboard area.

Then click on Add New to create your Instagram feed.

After that, Instagram Feed Pro will ask you to pick your feed type.

Here, select the User Timeline option to show your own Instagram posts, and then click on the Next button.

You now have a new Instagram feed on your website — just like that.

If you want to show Instagram content using your feed, you can connect it to your Instagram account here.

To get started, first, click on the Add Source button.

There are 2 types of Instagram accounts that you can pick from: Personal or Business.

A personal account is limited and can only show basic posts from Instagram. To enable Instagram shopping on your website, you can connect to your business account instead.

To continue, select the Business account type and then click on the Login with Facebook button.

After that, just select your Instagram account from the popup and then click on Next. 

You can also connect your Facebook page here. Just select a page from the options and click on Next again.

Now, you can give the plugin read-only access to your Facebook account. Using that access, it will view your Instagram content but can’t make any changes.

As a result, Smash Balloon is completely safe.

Just click on the Allow button here to continue.

Once you do that, the plugin will send you back to your WordPress website. There, you can finish connecting your Instagram account by clicking on the Next button.

Just like that, Instagram Feed Pro will automatically create an Instagram feed that perfectly copies the design of your website.

On top of that, you can also import a prebuilt theme for your Instagram feed. That way, you can instantly have an Instagram feed with a beautiful design.

Just select a theme that you prefer and then click on Next.

As you can see, it’s super easy to create a new feed and connect it to Instagram using this plugin.

After that, it’s time for step 4, where you activate Instagram shopping for your new feed.

Step 3: Enable Instagram Shopping

You can now see your newly created Instagram feed in the live feed editor. From here, you can enable instagram shop view on your website using this Instagram feed.

On the left side of the screen, you’ve got options to customize your feed layout, color scheme, header style, button style, and more.

Whenever you make any changes, you can see how your Instagram feed looks using the live preview on the right.

To enable Instagram shopping, first, go to the Settings option at the top and then click on Shoppable Feed.

Then click on Enable to activate Instagram shopping for this feed.

You can now connect your Instagram posts to your product details pages so people can go and buy from you.

Want to see how to do that? Just click on the Add button on top of any Instagram post.

On the left, enter your URL in the Product Link field and click on Add.

Your visitors can now click on your Instagram post to open this URL.

Now click on the Save button to confirm your changes.

Just like that, you can connect each of your Instagram posts to a link. Once you’re done adding your links, click on the Save button to confirm the changes.

With that, you can move on to step 5 and customize the design of your new shoppable Instagram feed.

Step 4: Customize Your Shoppable Instagram Feed

Using the remaining options in the live feed editor, you can easily customize the design of your Instagram feed.

To get started, click on the Customize option at the top to return to the main options.

After that, you can click on Feed Layout and change the overall layout of your shoppable Instagram feed.

You’ve got 4 different Instagram feed layouts that you can use: Grid, Carousel, Masonry, and Highlight.

First, we have the Grid layout that shows your Instagram posts in neat squares. That way, you can have tons of Instagram content on your page at once.

Next, there’s the Carousel layout template that uses a beautiful Instagram slider to show your photos and videos.

Just take a look at this Instagram carousel I quickly made using this plugin:

You can also pick the Masonry layout and show your posts in different columns. Plus, this layout also keeps the original proportions of your Instagram posts.

Want to put all the focus on your Instagram posts? Then, pick the Highlight layout, which removes the likes and comments from your Instagram feed.

You can also make specific posts more visible with this layout, so it’s a great way to highlight your best product photos.

Select your Instagram feed type from these options, and then click on the Save button to confirm your changes.

To customize the rest of your Instagram feed, click on the small Customize button at the top.

Once you’re back on the main options, you can customize the feed in even more ways.

Personally, I like to change the colors of my Instagram feeds before I embed them. You can click on Color Scheme to start doing that.

From here, you can easily change the colors of your feed by picking from 4 color schemes:

• Inherit from Theme: Automatically copy the colors of your website
• Light: Use a light color for the background and a dark color for the font
• Dark: Pick a darker background and a light font for your Instagram feed
• Custom: Choose the colors of your Instagram feed yourself

After selecting a color scheme that you prefer, click on Save once again.

With this live feed editor, you can now customize your header style, feed size, buttons, lightbox style, and much more with just a few simple clicks — no need to touch a single line of code.

Don’t forget to click on Save once you’re done with the customization.

Finally, you can go to step 6 and embed the shoppable Instagram feed on your WordPress website.

Step 5: Embed Your Shoppable Instagram Feed on Your Website

Since the plugin works seamlessly with WordPress, it’s super easy to display your shoppable Instagram feed on your website.

To embed this Instagram feed, you can choose from 2 methods:

• Embed the shoppable Instagram feed on a page
• Embed the shoppable Instagram feed on a sidebar or footer

Embed Shoppable Instagram Feed on a Page

From the live feed editor, you can directly embed your Instagram feed in a few clicks.

First, click on the Embed button at the top.

Now, you’ll see a popup that asks where you want to embed your shoppable Instagram feed.

From the options, click on the Add to a Page button.

Once you do that, Instagram Feed Pro will show you a list of your WordPress pages.

Select the page where you want to embed your shoppable Instagram feed and then click on Add.

After that, the plugin will redirect you to that WordPress page so you can embed your Instagram feed.

On the page, add a new content block by clicking on the small plus (+) icon.

Next, type “Instagram” in the search bar here and select the Instagram Feed block from the results.

Finally, click on Publish to embed the shoppable Instagram feed on your WordPress page. You can even open your site to check how it looks now.

Let’s take a look at the next way to embed shoppable Instagram feeds on your WordPress website.

Embed Shoppable Instagram Feed on a Sidebar or Footer

You can also add a shoppable Instagram feed as a widget on your website’s sidebar or footer.

To do this, use your WordPress dashboard to open the Instagram Feed » All Feeds menu.

On this page, you can now see all the Instagram feeds that you’ve created. Just click on the shoppable Instagram feed from earlier to proceed.

Doing that will open the live feed editor once again. To continue, click on the Embed button at the top.

Once again, you’ll see a popup where you can set the location of your shoppable Instagram feed.

This time, click on the Add to a Widget button.

Instagram Feed Pro will now open the Widgets page of your WordPress site. You can add, remove, and manage all of your widgets from here.

To continue, click on the Sidebar panel.

If you want to embed your Instagram feed on your footer, click on the Footer panel instead.

For now, we’ll use the sidebar to show you how to embed your shoppable Instagram widget.

On the panel, add a new widget by clicking on the plus icon (+) and then click on the Instagram Feed widget.

Finally, click on Update to make your shoppable Instagram feed active on your website.

Now, you can open your website and check out your WordPress Instagram shop!

So, there you have it.

You’ve just learned how to easily set up Instagram shopping both on your Instagram account and on your website.

Now, you can connect your website to your Instagram shop and sell your products directly from your Instagram shopping feed.

Want to grow your sales with Instagram shopping? Get started with Instagram Feed Pro today.

Want to display an Instagram feed on your website using your branded hashtags? Take a look at this post on how to add an Instagram hashtag feed to WordPress.

FAQs on Instagram Shopping

Is there a shop feature on Instagram?

Yes, Instagram allows users to buy and sell items.

What’s more, you can even set up shoppable Instagram feeds on your site so your visitors can buy from there.

How do you qualify for Instagram shopping?

There are a few things you need to do before you qualify for Instagram shopping:

• Update to the latest version of Instagram
• Connect your site to an e-commerce platform
• Convert to a business Instagram profile and become the admin
• Create a product catalog that’s eligible for Instagram shopping
• Connect your catalog to a Facebook shop
• Verify your domain
• Follow all of Instagram’s commerce policies

How do I enable shopping on Instagram?

Once you go through all the requirements, you can enable shopping on Instagram. Unfortunately, you can set up a shop if you’re from an eligible country. Plus, you can only sell physical goods, and Instagram will control what you sell.

Alternatively, you can use the Instagram Feed Pro plugin to directly create shoppable Instagram feeds and embed them on your site.

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